Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, recently threatened a mass exodus of the ultra-Orthodox community if any of its members were conscripted. For those who don’t know the inner workings of the Israeli Defense Forces, it mandates two to three years of army service for all 18-year-olds. This has been the reality almost since the birth of the country. But around that time, there was only a small number of ultra-Orthodox citizens, and the decision was made to exempt those individuals from military service. ...
The issue we now face is a potential war of attrition in the South, coupled with an expansion of the effort in the North. The country faces an existential threat and is in dire need of reinforcements.
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