El HaDegel, an organization that describes itself as nonpartisan and committed to "Zionist leadership, Zionist legislation, and Zionist action," declared in a Zoom gathering earlier this week that "the fight for equal and fair [military] enlistment is [its] flagship issue."
Many might assume that this stance – and perhaps the group itself – is a natural outgrowth of Israel's secular-liberal base, which largely overlaps with the political center-Left. After all, this segment of the population serves disproportionately in the Israel Defense Forces, with many having completed hundreds of days of reserve duty during the past twenty months of war.
But in reality, drafting members of Israel's ultra-Orthodox demographic into the IDF has never been the center-Left's flagship issue. In fact, El HaDegel's focus on enlistment reform underscores what the center-Left could have pursued – but chose not to.
The center-Left has time and again passed up opportunities to enter governing coalitions in exchange for real progress on enlistment equality. It could have made this the price of participation in unity governments. It could have leveraged moments of deadlock or narrow majorities to extract meaningful concessions.
But it made a different choice. It defined itself by a single conviction: that Benjamin Netanyahu must go – a fixation driven less by corruption trials or democratic norms than by a refusal to reckon with Israel's demographic, cultural, and religious shifts. Projecting its discomfort onto one man, the Center-Left convinced itself that the grievance was Netanyahu, rather than a reflection of a society it no longer recognized.
Instead of forging broad, cross-cutting campaigns around enlistment, education, and housing, the Center-Left chose a political boycott of the majority of Jewish Israelis. Every time a window for serious political influence opened, the Center-Left chose self-righteousness over results. Rather than persuade, it postured. Rather than participate, it withdrew into the institutions it still controls, treating the judiciary, the academy, and even the military as last lines of defense.
It effectively turned the IDF into a political pressure tool, conditioning national defense on legislative outcomes – a stance that fits no definition of democracy. October 7, 2023, laid bare the cost of declaring: "We will protect the country only on our terms."
But sure – let's wave the banner of "fair enlistment" now and pretend that "rak lo Bibi" ("anyone but Bibi") hasn't been the most damaging campaign in Israel's history.
This isn't to say the center-Left lacks patriots or citizens deeply committed to national service. But as a political force, it chose symbolism over strategy.
Enlistment reform could have been a meaningful and achievable goal. But it wasn't the flagship. It wasn't even a sail. It was stored below deck while the Center-Left threw all its energy into a moral crusade against one man – and lost all ability to steer the ship.
Now, we're asked to believe the fight is finally on. But it's not a real fight. It's a pose. It's the latest act in a long political performance.
If El HaDegel truly wants to unify Israelis around enlistment, it must first level with its own base – admitting that for the better part of a decade, the Center-Left's priority was toppling Netanyahu, not reforming enlistment. Unless and until that truth is faced, fair enlistment will remain a slogan, not a unifying mission.
