In Defense of Everyone Who Refuses
Israel's government is collapsing over conscription. The right answer isn't to draft everyone. It's to honor the refusal. Published on efiretemple.com • May 2026 Israel's ruling coalition has called for an early election. The cause is not the war in Gaza, not the strikes on Beirut, not the famine in the territories. It is the question of whether ultra-Orthodox men have to serve in the army. The vote to dissolve the Knesset is expected to pass next week. Israelis will likely go to the polls in late August.
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Israel's government is collapsing over conscription. The right answer isn't to draft everyone. It's to honor the refusal. Published on efiretemple.com • May 2026 Israel's ruling coalition has called for an early election. The cause is not the war in Gaza, not the strikes on Beirut, not the famine in the territories. It is the question of whether ultra-Orthodox men have to serve in the army. The vote to dissolve the Knesset is expected to pass next week. Israelis will likely go to the polls in late August. Eighty-five percent of Israelis tell pollsters they support drafting the Haredi. The framing across most coverage is the same: religious privilege must end, the burden must be shared, the wars cannot be sustained without these soldiers. The army chief of staff himself told the Knesset that Haredi recruitment is an "existential need" for the IDF.