Religious Zionism Under Attack

And you'll never guess by who

This is one of the most upsetting topics I’ve ever had to write about. Religious Zionism in Israel is under attack. Vicious, nasty attack. And it’s being attacked by… alleged “Religious Zionists” and “Patriots.”

The phenomenon that I described in the previous post as being a crazy conspiracy theory has metastasized into an extremely nasty campaign. The target is religious Zionists who are suffering as a result of the severe IDF manpower shortage, and who insist that efforts must be made to enlist at least a large section of the charedi community rather than give them a blanket exemption and billions of shekels - as most of the government’s MKs want to do. And for this, they are being attacked in the most vicious ways, both as individuals and as a community.

One of the individuals targeted was Noa Mevorach. First she was cancelled at the last minute from a conference for school principals. Then they publicized a photo of her being supportive of an Arab woman, and used this to justify denouncing her as a traitorous “Leftist” who prefers Arabs to charedim.

This was not just nasty, it was absurd. The context was a rally against the rampant violence and murders in the Arab sector (which incidentally is causing middle-class Arabs to move to Jewish towns for quality of life). What on earth does being supportive of Arabs protesting against violence have to do with either the draft of charedim or to being disloyal to right-wing politics?!

Another target was Shevut Raanan, a religious Zionist mother who began her activism for universal conscription after her husband was called up for endless rounds of reserve duty. She too has been endlessly targeted with nasty condemnations that are either false or utterly stupid (or both).

One line of attack is that Raanan herself did sherut leumi (national service) rather than army, and thus “has no right to criticize charedim.” This is patently absurd. First of all, she did her sherut before October 7th revealed that the IDF needs far more manpower. Second, this is a women who did national service and who is raising sons that will be combat soldiers. Why on earth should she not criticize those who do nothing at all and who cause combat soldiers to have to serve for so much longer?

Most recently, Raanan was condemned for calling Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, a “traitor” (boged), and for preferring to align with Labor leader Yair Golan. Yet all this is simply false. She stated that she is willing to align with anyone. She did not call Smotrich a traitor, but rather said that he has betrayed religious Zionist values by supporting the charedi Draft Exemption Law - which is true. (And those condemning her for using the word boged conveniently ignored the fact that Smotrich himself has used the word for his political opponents on numerous occasions.)

Leading the attacks are Channel 14 and Olam Katan, two media entities owned by a quasi-charedi tycoon who is a fan of the current government. The star of Channel 14 is Yinon Magal, host of a show called “The Patriots,” yet whose patriotism is to the current government, not to the country. And since keeping the current government in power means whitewashing charedi draft evasion, that’s what they do with a passion. Magal is sort of the Israeli version of Tucker Carlson - nasty, idiotic, lacking any integrity or consistent values, and yet adored by numerous tribalists. When a ballistic missile from Iran destroyed part of the Weizmann Institute, Magal even wrote a celebratory tweet, because the Weizmann Institute is run by “Leftists.”

Magal recently took aim not just at Noa Mevorach or Shevut Raanan, but at every religious Zionist who calls for charedi enlistment. He criticized the civic service of religious Zionists whose girls do sherut leumi rather than army service, and whose boys do a shortened version of army service via hesder. Magal declared that they have no right to criticize charedim for not serving at all.

As with the criticism of Raanan, this is offensive and stupid. Sherut leumi is a significant contribution to society, and meanwhile an increasing number of religious Zionist girls are enlisting. The fixed army portion of hesder is shorter than army service, but you need to look at the system as a whole. What the army needs most of all is high-quality combat soldiers. The hesder system produces more of these than any other sector of society. They also give far more time in reserve duty, as well as raising sons who follow suit.

And their far greater sacrifice is seen in the consequences of the past two years of war - there have been proportionately triple the number of hesder casualties than from the rest of Israel. For Magal to negate their civic service, and claim that they have no right to object to charedim doing nothing at all and increasing their burden, is nonsensical and despicable.

Channel 14 and Olam Katan are being joined in these attacks on religious Zionists by people who are themselves purportedly religious Zionists. But they are people for whom the single most important principle in life is Thou Shalt Not Harm Bibi’s Coalition. And since Bibi’s coalition needs the anti-Zionist charedim in order to retain power, those who call out the problem of charedim refusing to enlist and draining the economy must be condemned and delegitimized in any way possible. It is a total betrayal of Zionism, of religion, and of civic values, and it’s disgraceful.

There is one small silver lining in all this. Some people who, for whatever reason, do not appreciate the gravity of the charedi problem, are so appalled by these attacks on religious Zionism that they are waking up. They are beginning to realize that this government has prioritized short-term power over the country’s long-term security and welfare, and has created a toxic environment which will sacrifice any and all values in order to negate any criticism. Hopefully we will see the results at the ballot-box.