I support the Haredi draft exemption law. Not enthusiastically, not blindly, but out of responsibility. Anyone who thinks coercion will lead to enlistment is mistaken. Anyone who believes we can keep ignoring reality is no less wrong. In the current situation, if we are not smart, even those who are right will be left without a solution.
The draft exemption law matters because it lowers the level of hostility, halts the reflexive "anti" discourse, and creates space in which the Haredi public can understand that change is unavoidable. Not change forced by a clenched fist, but change that can actually be implemented.
This week I sat with two Haredi young men. Both were 20 years old. Both had the same serious look in their eyes, but they were not sitting in the same chair. I said to the first: You are sitting and studying. Are you truly studying? Then continue. Do not get up. You are holding something the Israel Defense Forces cannot hold.
Then I turned to the second and said: And you? You have not been in yeshiva for a year. You are not studying, not committed to any framework, not building a future. So why, exactly, are you not enlisting?
He was silent. I was silent with him. I understand what he is going through. A Haredi young man who takes the obvious step and enlists pays a very heavy personal price.
There are genuine Torah scholars in the Haredi community whose contribution to Israel's national resilience is immense. At the same time, there are thousands of young men who are not in yeshiva, outside any framework, without a clear horizon, and yet still do not enlist. These are precisely the young men who can and must enlist in adapted tracks, without erasing their identity.
Real incentives for those who enlist
My experience integrating Haredi men into the IDF, over more than 26 years of working with the military, the state and the Haredi leadership, proves one thing: when it is done right, it works. Today, about 1,200 Haredi men serve each year as combat soldiers or in combat support roles. That is an important number, but it is far from sufficient. If in the coming year we double that number to 2,400, and the year after double it again to 4,800, then within three years of service we will have around 14,000 fighters. That is exactly the gap the IDF is currently lacking. Without it, the system will collapse. Not as a slogan, but as an operational reality. The meaning is clear: more burden, more burnout, and serious harm to those already carrying the load.
But here we reach a point the draft law barely addresses, and that is unfortunate: incentives for those who do enlist. If we want Haredi soldiers not only to enter the IDF, but also to remain, develop and later integrate into the job market as an engine of economic growth, the state must provide them with meaningful benefits. Not symbolic gestures, but real incentives such as housing discounts, priority in subsidized housing programs and grants, so they can move toward a clear civilian future.
More broadly, every combat soldier from every sector deserves grants and meaningful compensation for the service they give the country. Compensation creates motivation, and without motivation, even the best law will remain ink on paper.
The draft exemption law must pass. Not to entrench exemptions, but to enable a process and to allow the Haredi leadership to bring in those who are not studying, without fearing that the community will fracture. That is the message the law carries: agreement by Haredi Knesset members, with rabbinical backing, to a law that enlists Haredi youth. That is why the law needs to pass.
Coercion will not lead to enlistment
In recent days, recordings have been published of Haredi leaders claiming the entire law is merely a way to restore budgets, that arrests will stop, and that there is no real possibility of enlisting anyone. It is unclear when those recordings were made or who had an interest in releasing them, but one thing is clear: they caused damage to the law, including within Israel's current coalition.
That is why it is important for the public to understand that if we want to solve the problem, everyone must show flexibility, in order to ultimately pass a law that regulates the status of yeshiva students while providing a real answer for every Haredi man who does want to enlist.
Coercion will not bring enlistment, but denial will not bring a solution either. It is time to say this clearly: those who sit and study will continue to do so. Those who do not must get up and enlist. Not as punishment, but out of partnership and national responsibility.
David Hager is a businessman and one of the initiators of Haredi enlistment tracks in the IDF. He has been involved for more than 26 years in integrating Haredi men into the IDF and Israeli society.
