In the draft year that ended in June, 4,298 Haredi men enlisted in the army, more than the year before.I12 This week the number of Israelis classified as draft evaders passed 110,000, and the military estimates about four in five of them are Haredi.I13 Almost every major party now says some version of "everyone should serve." Listen closely and they mean very different things by it.
The positions come from what each party published. Where Ben Greenberg gives his own view, it is marked as his view, as it is on screen.
This is Close Read, and this is the second of five issue episodes: the major parties according to the latest polls, side by side, with my own view marked when I give it.
Tonight is Haredi military service.
The map
The deferral for yeshiva students began in 1948 with about 400 students and grew, through laws and coalition deals, to cover most Haredi men.I1 In June 2024 the Supreme Court ruled that without a law allowing an exemption, the state has no authority to stop drafting yeshiva students.I1 This July the outgoing Knesset passed Basic Law: Torah Study, and then a law freezing arrests of yeshiva students who hadn't reported.I9I8 The High Court struck the arrest freeze down on September 3, and it never took effect.I10I11
Here's where the thirteen land.
Six parties want a single law that puts every eighteen-year-old into military or civilian service and strips benefits from anyone who doesn't serve: Yashar, B'Yachad, Amcha Yisrael, Yisrael Beiteinu, the Reservists and the Democrats.Yashar 5B'Yachad 8Amcha Yisrael 1Yisrael Beiteinu 1The Reservists and the Economic Party 2The Democrats 7 Bennett's version of the rule is "Whoever does not enlist does not get a shekel."B'Yachad 39
Likud, Religious Zionism-Zehut and Otzma Yehudit want more Haredi men serving, through targets and dedicated units, and none has published the first camp's list of benefit cuts.Likud 1Religious Zionism-Zehut 8I1 On October 18 Netanyahu said he would pass a law to enlist 23,000 Haredi men over three and a half years.I2I3
Shas and United Torah Judaism want a law that secures the status of full-time yeshiva students, which United Torah Judaism calls "regulating the status of Torah students."Shas 9I4United Torah Judaism 4
The Joint List told Ynet it opposes any compulsory enlistment, Haredi or otherwise. Ra'am declined to answer on Haredi enlistment, and Mansour Abbas has spoken only of voluntary service for Arab citizens.I1I7
Same words, different plans
Start with the line you'll hear most this week: whoever doesn't study Torah should enlist. Netanyahu says it.I2 United Torah Judaism's leader, Yaakov Asher, says something close: "Someone who sits and learns should not face sanctions."I5
Ben Greenberg's view Those two lines sound like a deal waiting to happen, and I think that's why they're worth slowing down on. Both leave the real question open: who counts as studying, and who checks? If the answer ends up being "the yeshiva says so," then "whoever doesn't study enlists" is the old arrangement with a new sentence on top. Neither Likud nor United Torah Judaism has told us who would do the checking.
The universal camp has its own shared phrase. Yashar, Amcha Yisrael and the Democrats all say the army's needs come first, and everyone else goes to civilian or national service.Yashar 5Amcha Yisrael 1The Democrats 7
Then "civilian service" itself. Yisrael Beiteinu means the Prison Service, firefighting and medical services.I1 Asher says his side offered a civilian security track, guard duty in the Prison Service, during the talks.United Torah Judaism 5 Zehut wants about one month of compulsory service for everyone, "as in Switzerland."Religious Zionism-Zehut 1 Mansour Abbas has said he'd support voluntary civic service for Arab citizens, run by Arabs and kept apart from the army.I7
Ben Greenberg's view So the Prison Service shows up in Liberman's plan and in Asher's offer. That's the closest the two ends of this debate come to each other, and I haven't heard either side point it out. My guess is that's because the difference is in what comes attached. For Liberman it's one of two tracks everyone must choose from, with sanctions behind it. For Asher it's an option for young men who aren't learning.
How many exemptions
This is the real fault line inside the camp that wants a universal law. Yisrael Beiteinu promises "no exemptions, no quotas and no deals."I1 The Reservists allow medical exemptions only.The Reservists and the Economic Party 4 B'Yachad rejects any framework with exemption percentages.B'Yachad 7 Yashar keeps up to three percent of each year's cohort for one-year deferrals, with basic training first.Yashar 5 Amcha Yisrael keeps Torah tracks with "a defined quota."Amcha Yisrael 1
Ben Greenberg's view Let's make the case for a quota, because why not? It deserves one. For a community that sees full-time learning as sacred, a small, defined track is something its rabbis could accept without saying they surrendered. A law with zero exceptions asks them to lose in public, and people who lose in public tend to stop cooperating.
