The Haredi challenge and the future of Israel
By Shahar Eyal, Policy Fellow 2025-2026. This article originally appeared in The Times of Israel.
Earlier this year, the Israeli army reported that after 2 years of sustained warfare, it was struggling to fill roughly 12,000 vacant positions. The short-term problem is clear: Israel faces a shortage of soldiers, while a community that makes up 14% of the population mostly refuses to enlist. The longer-term issue is demographic, as the “people’s army” model that has sustained Israel’s defense for decades will face far more severe strain as Haredi Jews make up an increasing share of the population.
Beyond these figures lies a deeper crisis of national unity. A vital pillar of national security is social resistance, often defined as “a unified society built on mutual responsibility.” October’s “March of the Million” exposed the extent to which the Haredim, in their refusal to serve and integrate, do not share any sense of this civic obligation.
Establishing shared responsibility requires a national identity to which every citizen can relate. Yet Israel’s identity remains fractured. It defines itself as a Jewish state, but that label alone has not produced a shared civic ethos. Even a glance into the internal demographics of the country reveals deep divisions.
Among Jewish Israelis, the most pronounced divide is between the Ultra-Orthodox and everyone else. Haredim live in insular enclaves, attend separate schools, and, for the most part, do not serve in the army. This separation stands in contrast to several minority groups outside the Jewish majority. The Druze, who, like the Haredim, reside in their own concentrated communities, are legally obligated to conscript. As of today, the percentage of Druze serving in the IDF is proportional to their population in the country. Hundreds of Bedouin also enlist voluntarily each year despite being exempt as Muslims, and a small but growing number of non-Bedouin Muslim and Christian citizens have begun to do the same. The result of this situation is the existence of groups, both Jewish and not, that carry more of the burden of citizenship than others.
The division across these groups has not been coincidental, but purposefully sustained and deepened by political calculation. In return for Knesset support, Haredi groups have received generous subsidies and state resources towards their religious education and protections for continued exemption from service and autonomy in their educational institutions. Under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s tenure, this arrangement has become further entrenched in order to maintain a coalition government which includes far right and ultra-orthodox parties. Recently, Netanyahu’s proposed bill to end exemptions from enlistment for religious students resulted in two of the orthodox parties in the coalition – United Torah Judaism and Shas – leaving the government. Netanyahu’s contradictory policies have exposed the fragility of the coalition and the weakness of a divisive form of rule.
These inconsistencies span both past and present policy. Before the war, Netanyahu moved to grant blanket exemptions for Haredi men, an obviously unviable policy for the long-term which aimed to appease his orthodox coalition parties. He also relaxed education standards for the same reason, despite the fact that ensuring state funding for schools that omit core subjects places economic self-sufficiency at significant risk. The prime minister’s pattern of coalition management has consistently traded long-term state building and stability for short-term political survival, repeatedly appeasing the Ultra-Orthodox communities at the expense of effective government. Now that Israel is in a state of emergency, it has become abundantly clear that this model has created a lack of internal stability and caused domestic cracks to appear at critical moments.
The fractures within Israeli society are no longer sustainable. Israel needs leadership that prioritizes long-term cohesion over short-term political survival. Enforcing national education standards, promoting shared civic institutions, and encouraging social integration are essential steps towards building a unified national identity. A nation cannot endure when large segments withdraw from civic duty whilst still drawing on its resources.
