Israel in Crisis: A Threat from Within
Image by Sander Crombach.
“If the state sends people, soldiers, for the honor of the state, and they kill people, is that permissible? It is plain murder. They [the government] incite murder. This is what they do. They wage wars not to save lives, but only for the honor of the state. Certainly, this is not new. So, is this permitted? Just to raise the status of the state or something else?”
These are not the words of a left-wing anti-Israeli activist from an Ivy League campus. They were spoken on July 19, 2026, by the 96-year-old Rabbi Dov Lando, a senior member of the Council of Torah Sages in Israel. The Council represents Haredi Jews, or Haredim, strictly observant Jews who number one and a half million in Israel alone and are often referred to in the media as “ultra-Orthodox.” Haredi men are visually distinguishable by a two-color dress code, black and white. Constituting about one-sixth of Israel’s Jewish population, Haredim exhibit the highest demographic growth (4 percent). They are young, and nearly one third of all Jewish school entrants in Israel are Haredim. They have their own independent school system and live largely apart from Israel’s mainstream.
It is this determination to live apart, rather than ideological pacifism, that explains their resistance to conscription. The few Haredim who did join the army in specially created segregated units have acted no less brutally than the average IDF soldier. In his denunciation, Rabbi Lando used the word retsah for murder, the same root as that uttered in the prohibition “Thou shalt not kill” in the Ten Commandments. This choice of language made his accusation particularly grievous.
Indeed, there is little new in his denunciation. Haredi rabbis have long disparaged the Zionist project, particularly its violent character. Unlike the Jewish and Christian Zionists, they do not view the Israeli state as a realization of a biblical prophecy, nor as implying the commandment to occupy the Holy Land. According to one Haredi parliamentarian:
The Zionists are wrong. There is no need to foster love of the land of Israel by political and military rule in the entire land. One can love Hebron even from Tel Aviv … even if it is under Palestinian rule. The state of Israel is not a value. Only matters of spirituality belong to the family of “values.”
Most Haredim reject Zionism, whether secular or religious, do not observe Independence Day or any other official holiday, and, like the majority of Haredim, avoid contact with the secular majority. Their sons do not serve in the Israeli army, and their daughters do not perform the obligatory alternative service at all; many do not come to a standstill when, every year, sirens summon the population to observe a minute of silence in commemoration of the soldiers who died for the state of Israel. The chronic violence that the Zionist settlement has engendered for more than a century would, in their view, be ongoing punishment for the violation of the Talmudic oaths prohibiting forceful conquest of the Holy Land.
The context of Rabbi Lando’s vehement denunciation speaks as strongly as his words. The Haredim have been fighting for years to maintain the privilege of being exempt from military service, which is obligatory for both men and women in Israel. This privilege was accorded in order to appease the Haredi opposition to the unilateral declaration of the Zionist state, which occurred in May 1948.
That deal has long been invalidated by Israel’s Supreme Court. A long legislative battle over the issue is on, accompanied by vigorous, sometimes violent, street protests by thousands of Haredi Jews. They break into military facilities and, on at least one occasion, besieged the home of a Supreme Court judge.
As a result of coalition politics, the Knesset passed earlier this month a Basic Law declaring Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people. This enshrines a traditional Jewish value as a law of the country. Israel does not have a constitution—another concession to the Haredi community—and Basic Laws have a quasi-constitutional status.
Another law, passed earlier in the summer of 2026, grants tens of thousands of Haredi draft dodgers temporary immunity from arrest. This protects Haredi youth who evade the draft. It also suspends ongoing criminal proceedings against those already facing enforcement measures. The High Court froze implementation of that law a day later and scheduled a hearing on the matter for July 28. The battle continues.
Another news item concerning the Haredim sheds light on their alienation. The state mobilized Haredi influencers and rabbis to warn Haredi Jews against collaboration with Iran’s intelligence. Israel and the United States have repeatedly attacked Iran since summer 2025, and there have been reports of Haredi Jews among the scores of Israelis arrested for espionage in favour of Iran.
All this explains growing animosity towards the Haredim in the Israeli mainstream. Many secular Israelis feel squeezed between two growing threats—the Palestinians on the one hand and the Haredim on the other. Israel keeps fighting on seven fronts, and military leaders deplore a dire scarcity of soldiers. While obligatory military service has been prolonged to three years for both men and women, over 80,000 Haredim refuse even to register at the recruitment offices. Many mainstream Israelis have long experienced the loss of sons and daughters, and they naturally resent the exemption for the Haredim.
The current cycle of violence has pushed tens of thousands of Israelis, tired of regular bouts of reserve duty, to emigrate to Europe and the United States. These are usually younger and better educated, precisely those who ensure Israel’s dominance in the region. The Haredim also threaten to leave if the state drafts them into the military. Even if they remain, most will evade military service. Moreover, their low level of scientific and technological education cannot meet the needs of Israel’s high-tech industries. The Haredim’s principled alienation is one of the most serious internal challenges facing the Zionist state as it faces growing hostility from the outside.
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