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The following is a snippet of events that were affecting Israel and the Jewish world at the beginning of
August 2024.
The Ultra-Orthodox and the secular in Israel
For many years, there has been a significant tension between the ultra-orthodox (Charedi) and the rest of Israeli society.
Much of this tension has existed because of the exclusion of the ultra-orthodox from service in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). This exclusion is
apparently coming to an end - both voluntarily and by law.
Israel’s Supreme Court has unanimously ruled in a landmark case that ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students must be
drafted to the military. There have long been exemptions for conscription for young men registered in full-time religious study, but a legal
arrangement allowing the practice to continue had expired. The move looks set to send shockwaves through Israel’s governing coalition, which
includes ultra-Orthodox, or Charedi, parties.
A waiver from conscription for ultra-Orthodox men had become a more pressing social issue because of the strain on the
armed forces caused by the ongoing fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military is often described as “the People’s Army” with most Israelis, apart from Israeli Arabs, required by
law to serve in it.
Data seen by the court suggested some 63,000 ultra-Orthodox men in full-time Torah study have been covered by the waiver.
The ruling means that they now potentially face the draft. The court also ruled that there should be a freeze in public funding for yeshivas
(schools) whose students evade conscription.
The history of exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox dates back to 1949 - a year after the state of Israel was created.
Back then, there were only some 400 yeshiva students in Israel. The country’s founding fathers allowed them to avoid military service because the
ultra-Orthodox community and its yeshivas had been decimated by the Holocaust in World War Two.
In modern-day Israel, demographics have changed dramatically. The high birth rate in the ultra-Orthodox community means
that it now accounts for 12% of the Israeli population. According to the Israeli parliament’s State Control Committee, about 10% of the
ultra-Orthodox enlist each year, when they reach the conscription age of 18. Special military units already exist which allow ultra-Orthodox men
to serve as combat soldiers by creating conditions conducive to their religious convictions and strict observance of Halakha, or Jewish
religious law.
The Charedi community has been forced to acknowledge that the events of October 7 have dramatically transformed Israeli
society and significantly affected the interactions between Charedis and other societal groups, such that the status quo will no longer
stand.
With mounting casualties in Gaza and potentially in Lebanon, the army faces a large shortage of manpower. The Israeli
Supreme Court has ordered the government to cut funding to all yeshivas (religious schools) whose students do not serve in the army. The battle
lines are now sharply drawn: The overwhelming majority of the Israeli public is no longer willing to put up with the mass exemption of all Charedi
young men from the army. The endless rounds of reserve duty that ordinary Israelis are forced to serve severely impacts their businesses and
families. The country also sees the massive growth of the Charedi sector, which now numbers more than a million. Israelis. Secular Israelis are
worried about future demographics in which a huge percentage of the population refuses to shoulder their national responsibilities.
Sadly, the Charedi leadership continues to see it as a religious imperative of the highest order to resist any change
regarding national service, even for those (estimated at 35%) who are not in yeshivas and not learning. Efforts to create collaborative systems
with the army in which Charedi standards are met continue to be rejected out of hand – although there are a few small successful programs.
These obstinate Charedis are spreading the narrative that the government is set on destroying the Charedi world in a fit
of anti-religious hatred. Leading elderly Charedi rabbis have traveled to America in an attempt to raise vast amounts of money to replace the
Israeli government largesse that has kept them afloat till now. Massive demonstrations have been the religious call of the day in which the
participants scream, “We will die rather than be drafted!” accompanied by calling the Israeli police Nazis when they attempt to disperse
them.
At the same time, Israel has been moving closer and closer to a full-scale war with Hezbollah on the northern border with
Lebanon. It is a time for national unity, but unfortunately, the reverse seems to be happening.
The perspectives being disseminated by the Charedi leadership do not reflect the views of everyone – possibly not even
the majority – within the Charedi population. It is time for those within the ultra-orthodox world who recognize the need for change to
use their influence to positively drive a shift in attitudes.
The military exemption for the Charedis was worked out with Ben Gurion almost 80 years ago – whereby a few hundred
full-time learners were exempted from army service in an attempt to rebuild the Torah world destroyed in the Holocaust. It was supposed to be a
temporary measure. It did not envision a time when hundreds of thousands would be exempted from military service.
It is simply not true that going to the army means that a young man necessarily will be lost to Jewishness. Tens of
thousands of wonderful young men and women prove otherwise. A system can and should be set up with the active collaboration of the heads of the
Charedis. The status quo must change.
