I feel like LuL is pushing the standard Chareidi (false) narrative that going to the army is comparable to going off the derech. Honestly, when it comes to making choices in life, in my opinion for a Chareidi born and raised in Eretz Yisroel it’s a far easier choice to choose to stay in kollel than join the army. It’s not difficult at first, free healthcare, cheap housing, and you can get by on the stipend when you only have 0-1 kids. It’s later in life that gets difficult.
So, I’ll have to disagree with nearly this entire subject. While in the long run, in general it may be more difficult to live as a full-time kollel family, but for a Chareidi Yeshiva bachur/maidel to make that decision at 22 it’s almost frighteningly simple.
Lemme just end with a story.
A few years back a meshulach from Eretz Yisroel came to my house. He was American, and ran a kollel in a major Chareidi city. He talked about the difficulties and the cost and the Chedarim, etc. Then he brought up the government funding cuts and I had to interrupt him. I basically told him “Look, I don’t know what the government has been giving you before or what they pay you now. But I do know that it’s far far more than anyone in the US gets. Did you know that I have to pay over $20,000 just to send one son and one daughter to Yeshiva/Bais Yaakov pre-school? Please don’t appeal with that line to anyone else, as you’ll find very little sympathy.”