The new target would meet

“It mixes together people with very different backgrounds, very different ideas, some people with very immoral ideas,” said Rabbi Ephraim Luft, 66, from the ultra-Orthodox stronghold of Bnei Barak. Luft said the community’s dedication to upholding Jewish commandments protects the country as much as military service.“Over thousands of years, the Jewish people have stood very strongly against any kind of decrees to force them to give up their religion, they’ve given up their lives for this,” Luft said. “People have to understand there’s no difference between the Spanish Inquisition or the Israeli draft law.”

Two parties belonging to the Haredim, or “God-fearing” in Hebrew, are essential tocoalition. Both would need to vote to dissolve the government to force new elections, including Shas, which has traditionally been more supportive of Netanyahu.On Monday, a Shas spokesperson told an ultra-Orthodox radio program the party currently plans to vote in favor of dissolution, unless there is a breakthrough in negotiations. The other party, Degel HaTorah, has been threatening to leave the government since last week.

“Basically, they don’t really care about the war and the economic situation of the state and anything else but their communal interest. And the focus of this communal interest is getting the exemption from serving in the army,” said Shuki Friedman, an expert on religion and state affairs and vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.Friedman and other experts say the current system is unsustainable. With its high birthrate, the ultra-Orthodox are the fastest-growing segment of Israel’s population, at about 4% annually. Each year, roughly 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the conscription age of 18, but less than 10% enlist, according to parliament’s State Control Committee, which held a hearing examining the issue.

The shock of the Oct. 7 attack appeared to ignite some enthusiasm among the ultra-Orthodox to serve, but no large enlistment materialized. The army has repeatedly declined to comment on the ultra-Orthodox enlistment rate.

If the dissolution vote passes, it still faces a series of bureaucratic steps, including additional votes, that the government would likely drag on for weeks or months, said Gayil Talshir, a political science professor at Hebrew University.and the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army in 1957 to escort nine Black students as they integrated a previously white-only school.

In this Sept. 26, 1957, file photo, members of the 101st Airborne Division take up positions outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. The troops were on duty to enforce integration at the school. (AP Photo/File)In this Sept. 26, 1957, file photo, members of the 101st Airborne Division take up positions outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. The troops were on duty to enforce integration at the school. (AP Photo/File)

A few years later, the Maryland National Guard remained in the small town of Cambridge for two years after Maryland’s Democratic Gov. J Millard Tawes in 1963 called in troops to mediate violent clashes between white mobs and Black protesters demanding desegregation.National Guard troops played a pivotal role in the march often credited with pressuring the passage of Voting Rights Act of 1965, when nonviolent protesters — including the late congressman John Lewis — calling for the right to vote were