Clearly, there are large groups of Charedis who will never agree to any change and will fight changes ever more fiercely
– the so-called “true ultra-Orthodox.” They should be left to fight their own battles with the Israeli authorities, and not bind the many who
quietly do not agree with them and see the need for change.
The tolerance of the larger part of Israeli society for a segment of the population who (as they see it) do not
work, do not serve in the army, do not contribute (with notable exceptions) while demanding huge government benefits and stipends has ended.
There is no political, judicial, or social will to continue this. None – to the extent that there is any talk of support for it, it is seen as
pure political blackmail.[1]
At the start of August 2024, Ultra-Orthodox extremists blocked Route 4 for three hours during a protest against the drafting
of Charedi men to the IDF, outside of Bnei Brak. They chanted slogans such as: “We will die and not enlist” and “To prison and not to the army.”
Eventually, police cleared out the protesters and the road reopened to traffic.
The protest, one of many in recent months, came in response to the High Court of Justice’s landmark ruling in June that
ordered the military to begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox men and halt funding to yeshivas that did not comply.
The dispute over the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in Israel, with
decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue never reaching a stable resolution. A large segment of the Charedi religious
and political leadership continues to fiercely resist and protest any effort to draft mainstream yeshiva students who are involved in religious
study. They believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life, and fear that those who enlist will be secularized.
Many Israelis who do serve, however, say the decades-long arrangement of mass exemptions unfairly burdens them, a sentiment that has strengthened
since the October 7 attack and the ensuing war, in which more than 680 soldiers have been killed and over 300,000 citizens called up to
reserve duty.[2]
From Tech to Tanks and Back to Tech
We’ve all heard it said that “Israel is The Startup Nation”. But, here in 2024, perhaps it’s time to retire that title
and change it to something more along the lines of “Israel is the Scale up Nation.”
Once upon a time, Israel was known for building amazing hi-tech. But it was also known as the place where entrepreneurs
didn’t let their technologies fully mature. Some time ago, Marc Andreessen, who famously started Netscape, and was one of the first investors in
Facebook, Twitter, and so many other leading tech companies was asked why his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, did not have an office in Israel, he
explained that Israeli entrepreneurs sell their companies too early.
He was right then, but not today. Over the past 5 to 10 years, Israeli entrepreneurs have been looking to build large
sustainable businesses, and not just startups. Today, in parallel to Israel’s startup ecosystem, every single leading tech corporation is setting
up shop in Israel. This includes Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Intel, IBM, and the list just goes on and on.
Certainly, the war in Gaza and the Iran-backed attacks on Israel from Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere have made it harder to
innovate, or at least you would think that would be the case. But, let’s not forget the nature of the Jewish people, and specifically how
this amazing nation deals with adversity and persecution. This goes back all the way to ancient Egypt, where the Torah explicitly states
that the more the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, the more the Israelites flourished. It was true then, and it’s true now.
In 2024, it was reported that Google was looking to acquire an Israeli cyber security company called Wiz. The publicized
price for this acquisition was a whopping $23 billion. That would have been Google’s largest acquisition ever and Israel’s largest exit ever.
But Wiz said no to $23 billion! Instead, the company chose the path of an IPO (Initial Public Offering), meaning to go
public.
Wiz provides cloud-based cybersecurity with real time threat detection, and it does this by means of artificial
intelligence (AI). Wiz was last valued at “only” $12 billion, making Google’s proposed acquisition price point almost double the company’s
value.
With growing antisemitism, and massive boycotts against Israeli products, it was refreshing and exciting to see the leading
tech companies not following the mob, and continuing to invest in Israel.
As far as large Israeli exits, Intel famously acquired Mobileye, a company building the future of autonomous transportation,
for $15.3 billion many years ago. Another notable exit was Waze, which was acquired by Google for $1 billion.
It is important to note that the Israeli tech ecosystem continues to deliver during all the fighting, and even
over-delivering during the war. As can be imagined, a massive percentage of the workforce has been drafted, making it more difficult to innovate
and build new products, something that any normal nation would struggle with. But not
Israel! [3]
The Chosen People
The current war is an existential struggle over Jewish survival and Jewish identity. The curtain has been lifted as
Israel’s enemies no longer speak about territories and politics but about the basic right of Jews to have a Jewish state of their own. For the
first time since 1948, the appalling claim that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist has been normalized. The battle has little to do with
boundaries and territories or the right of “Palestinian” return. It is an existential struggle over the State of Israel.
