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An impending political storm over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military is posing a risk to the governing coalition and fracturing the nation.

Popular sentiment on the issue has undergone a sea change in Israel following two years of hostilities, and this is now arguably the most volatile political risk facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Battle

Politicians are currently considering a piece of legislation to end the exemption awarded to yeshiva scholars enrolled in full-time religious study, instituted when the modern Israel was established in 1948.

The deferment was struck down by the nation's top court almost 20 years ago. Stopgap solutions to continue it were finally concluded by the judiciary last year, forcing the administration to begin drafting the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 enlistment orders were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees showed up, according to army data presented to lawmakers.

Friction Spill Into Violence

Strains are boiling over onto the city centers, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new legislative proposal to force Haredi males into army duty alongside other Jewish citizens.

Two Haredi politicians were harassed this month by hardline activists, who are furious with the Knesset's deliberations of the bill.

And last week, a specialized force had to assist army police who were surrounded by a sizeable mob of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they tried to arrest a alleged conscription dodger.

Such incidents have sparked the creation of a new messaging system called "Emergency Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and summon demonstrators to block enforcement from happening.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked an activist. "You can't fight against Judaism in a Jewish country. It doesn't work."

A World Apart

Yet the changes blowing through Israel have not yet breached the confines of the Torah academy in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Within the study hall, teenage boys study together to discuss the Torah, their distinctive school notebooks popping against the seats of formal attire and small black kippahs.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see a significant portion are engaged in learning," the head of the academy, the spiritual guide, said. "Via dedicated learning, we protect the military personnel on the front lines. This is how we contribute."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and Torah learning guard Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its security as its advanced weaponry. That belief was accepted by previous governments in the previous eras, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he admitted that public attitudes are shifting.

Growing Societal Anger

The Haredi community has significantly increased its percentage of Israel's population over the last seventy years, and now constitutes around one in seven. An exemption that started as an exemption for several hundred religious students turned into, by the beginning of the recent conflict, a cohort of some 60,000 men left out of the national service.

Surveys show support for ending the exemption is growing. Research in July found that a large majority of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing almost three-quarters in the Prime Minister's political base - backed sanctions for those who declined a draft order, with a solid consensus in favor of cutting state subsidies, passports, or the electoral participation.

"It makes me feel there are individuals who reside in this nation without serving," one serviceman in Tel Aviv explained.

"It is my belief, regardless of piety, [it] should be an reason not to go and serve your country," said a Tel Aviv resident. "As a citizen by birth, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to opt out just to study Torah all day."

Voices from Inside a Religious City

Support for ending the exemption is also coming from traditional Jews not part of the ultra-Orthodox sector, like Dorit Barak, who resides close to the academy and points to observant but non-Haredi Jews who do perform national service while also studying Torah.

"It makes me angry that this community don't perform military service," she said. "It's unfair. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the weapons together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

The resident runs a modest remembrance site in Bnei Brak to soldiers from the area, both from all backgrounds, who were lost in conflict. Rows of photographs {