Ben Greenberg's view But every exemption Israel has had started small. Four hundred students in 1948.I1 A quota only holds if the number is written into the law where a future coalition can't widen it in a budget negotiation.
There's also a contrast inside a single list. The Reservists say medical exemptions only, but their own plan has 700 top Torah students serving by studying in yeshivas along the borders, and their partner, the Economic Party, would cap exemptions at 2,000 yeshiva students.The Reservists and the Economic Party 4The Reservists and the Economic Party 12
Ben Greenberg's view You could call that a contradiction. To me it shows that even the hardest line on this question ends up making room for Torah study somewhere. The honest version of the debate is about the size of that room.
What the plans leave out
Ben Greenberg's view Here's where I think almost every plan is thin: enforcement.
The sanctions lists are long. Yisrael Beiteinu and the Reservists would take away the right to vote, along with benefits, licenses and travel.Yisrael Beiteinu 1The Reservists and the Economic Party 2 Compare that with the tools the state already has. Since January there have been 348 indictments for draft evasion, and the military prosecution counts 34 of them as Haredi.I12 The military says arrests in Haredi neighborhoods set off disturbances that tie up large forces.I12 In April the High Court told the government to examine cutting benefits like property tax and public transport discounts for draft evaders, and the government still hasn't decided.I13
Ben Greenberg's view So I'd ask every party in the universal camp one plain question. On the day a yeshiva head tells his students not to report, what happens? Cutting a discount is an administrative step. Arresting tens of thousands of young men is a different operation, and none of these plans says what happens in between.
The second gap is the people who are already evaders. I didn't find a plan from any party that says what happens to the roughly 110,000 already on that list: whether they're drafted, fined, or let go past a certain age.I13
Ben Greenberg's view Every plan is written for the next eighteen-year-old. The list that exists today is the problem the next government inherits on its first morning.
And third, let's talk about the numbers. In a plan published in October 2025, the Reservists demanded that the army plan for 15,000 Haredi recruits in the draft year that ended this June.The Reservists and the Economic Party 4 The real number was 4,298.I12 Netanyahu's 23,000 over three and a half years works out to about 6,500 a year.I2
Ben Greenberg's view I'll give Likud this: it's a number, and most plans don't have one. But at that pace the evader list keeps growing, and a target the army has missed by more than two thirds tells me the Reservists' numbers need a second look too.
Fourth, money. B'Yachad is the only party I found that puts a price on its plan, 8.8 billion shekels, and says where the money comes from.B'Yachad 8 The others describe benefits for those who serve without the figures.
And last, Arab citizens. Yisrael Beiteinu, the Reservists and B'Yachad put Arab citizens under the same service obligation.Yisrael Beiteinu 1The Reservists and the Economic Party 2I1 The two Arab parties don't want compulsory service at all.I1 None of the universal plans I read says who would run civilian service in Arab towns or how many places it would have.
Ben Greenberg's view Abbas's voluntary model is the only proposal I found that tries to answer that question. The parties writing obligations for Arab citizens should engage with it.
What I think
Ben Greenberg's view Here's where I come out. On principle, the universal camp has the stronger case to me, and the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling points the same way. When reservists have given hundreds of days since 2023, an arrangement where one community mostly doesn't serve can't hold.
Ben Greenberg's view I take Shas and United Torah Judaism's view seriously. Their voters believe Torah study protects this country, and they experience arrests of yeshiva students as persecution. Asher's point that you can't force a change on a million and a half people without some agreement is a real point about how policy works. But they haven't put a number or a mechanism on the table, and asking for the status of Torah students to be protected in law, with no limit, is asking for what the court already ruled out.
Ben Greenberg's view And the universal camp owes us more than a slogan. The parties with the strongest principle have the thinnest plan for enforcing it. If I could ask them for one document before the election, it wouldn't be a longer sanctions list. It would be year one: how many orders, how many enlistments, who checks, and what happens on the day nobody shows up.
Close
To sum up: six parties want one service law for everyone, three want more Haredi enlistment without one, two want the status of Torah students protected in law, and two oppose compulsory service. Almost everyone now talks about civilian service. What divides them is how many exemptions there are, and whether anyone has a plan to enforce the rest.