Judaism aspires to a life of morality and to the preservation of human dignity. The Jewish moral spirit is inspired by a
moral code. Despite centuries of hatred and discrimination, Jews continue to pursue welfare for all humanity. The Jewish people raised an
army which adheres to a strict ethical code. This code demands that the IDF preserve life and protect the dignity of every human being, especially
innocent civilians. Israel has a moral army, and its soldiers risk their lives to conduct war in a moral fashion.
Yet, insidiously, Israel is accused of both overseeing an apartheid state and of conducting an immoral war of genocide.
The State of Israel is the antithesis of apartheid: it offers full legal rights and protection to every race, religion, ethnicity and sexual
orientation, despite the challenging security conditions it collectively faces. Contrast this with the behavior of every other nation in the
Middle East.
Since the inception of the Jewish state, its Arab population has flourished, expanding fifteen-fold, despite the fact that
many Arab citizens of Israel harbor strong sympathies for sworn enemies of the state. Additionally, in the interest of minimizing civilian
casualties, Israel’s army maintains ethical standards which far exceed those of other armies. If these labels of “apartheid” and “genocide”
weren’t so venomously and violently launched at the State of Israel, their mention would be comical.
Israel has also been falsely maligned as colonialist occupiers of indigenous people. A Jewish presence in the Land of
Israel has continued uninterrupted since well before any of non-Jewish residents – the so-called “Palestinians” arrived in this region.
In the more recent past, Jews returned home to Israel through international license, seeking peace with their neighbors.
Immediately upon their return, though, Arabs launched a vicious war of annihilation against the returning Jews, which continues to this day.
European colonization was driven by desire for affluence and power and sapped weaker countries of their wealth and natural
resources, while violently subjugating innocent populations. Jewish Israelis aren’t parasites leeching local resources but are providing growth and
opportunity. Every Arab country which has accepted Jewish presence in this region shared in this prosperity – that is, until they drove out their
Jewish benefactors.
Labeling Israelis as colonialists is baseless propaganda and it is self-degrading to those who mindlessly spew such
disinformation.
In addition to these false distortions, the Jewish people have been mocked and sneered at for viewing themselves as
the “chosen people.” In an era of widespread democracy and egalitarianism, the notion of a chosen people feels offensive and bigoted. Antisemites
ridicule Jews for their supposed arrogance and the holier-than-thou attitude implied by this term.
How should Jews respond to these claims of arrogance? Isn’t the concept of being chosen bigoted? Don’t Jews share 99% of
the same DNA as non-Jews? Is it immoral or arrogant to view themselves as a chosen race? A lot depends on whether they view themselves as chosen
“from” or chosen “for”.
The children of Abraham weren’t selected for privilege or comfort. Their selection brought numerous rights and privileges
but, more importantly, imposed more responsibility, restriction, and obligation. They were chosen “for” a mission, not chosen “from” the rest of
the nations for privilege. Being chosen isn’t arrogance and isn’t a sign of Jewish bigotry: It is a badge of honor that carries great
responsibility. Yet the world can’t and won’t appreciate the concept of being chosen for duty.
Human beings are not meant to be creatures of rights but creatures of duty. Sadly, society has lost that vision and cannot
imagine a people chosen for greater duty and greater commitment.[4]
Antisemitism on American College Campuses and in the UN
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Jewish Harvard graduate addressed the ongoing antisemitism at his alma mater when he recently
addressed the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “It is this ideological poison. It is this corruption that is infecting far too many
young, American students. Let’s be clear. The far-left antisemitic extremism has no virtue and the radicalism on our campuses and on our streets
has no moral legitimacy,” he told the roaring crowd. Continuing, he went on to say, “I am a proud first-generation American, I am a proud Orthodox
Jew, and as of five months ago, I am the proud plaintiff suing Harvard University for its failure to combat antisemitism. I came to Harvard to
study religion, the foundation of western civilization. What I found was not theology but a contempt for it. My problem with Harvard is not it’s
liberalism, but its illiberalism. Too often students at Harvard are taught not how to think but what to think.”
(Emphasis mine) (Ref. 5)
For some, World War III has begun, pitting the entire civilized world, including the United States, against Israel and
the Jewish people. British journalist Melanie Phillips said it succinctly: “We have to face without flinching what is now undeniable: There is a
war across the globe raging against the Jewish people. It’s a war not just to destroy their national homeland but to drive them out of people’s
heads, their conscience, and their world. Led by Muslims and the left, with its base in the universities, this war has extended much further than
these circles into professional and commercial life.”
