There is no longer any room for euphemism or delay. What unfolded last week in Israel is not just another clash over Haredi military service. It is a test of whether the State of Israel still believes in the rule of law — and whether its leaders are prepared to enforce it.
The Israeli Supreme Court has now said, in unmistakable terms, what should have been obvious for years: the law applies to everyone. Not selectively. Not politically. Everyone.
And yet, for three decades, successive governments — culminating in the current coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu — have done everything possible to avoid that truth. They delayed enforcement, carved out exemptions and funded those exemptions. They constructed a system in which one segment of society could opt out of a basic civic obligation while continuing to draw heavily from public support.
That era is now colliding with reality.
The court’s directive is not subtle. It orders the state to enforce existing law: revoke financial benefits from draft dodgers, deny future subsidies and begin real enforcement, including arrests where necessary. The justices made clear that the government’s long-standing evasion cannot continue.
The response from Haredi leadership has been equally clear — and deeply troubling. Threats of “open war.” Calls to defy the law. Organized intimidation, including protests that crossed into harassment and violence. This is not principled dissent. It is a direct challenge to the authority of the state.
Jewish law does not justify it. The principle of dina demalchuta dina — the law of the land is the law — runs in the opposite direction. It affirms that civil law binds unless it directly compels a violation of religious law. Military service does not meet that standard. Nor does Jewish law entitle yeshiva students to government stipends and subsidies while others serve.
What exists instead is a political bargain, long sustained and long avoided. And that bargain has now collapsed.
The Netanyahu coalition’s response has been a study in contradiction: public deference to the court paired with quiet reassurances to Haredi partners that a workaround will be found. That is not leadership. It is capitulation dressed up as coalition management.
Israel cannot sustain a system in which large and growing segments of its population are exempt from both military service and meaningful economic participation, while others bear the burden. It is morally untenable, economically unsustainable and strategically dangerous — particularly in a country still at war.
Haredi leaders now threaten to leave the country if the law is enforced. That is their choice. They are free to follow through. But the state’s obligation is not to negotiate under threat. It is to govern.
Enforce the law. End subsidies tied to noncompliance. Apply the same rules to every citizen — not because the court ordered it, but because a democratic state cannot function otherwise.
This has gone beyond “too far.” It is now a question of whether Israel remains a state of laws or continues sliding toward selective obedience. The time for deferral is over. The time for enforcement has arrived.
