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A looming crisis over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army is posing a risk to Israel's government and fracturing the country.

The public mood on the matter has changed profoundly in Israel in the wake of two years of hostilities, and this is now arguably the most explosive political risk facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Struggle

Legislators are now debating a proposal to end the exemption given to Haredi students dedicated to yeshiva learning, instituted when the the nation was declared in 1948.

That exemption was declared unconstitutional by Israel's High Court of Justice in the early 2000s. Stopgap solutions to continue it were formally ended by the court last year, pressuring the cabinet to commence conscription of the community.

Some 24,000 draft notices were sent out last year, but merely about 1,200 Haredi conscripts enlisted, according to defense officials shared with lawmakers.

Tensions Erupt Onto the Streets

Strains are boiling over onto the streets, with parliamentarians now discussing a new draft bill to compel Haredi males into military service alongside other Jewish citizens.

Two representatives were harassed this month by hardline activists, who are enraged with the Knesset's deliberations of the proposed law.

In a recent incident, a elite police squad had to assist Military Police officers who were surrounded by a big group of community members as they tried to arrest a alleged conscription dodger.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new communication network called "Emergency Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and summon protesters to block enforcement from taking place.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked one protester. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a nation founded on Jewish identity. That is untenable."

A World Set Aside

However the changes affecting Israel have failed to penetrate the environment of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys study together to debate Jewish law, their vividly colored school notebooks contrasting with the seats of white shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are pursuing religious study," the head of the seminary, a senior rabbi, said. "Through religious study, we safeguard the troops on the front lines. This is how we contribute."

Haredi Jews maintain that unceasing devotion and religious study protect Israel's armed forces, and are as essential to its security as its tanks and air force. This tenet was endorsed by Israel's politicians in the earlier decades, the rabbi said, but he admitted that public attitudes are shifting.

Rising Popular Demand

This religious sector has more than doubled its share of Israel's population over the since the state's founding, and now accounts for 14%. An exemption that started as an exception for a few hundred religious students became, by the start of the recent conflict, a body of tens of thousands of men left out of the conscription.

Surveys show approval of drafting the Haredim is rising. A poll in July found that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing a significant majority in the Prime Minister's political base - backed penalties for those who refused a draft order, with a firm majority in favor of cutting state subsidies, travel documents, or the electoral participation.

"I feel there are citizens who live in this nation without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv explained.

"It is my belief, no matter how devout, [it] should be an justification not to perform service your state," said a Tel Aviv resident. "Being a native, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to opt out just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Perspectives from Within Bnei Brak

Advocacy of extending the draft is also found among observant Jews outside the Haredi community, like one local resident, who is a neighbor of the academy and points to non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also maintaining their faith.

"I'm very angry that the Haredim don't enlist," she said. "It's unfair. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a saying in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it means the scripture and the defense together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

She manages a modest remembrance site in the neighborhood to soldiers from the area, both from all backgrounds, who were fallen in war. Rows of images {