Just to set the record straight WRT the Army. Until the mid 90s more Chareidim did serve in the Army in various ways. What happened then, was that several cases were brought to the Supreme Court by girls who insisted on serving in previously male-only units. The Barak Court jumped on the opportunity, and the situation has deteriorated more and more ever since. There is now zero possibility of any minimally ‘kosher’ Army service, until a new legal framework is created for gender segregated units. This of course cannot happen until the Supreme Court is put in its place… This is so bad, that it is an issue even for the more serious Dati Leumi. There is even a lobbyist group of wives of Dati and Mesorti soldiers who don’t want their husbands exposed to temptation… This is no laughing matter. For those of you who are thinking of saying: “Well, if they were strong enough religiously coming out of Yeshivah than…” Ask yourselves the same question. As an 18 year old. In a stressful and foreign environment. Sometimes alone. With another 18 year old who is a nice Jewish girl after all… You really think you are Yosef HaTzaddik?
This, my friends, is the real issue. Every parent of draft-age boys knows this, whether their son is a learner or not, his place is not in the toilet bowl that the IDF has become. For reasons of tzniyus I will not elaborate with lurid details, stories, statistics, anecdotes, quotes from officers, and quotes from feminists. Those inclined to find out more can easily do so. Everyone involved knows all of this, but no-one has the guts to take on the all-powerful ‘Bagatz’. The strategy until now has been to kick the can down the road, because the Chareidi percent of the population is only getting bigger, and the Leftist percent getting smaller… At some point, the Chareidim will be powerful enough to rewrite the playbook, and establish real Kosher units on our terms. This is why the AG/Bagatz/Left/feminists want to force a precedent setting decision while they still can. The Army itself doesn’t need or want the Chareidim badly enough for it to be worth the headache as far as they are concerned… That’s why they have played along until now. Just look where the noise is coming from, and you will see this is true.