Tomorrow: security, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and the Palestinians.
Every source I used is linked in the description. The Close Read is free to watch, and if you'd like to support it, you'll find me at patreon.com/TheCloseRead, linked in the description.
Sources
New sources for this episode. A party's own sources are linked by name, to the list on that party's episode page.
- I1
- I2
- I3
- I4
- I5
- I6
- I7
- I8
- I9
- I10
- I11
- I12
- I13
Transcript
The words as spoken in the episode, from its captions. Select a time to listen from there.
Full transcript
Intro
In the draft year that ended in June, 4,298 Haredi men enlisted in the army, more than the year before. This week, the number of Israelis classified as draft evaders passed 110,000, and the military estimates about four in five of them are Haredi. Almost every major party now says some version of everyone should serve. Listen closely, and they mean very different things by it. This is Close Read, and this is the second of five issue episodes. The major parties, according to the latest polls, side by side, with my own view marked when I give it. Today, we're talking about Haredi military service. The deferral for yeshiva students began in 1948 with about 400 students, 400 students,
The map
and grew through laws and coalition deals to cover almost all Haredi men. In June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that without a law allowing an exemption, the state has no authority to stop drafting yeshiva students. This July, the outgoing Knesset passed a new basic law, Torah study, and then a law freezing arrests of yeshiva students who hadn't reported. The high court struck the arrest freeze down on September 3rd, and it never took effect. Here is where the 13 major parties land. Six parties want a single law that puts every 18-year-old into military or civilian service and strips benefits from anyone who doesn't serve, Yashar, BeYachad, amcha Yisrael, Yisrael Beiteinu, the reservists, and the Democrats.
Naftali Bennett's version of this rule from BeYachad is, quote, whoever does not enlist does not get a shekel, end quote. Likud, religious Zionism Zehut, and Otsma Yehudit want more Haredi men serving, through targets and dedicated units, and none of them have published the first camp's list of benefit cuts. On October 18th, Netanyahu said he would pass a law to enlist 23,000 Haredi men over three and a half years. Shas and United Torah Judaism want a law that secures the status of full-time yeshiva students, which United Torah Judaism calls, quote, regulating the status of Torah students, end quote. The joint list told Ynet it opposes any compulsory enlistment, Haredi or otherwise.
Raam declined to answer on Haredi enlistment, and Mansour Abbas has spoken only of voluntary service for Arab citizens. Let's start with the line you'll hear most this week. Whoever doesn't study Torah should enlist.
Same words, different plans
Netanyahu says it. United Torah Judaism's leader, Yaakov Asher, says something close, quote, someone who sits and learns should not face sanctions, end quote. Those two lines sound like a deal waiting to happen, and I think that's why they're worth slowing down on. Both leave the real question open. Who counts as studying and who checks? If the answer ends up being the yeshiva says so, then whoever doesn't study enlist is the old arrangement with a new sentence on top. Neither Likud nor United Torah Judaism has told us who would do the checking. The universal camp has its own shared phrase. Yashar, Amcha Yisrael, and the Democrats all say the army's needs come first, and everyone else goes to civilian or national service.
But the civilian service itself, quote, unquote, needs examination. Yisrael Beiteinu means the prison service, firefighting, and medical services. Asher says his side offered a civilian security track, that's United Torah Judaism, guard duty in the prison service during the talks. Zehut wants about one month of compulsory service for everyone, quote, as in Switzerland. Mansour Abbas from Raam has said he'd support voluntary civic service for Arab citizens, run by Arabs, and kept apart from the army. So the prison service shows up in the Liberman plan and in Asher's offer. That's the closest the two ends of this debate come to each other, and I haven't heard either side pointed out. My guess is that's because the difference is in what comes attached.
For Liberman, it's one of two tracks everyone must choose from. With sanctions behind it, for Asher, from the United Torah Judaism, it's an option for young men who aren't learning in yeshiva full-time. This is the real fault line inside the camp that wants a universal law.
How many exemptions
Yisrael Beiteinu promises, quote, no exemptions, no quotas, and no deals. The reservists allow medical exemptions only. But BeYachad rejects any framework with exemption percentages. Yashar keeps up to 3% of each year's cohort for one-year deferrals, with basic training first. Amcha Yisrael keeps Torah tracks with a, quote, defined quota. Let's make the case for a quota, because why not? It deserves one. For a community that sees full-time learning as sacred, a small, defined track is something its rabbis could accept without saying that they surrendered. A law with zero exemptions, with zero exceptions, asks them to lose in public. And people who lose in public, they tend to stop cooperating.
