There are many ways to serve one’s country. In sophisticated and healthy societies, people contribute according to their aptitudes. Kindly people become social workers. Those who are good at math become scientists or accountants or math teachers if they also happen to be good at teaching. And solders become solders. A normal country needs all of these contributions, these ways of serving. In Israel, which claims to having a modern economy and vibrant democracy, there’s a common conception that everybody has to be a solder, even people who are not cut out for it, even people who are damaged by the experience. The claim is that security needs dictate this but this is an opinion not a fact. The fact is Israel has not been in a war against another country in 40 years and arguably a country doesn’t need every young person in military uniform unless it is at war. Israel needs defense forces but it does not need to act as though it is in a major war when it is not. There’s a big price a country pays for excessive militarism.
It is possible that all the calls for military service have little to do with security needs but are rather a habit that formed when the state was founded. It is possible also that it is a kind of religion that was founded by people who rebelled against their traditional religion and formed a new one. As the saying goes, Israel is not a country with its very own military. It’s a military with its very own country. And that military has a very intense culture that is secular, aggressive, full of swagger and other traits that are contrary to traditional Judaism. The insistence that all Charedim “serve” in the military, or let us say serve the military, is arguably a violation of religious freedom. That some people in Israel, particularly the National Religious, see this as a dereliction of duty, is perhaps because the army is a religious entity to them. So what they are really saying is that we all must serve their god and practice their religion.
The irony is palpable. Israel, the so-called Jewish state, is becoming a society that denies religious freedom to Jews. Those lacking passports to other countries may need to apply for political asylum. I am not joking. The court is insisting that all Charedim serve the army and the chilonim and, more disappointingly, the National “Religious” are applauding. They don’t understand the complexity of the matter and don’t care to try because religious faith often works on simplicity, even faith in idols works that way.