This should be self-evident from the actions of the United Nations, the putative global parliament. Granted, the U.N.
mainly represents governments – the great majority of which are dictatorships – rather than people. Nevertheless, to the extent that the
U.N. speaks for the world, its overwhelming hostility toward Israel, and increasingly, the desire to extinguish the Jewish state, are
undeniable. Consider, for example:
146 of the 193 members of the U.N. have unilaterally recognized a “Palestinian state” with no specified borders.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued an opinion that Israel’s constructing a wall in the “Occupied Territories of Palestine”
violated international law, and Israel was obligated to tear down the wall and make restitution for damages caused by its construction. This
effectively meant that Israel had no right to defend itself against terrorists.
South Africa, on behalf of the “Palestinians”, petitioned the International Criminal Court to find Israel guilty of
genocide, and the ICC Prosecutor issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ chief of staff notified Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan
that Israel was being added to a ‘List of Shame’ appended to the U.N. Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), shaming
countries and armed organizations that allegedly did not take adequate measures to improve the protection of children during conflict. That
the ratio of civilian to combatant casualties in Gaza was the lowest in the history of armed conflict seems to have escaped the notice of the world
body.
Jew-hatred on America’s elite university campuses and within the currently ruling Democratic Party has only increased in
recent days.[6]
Retribution
A small bit of justice came to two very evil men when they met their ends in Beirut, Lebanon and Tehran, Iran at the end
of July 2024. Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was blasted to oblivion by Israel in Beirut after Hezbollah fired an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket into
the Golan Heights, killing a dozen Druze children playing soccer.
That was just one of 6,500 rockets, more than 1,000 antitank missiles and hundreds of drones that the terror group had
launched from poor, abused Lebanon into Israel since their pals in Hamas began their Oct. 7 pogrom of murder, rape and kidnapping against
Israel.
Just hours later, in Tehran, another arch terrorist, the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, also was killed, along with his
bodyguard, when something explosive went through his living room window. The targeted attack, presumably also by Israel, found its target perfectly,
as the rest of the apartment building was left touched.
These terrorists were enemies of Israel and they were also the enemies of the United States and all civilized society.
Shukr had a $5 million price on his head from the U.S. State Department for playing “a central role in the Oct. 23, 1983
bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut which killed 241 U.S. military personnel and wounded 128 others.” Hezbollah and Shukr were
also responsible for a simultaneous attack on a nearby French outpost in Beirut, which killed 58 French paratroopers.
As for the now-dead Hamas leader, Haniyeh, he was on the U.S. State department’s list of Specially Designated Global
Terrorists. That means he was “determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General,
to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national
security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.”
In May of 2024, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for three top Hamas men for
crimes against humanity and war crimes related to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The three men were Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and
Yahya Sinwar.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had reported that Mohammed Deif, a top Hamas military leader, was killed in Israeli
strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in July. The news of Deif’s death came as thousands gathered in Iran for the funeral for Haniyeh.
Ismail Haniyeh’s funeral was in Tehran at the start of August 2024. The IDF very likely killed Deif in southern Gaza a
few weeks previous. That left only Sinwar hiding in the Hamas tunnels under Gaza. It took four decades to catch up with Shukr. It’s doubtful that
Sinwar will last anywhere near that long – his days are most likely numbered.[7]
With all that has happened in Israel and around the world in the middle of 2024, let Jews and all people of good will shout
out: AM YISRAEL CHAI! – “THE NATION OF ISRAEL LIVES!”
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References:
- A Time For New Thinking In The Charedi World (Part II), Rabbi Yehuda L Oppenheimer, The Jewish Press,
26 July 2024.
- Extremist Haredi protesters block highway for 3 hours to decry enlistment to IDF, The Times of Israel,
2 August 2024.
- From Tech To Tanks And Back To Tech, Hillel Fuld, The Jewish Press, 26 July 2024.
- Chosen “For”, Not Chosen “From”, Rabbi Moshe Taragin, The Jewish Press, 26 July 2024.
- The Weeks That Changed The Political Landscape, Marc Gronich, The Jewish Press, 26 July 2024.
- World War III: The Civilized World Vs. Klal Yisrael, Richard Kronenfeld, The Jewish Press, 26 July 2024.
- The end for terror masters: Death comes for Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr and Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh, New York Daily News,
2 August 2024.
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