The violent ultra-Orthodox fight against the draft is a holy war against the state

Anyone who was surprised by the shocking attack on the home and property of Supreme Court Deputy President Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday completely misread the situation on the ground and was not attuned to the intensity of the hatred that has been developing for years in the ultra-Orthodox community toward the State of Israel and its institutions.

Anyone who was surprised fails to understand that this is a religious-extremist phenomenon that is not subject to formulas of compromise or moderation. This is an existential ultra-Orthodox holy war in the service of God, and it is one they feel they must never abandon.

The shattered windows, broken flowerpots, and wrecked car of Justice Sohlberg are part of this religious crusade. Had he fallen into the rioters’ hands, his fate, too, would likely have been sealed due to the “sins” of conscription the ultra-Orthodox attribute to him.

“God is our king, and we are His servants

The holy Torah is our life, and to it we are bound

In the rule of the heretics we do not believe

And their laws we do not heed

In the path of the Torah we will go through fire and water

In the path of the Torah we will go to sanctify the name of Heaven.”

These are the simple words of the anthem that nowadays accompanies every ultra-Orthodox youth when he goes out to block roads, break into prisons in an attempt to free draft dodgers, threaten enlistment candidates seeking to join the army, or besiege and vandalize the homes of Brig. Gen. Yuval Yamin, commander of the Military Police, and Justice Sohlberg — representatives of the rule of the heretics. As far as the ultra-Orthodox are concerned, this is the path of the Torah.

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In the past, this anthem was the preserve of Neturei Karta, a reclusive fringe sect that most ultra-Orthodox disavowed. Anyone who sang “in the rule of the heretics” in the alleyways of Mea Shearim was considered a “meshuggeneh” (crazy in Yiddish).

Today, against the backdrop of the struggles over the ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the IDF, this inciting refrain has become the most popular of all. The meaning is clear.

I once met a yeshiva student on the Chords Bridge in Jerusalem during a huge demonstration against drafting ultra-Orthodox youths into the army, an event during which a young protester lost his life after falling to his death from a high crane.

“We are not Israelis, and this country does not interest us,” the yeshiva student told me. “You need to understand that. We are servants of God, and you cannot take us out of there.”

The war against the draft — which will only grow increasingly violent because the protesters view it as God’s command — has united the entire ultra-Orthodox street behind the extremist struggle led by the Jerusalem Faction, which was also once a fringe element in the ultra-Orthodox society.

On Monday, I sat in the Knesset gallery as former minister Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism delivered an unrestrained, inciting speech from the podium on the plenum floor against the police and the courts. When he stepped down from the podium, Porush continued his protest, shouting “Romans” and “Bolsheviks” in every direction.

For Porush — who is a symbol of the ultra-Orthodox mainstream and the son of a veteran family of Haredi public representatives, including ministers, MKs, and mayors — the government in Israel is no longer Jewish, and the law enforcement authorities are antisemitic, just like the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who imposed edicts of extermination on the Jews after suppressing the Bar Kokhba revolt.

The hundreds of ultra-Orthodox who boarded buses and cars to reach Justice Sohlberg’s home in Alon Shvut set out on a revolt against the Romans and Bolsheviks who now sit in the Knesset, the High Court of Justice, and the police.

The large kippa on Sohlberg’s head did not help him, nor did his conservative approach, his right-wing positions, or his life in a West Bank settlement. Although he has long been championed by the Israeli right as its most conservative bulwark on the Supreme Court, none of that mattered. The moment he joined the unanimous ruling mandating the conscription of yeshiva students and ordered the police to carry out its duty, he became an enemy. Not only of the ultra-Orthodox, but of God.

And so, even after the violent riot in Sohlberg’s yard, the ultra-Orthodox response was, by and large, sympathetic and understanding. Everything was phrased in the style of “yes, but.” United Torah Judaism, Shas, and even Chabad issued weak statements of condemnation, hurrying to attach an indictment against the judge, the High Court, and the state. In the subtext, one could sense great sympathy for the rioters.

The popular ultra-Orthodox commentator Aryeh Ehrlich, a member of Chabad, published a video in which he claimed that “Sohlberg threw the first match into the blaze after he forced the police to arrest draft dodgers. Justice Sohlberg does not destroy flowerpots. He destroys the lives of Jews.”

The bottom line is that the ultra-Orthodox will not go to the army, with or without an exemption law. But they wanted to receive legal authorization for avoiding the induction center. They expected their political leaders to obtain this mass exemption so that they could dodge the draft quietly and continue receiving enormous financial benefits from a state they do not truly recognize, nor will they, until it becomes a halachic state.

The moment the ministers and MKs failed to arrange this sweeping exemption for them, and authorities began arresting draft dodgers here and there, the floodgates opened.

Incidentally, one of the common claims against the ultra-Orthodox rabbis and politicians concerns tactics. A senior United Torah Judaism figure elaborated: “For all these years, yeshiva students would receive a deferment of service, which would become an exemption. This was an accepted practice that David Ben-Gurion agreed to. Following the war, a difficulty arose. Everyone began asking, ‘What about those who do not study?’ Here the leaders began to stammer. The authorities showed them pictures of ultra-Orthodox youths who dropped out of full-time Torah —and they fell into the trap.”

“Our leaders should have focused only on the yeshiva students, preserving this status quo,” he continued. “Now they have become entangled and are fighting over the yeshiva students as well. About this it is said: ‘If you grasp too much, you grasp nothing.’”

The rabbis are indeed unwilling to give up on ultra-Orthodox young men, even at the fringes of their society and in the periphery, out of concern that their communities will be diluted. In reality, the truth is probably the exact opposite.

Someone who enlists in IDF units catered to ultra-Orthodox servicemen such as “Hasmoneans” or “Netzah Yehuda” may perhaps be able to preserve his ultra-Orthodox identity during his service. But someone who hangs around downtown Jerusalem — notorious as a nighttime hangout for at-risk youth — or frequents the Central Bus Station and the rowdy, secular soccer culture of Beitar games at Teddy Stadium, is on a much faster path to abandoning religious observance.

But the draft is only part of the story. Justice Sohlberg demands equality in sharing the burden. The ultra-Orthodox who rioted in his yard do not want to hear about anything except an exemption. They even refused to hand over their Israeli identity cards to the police, or simply swapped them among themselves.

So what will happen next? Things will only get worse.

This week in the Knesset, I overheard a conversation between MK Yitzhak Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism and a senior ultra-Orthodox journalist who knows the reality on the ground well.

“We have not yet reached the peak,” the journalist warned Goldknopf. “Only when we hit the breaking point will something give. There will be severe demonstrations, the violence will continue, there will be war in the streets, maybe even fatalities; there will be a massive blowup and mass arrests. Only then will everyone try to calm the situation, and we will gain more time. In any case, we will not go to the army.”