But every exemption Israel has had, every exemption Israel has had, has started small. Remember, we started with 400 students, exempted by David Ben-Gurion in 1948. A quota only holds if the number is written into the law where a future coalition cannot widen it as part of a budget negotiation. There's also a contrast inside a single list. The reservists say medical exemptions only, but their own plan, their own plan has 700 top Torah students serving by studying in yeshivas along the borders.
And their partner, the Economic Party, would cap exemptions at 2,000 yeshiva students. You could call that a contradiction. To me, it shows that even the hardest line on this question ends up making room for Torah study somewhere. The honest version of this debate is about the size of that room. But here is why I think almost every plan is
What the plans leave out
thin, is short in detail, is on the topic of enforcement. The sanctions lists are long. Yisrael, Beiteinu, and the reservists would take away the right to vote, along with benefits, licenses, and travel. Compare that with the tools the state already has. Since January, there have been 348 indictments for draft invasions. And the military prosecution counts 34 of them as Haredi. The military says arrests in Haredi neighborhoods set off disturbances that tie up large forces. In April, the high court told the government to examine cutting benefits like property tax and public transport discounts for draft evaders. And the government still has not decided. So, I'd ask every party in the Universal Camp one plain question.
On the day a yeshiva head tells his students not to report, what happens? Cutting a discount is an administrative step. Arresting tens of thousands of young men is a very different operation. And none of these plans say what happens in between. The second gap is the people who are already evaders. I didn't find a plan from any party that says what happens to the roughly 110,000 already on that list, whether they're drafted, fined, or they're let go past a certain age. Every plan is written for the next 18-year-old. The list that exists today is the problem the next government inherits on its first morning. And third, let's talk about the numbers.
In a plan published in October of 2025, the Reservists demanded the army plan for 15,000 Haredi recruits in the draft year that ended this June. The real number was 4,298. Netanyahu's 23,000 over three and a half years works to about 6,500 a year. Now, I'll give Likud this. It's a number, and most plans don't have a number. But at that pace, the evader list keeps growing. And a target the army has missed by more than two-thirds tell me the Reservists number needs a second look too. Fourth, we need to talk about the money. BeYachad, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's party, is the only party I found that puts a price on its plan.
8.8 billion shekels. And says where that money comes from. The others describe benefits for those who serve without the figures. And last, Arab citizens. Yisrael, Beiteinu, the Reservists, and BeYachad put Arab citizens under the same service obligation. The two parties don't want compulsory service. The two Arab parties don't want compulsory service at all. None of the universal plans I read says who would run civilian service in Arab towns, or how many places it would have. Abbas's, from Raam, voluntary model, is the only proposal I found that tries to answer that question. The parties writing obligations for Arab citizens should engage with it. Here's where I come out. On principle, the universal camp has the
What I think
stronger case to me. And the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling points the same way. When Reservists have given hundreds of days since October 2023, an arrangement where one community mostly doesn't serve, it can't hold anymore. But I take Shas's and United Torah Judaism's view also into account. Their voters believe Torah study protects this country, whether you agree with it or not. And they experience arrests of yeshiva students as persecution. Their point that you can't force a change on a million and a half people without some agreement is a real point about how policy in government works. But they haven't put a number or a mechanism on the table. And asking for the status of Torah students to be protected in law with no limit is asking for what the Supreme Court has already ruled out.
And the universal camp, well, it owes us more than a slogan. The parties with the strongest principle have the thinnest plan for enforcing it. If I could ask them for one document before the election, it wouldn't be a longer sanctions list. It would be year one. How many orders? How many enlistments? Who checks? And what happens on the day that nobody from the Haredi community shows up? To sum up, six parties want one service law for everyone.
Close
Three want more Haredi enlistment without one. Two want the status of Torah students protected in law. And two, oppose compulsory service. Almost everyone now talks about civilian service. What divides them is how many exemptions there are. And whether anyone, whether anyone has a plan to enforce the rest. Tomorrow, in the next episode, we're going to discuss security, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and the Palestinians. Small subjects. Every source I use is linked in the description. The close read is free to watch and free to listen. And if you would like to support this project, you can find me on Patreon at patreon.com slash the close read. Linked in the description.
