The Torah alone cannot stop a Qassam

For thousands of years, Jews dreamed of returning to sovereignty in their ancient homeland. Now that they have it, a significant portion refuses to defend it—preferring to outsource the dying to others while claiming spiritual credit for the survival. The Haredi draft bill currently winding through the Knesset represents not a compromise but a capitulation, and its passage would constitute nothing less than a betrayal of the Zionist enterprise itself.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The facts are damning. Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men between 18 and 24 are eligible for military service but have not enlisted. The IDF urgently needs 12,000 new recruits. In 2024, a mere 2,940 Haredi men were drafted—and critics note that 70 percent of those counted as “Haredi conscripts” had already left the community. The proposed Bismuth bill sets a target of 8,160 conscripts by June 2027, a number that sounds impressive until you realize it represents roughly 10 percent of the eligible pool.

Meanwhile, the burden on those who do serve has become crushing. Between October 2023 and July 2024, reservists served an average of 110 days—compared to the peacetime norm of 10 to 13. The State Comptroller found that only 11 percent of eligible Israelis aged 23 to 47 actually served during this period. The government recently authorized calling up 450,000 reservists over three months, the largest mobilization in Israeli history. Some soldiers have been called up seven times since October 7. Students have dropped out of university. Marriages have strained. Businesses have collapsed. And the Haredi leadership’s response? A massive rally blocking Jerusalem’s entrance, protesting the very notion that they might share the sacrifice.

A Zionist Reckoning

The argument that Torah study protects Israel more effectively than tanks and rifles is theologically coherent but strategically absurd. Whatever metaphysical merit may accrue from continuous learning, it did not prevent the massacres of October 7. It did not stop 3,000 terrorists from crossing the border, murdering 1,200 people, and taking 253 hostages. The IDF did—eventually, imperfectly, at tremendous cost.

Zionism was never merely a religious movement. It was a revolution against Jewish powerlessness, a determination that Jews would no longer depend on the goodwill of others for their physical survival. The early Zionists understood something the Haredi leadership refuses to acknowledge: sovereignty requires sacrifice, and sacrifice must be shared. A state in which one community studies while another bleeds is not a Jewish state in any meaningful sense. It is a protection racket with theological pretensions.

The demographic trajectory makes this unsustainable. The Haredi population is growing rapidly, projected to constitute an ever-larger share of military-age Israelis in the coming decades. If current patterns hold, the number of citizens carrying the security burden will shrink precisely as that burden grows. The Israel Democracy Institute projects that full Haredi integration could provide millions of additional service days by 2050. Without it, the few will be ground down defending the many who refuse to defend themselves.

The Bill’s Fatal Flaws

The Bismuth legislation is not a conscription law; it is an evasion law dressed in khaki. It resets the legal status of yeshiva students who ignored call-up orders, immediately restores half of pre-ruling funding to yeshivas, and softens sanctions to the point of meaninglessness. Draft evaders can travel abroad after age 26. Some will face no penalty at all. The bill creates the appearance of reform while preserving the substance of exemption.

Former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, hardly a secular firebrand, warned Netanyahu this week that the legislation is “dangerous for the security of the State of Israel” and “dismantles the framework of the people’s army.” The Bank of Israel concluded it won’t produce enough soldiers to meet security needs or reduce the economic costs of reserve duty. Netanyahu’s own former national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi called it a threat to Israel’s future. These are not leftist talking points. They are professional assessments from people who understand what Israel faces.

The Covenant of Blood

The social contract underlying Israeli democracy is simple: all citizens share the burden of defense, and in return, all citizens share the benefits of sovereignty. The Haredi leadership has accepted the benefits while rejecting the burden, claiming a spiritual exemption that no ancient Jewish text actually supports. The Maccabees did not defeat the Seleucids through Torah study alone. Bar Kokhba’s rebels did not rely on prayer to fight Rome.

The tradition of Jewish self-defense is as old as the tradition of Jewish learning, and the two were never meant to be mutually exclusive.

Israel faces enemies on every border and within its own territory. Hezbollah to the north, Iranian proxies throughout the region, Hamas still capable of violence despite its degradation, and a broader axis that seeks the Jewish state’s destruction. This is not the moment for 80,000 eligible men to sit on the sidelines. This is the moment for every capable citizen to shoulder the burden that sovereignty demands.

The choice before Israel is stark: a people’s army or a peasants’ army, where the religious aristocracy studies while the secular masses die. Netanyahu’s coalition may need Haredi votes to survive, but Israel needs Haredi soldiers to survive. The Talmud teaches that one who saves a single life saves an entire world. It says nothing about exempting oneself from the saving.