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A looming crisis over enlisting Haredi men into the Israeli army is threatening to undermine the administration and dividing the state.

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

The Judicial Struggle

Legislators are now debating a piece of legislation to abolish the special status given to ultra-Orthodox men dedicated to Torah study, created when the the nation was declared in 1948.

This arrangement was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Temporary arrangements to extend it were formally ended by the judiciary last year, pressuring the administration to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox population.

Some 24,000 draft notices were delivered last year, but merely about 1,200 men from the community reported for duty, according to defense officials given to lawmakers.

Strains Boil Over Into Violence

Friction is spilling onto the public squares, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new draft bill to force yeshiva students into army duty alongside other Jewish citizens.

Two representatives were confronted this month by radical elements, who are enraged with parliament's discussion of the bill.

In a recent incident, a elite police squad had to extract army police who were attacked by a big group of Haredi men as they tried to arrest a man avoiding service.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new messaging system dubbed "Dark Alert" to spread word quickly through ultra-Orthodox communities and mobilize protesters to stop detentions from taking place.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," said Shmuel Orbach. "One cannot oppose Judaism in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Set Aside

But the shifts affecting Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys sit in pairs to discuss the Torah, their distinctive school notebooks popping against the lines of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see half the guys are pursuing religious study," the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, noted. "Via dedicated learning, we shield the military personnel in the field. This is our army."

Haredi Jews maintain that constant study and religious study defend Israel's soldiers, and are as vital to its military success as its conventional forces. This conviction was endorsed by Israel's politicians in the previous eras, the rabbi said, but he conceded that the nation is evolving.

Increasing Popular Demand

This religious sector has significantly increased its share of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now constitutes a sizable minority. A policy that originated as an deferment for a few hundred yeshiva attendees became, by the beginning of the recent conflict, a body of tens of thousands of men not subject to the conscription.

Surveys indicate approval of ending the exemption is rising. Research in July revealed that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - even a significant majority in his own coalition allies - backed penalties for those who refused a call-up notice, with a clear majority in favor of withdrawing benefits, the right to travel, or the electoral participation.

"It seems to me there are people who are part of this country without giving anything back," one military member in Tel Aviv said.

"In my view, no matter how devout, [it] should be an excuse not to fulfill your duty to your country," added a young woman. "If you're born here, I find it rather absurd that you want to exempt yourself just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Perspectives from the Heart of Bnei Brak

Backing for extending the draft is also coming from traditional Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like one local resident, who is a neighbor of the seminary and points to observant but non-Haredi Jews who do serve in the military while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that this community don't serve in the army," she said. "This creates inequality. I also believe in the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it represents the Torah and the weapons together. That's the way forward, until the messianic era."

The resident manages a small memorial in Bnei Brak to local soldiers, both religious and secular, who were fallen in war. Long columns of faces {