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A gathering political storm over drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military is posing a risk to Israel's government and splitting the state.

The public mood on the issue has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of war, and this is now perhaps the most volatile political issue facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Conflict

Politicians are reviewing a piece of legislation to abolish the exemption awarded to Haredi students engaged in Torah study, instituted when the the nation was declared in 1948.

That exemption was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Stopgap solutions to maintain it were formally ended by the judiciary last year, forcing the government to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 call-up papers were sent out last year, but just approximately 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees enlisted, according to army data shared with lawmakers.

Friction Boil Over Into Public View

Tensions are erupting onto the city centers, with parliamentarians now discussing a new conscription law to compel Haredi males into military service in the same way as other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were harassed this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are incensed with parliament's discussion of the draft legislation.

Recently, a special Border Police unit had to assist Military Police officers who were surrounded by a large crowd of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a alleged conscription dodger.

These enforcement actions have prompted the establishment of a new alert system called "Black Alert" to spread word quickly through Haredi neighborhoods and call out activists to block enforcement from taking place.

"This is a Jewish state," said an activist. "You can't fight against Judaism in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Set Aside

However the shifts affecting Israel have failed to penetrate the confines of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, scholars study together to analyze Judaism's religious laws, their vividly colored school notebooks standing out against the seats of light-colored shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the leader of the academy, a senior rabbi, explained. "Via dedicated learning, we protect the military personnel wherever they are. This is how we contribute."

Haredi Jews maintain that constant study and religious study protect Israel's military, and are as essential to its security as its advanced weaponry. This conviction was accepted by previous governments in the past, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he acknowledged that the nation is evolving.

Rising Popular Demand

The Haredi community has more than doubled its percentage of Israel's population over the past seven decades, and now accounts for a sizable minority. What began as an exception for several hundred Torah scholars turned into, by the onset of the recent conflict, a cohort of some 60,000 men exempt from the national service.

Polling data suggest support for ultra-Orthodox conscription is growing. A poll in July revealed that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing a significant majority in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - favored consequences for those who declined a enlistment summons, with a firm majority in favor of withdrawing benefits, passports, or the franchise.

"I feel there are people who are part of this country without contributing," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, regardless of piety, [it] should be an excuse not to go and serve your state," said a Tel Aviv resident. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to exempt yourself just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Voices from Inside Bnei Brak

Support for extending the draft is also coming from observant Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who lives near the yeshiva and highlights observant but non-Haredi Jews who do perform national service while also studying Torah.

"It makes me angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't perform military service," she said. "It is unjust. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the guns together. That is the path, until the arrival of peace."

Ms Barak runs a local tribute in Bnei Brak to fallen servicemen, both from all backgrounds, who were fallen in war. Lines of images {