COMMENTARY
Israeli Patriotism in Full Bloom
Seth Mandel
January 24, 2024

…The Washington Post [They were ready to give up on Israel. Now they’re all in] documents a common trend of Israeli liberals thinking they’d had it with their country only to see the national bond grow stronger in the wake of the attacks. A few weeks ago, the Post published a story on another sector of society that has experienced a rush of patriotism since the Hamas attacks: the Haredim. Since Oct. 7, 2,000 Haredim have applied to join the IDF despite being exempt from service so they can study Torah full time. Nechumi Yaffe, a teacher at Tel Aviv University, “polled Haredim on their attitudes about the military in March 2022 and again after Oct. 7. In 2022, 35 percent strongly agreed that they should contribute to Israel’s defense. After the attacks, that rose to 49 percent.” READ MORE