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In the wake of the cabinet's approval Sunday of the haredi enlistment bill, the mood on the haredi street is particularly combative. Although the bill, if ratified in the Knesset, would mandate obligatory military service for haredi young men only in 2017, the ultra-Orthodox leadership and extremists within the community have chosen to view the move as a casus belli.
Violent attacks on haredi soldiers in uniform are a particularly repugnant expression of opposition to military service. On Tuesday, in Jerusalem's Mea She'arim neighborhood, a mob converged on one such soldier. They beat him and threw eggs at him until he managed to barricade himself in the office of a relative. Only after police arrived could the young man be extricated. Four haredi youths, one a minor, were arrested for attacking the police.
These are no pacifist conscientious objectors. Thankfully, Judaism is essentially a peaceful religion that pursues peace, due in part to the fact that it has developed over two millennia as the faith of a powerless people. Nevertheless, blind faith that God is on their side makes these zealots...