Dr. Naama Shalem argues that hoping future governments can simply cancel the draft, yeshiva-funding and Torah-study laws is a dangerous illusion, and she urges opponents to stop the legislation before it is completed. She says the key danger is not only the laws themselves, but the calm with which Israel is accepting what she calls a rush toward laws that entrench draft evasion.
Shalem writes that supporters of the government are relying on the High Court, while its opponents are relying on elections, and both sides assume the laws will either fail or later be reversed. In her view, history shows that once exemptions, benefits and rights are written into law, especially Basic Laws, they become far harder to remove than to grant in the first place.
She cites the precedent of David Ben-Gurion’s original exemption for 400 yeshiva students after the Holocaust as an example of a temporary arrangement that became entrenched over time. Once the state gives special status, she says, people begin to see it as an acquired right, and any later attempt to take it back can trigger protests, chaos, deeper social division and even violence. She points to the dispute over taxes on disposable utensils as a case where a limited policy quickly turned into a religious confrontation.
According to Shalem, the proposed draft exemptions, under different names including the draft law, the daycare law and the Torah study Basic Law, weaken Israel’s ability to recruit the manpower it needs at a time of growing security demands. She says that after October 7, instead of focusing on recruitment, the country is debating exemption legislation, and warns that the real question is what is done now, not after the elections. She calls on coalition supporters to tell their representatives, “enough,” and says it is far easier to stop a car at the top of a slope than to brake it as it races toward the abyss.
