TABLET MAG
The IDF’s New Recruits
Hillel Kutler
November 13, 2024

Haim Traitel reclined in bed in a third-floor room at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba on a late-October afternoon. During a two-hour interview, he discussed the battle injury he suffered the previous week in the Gaza Strip, his service in the Israel Defense Forces, and his motivation for enlisting. Traitel spoke on the record and OK’d his photo appearing with this story. But he declined to name the specific Hasidic sect to which he and his family belong, beyond saying that it’s an “important” group in the Haredi-majority town of Bnai Brak, where he lives with his parents, brother, and sisters. READ MORE

JPOST IDF issues a thousand draft notices for haredi recruits, 6,000 more planned One thousand haredi IDF draft orders were sent out on Sunday, and 6,000 more are planned for the coming two months. However, the IDF is weak on arrests, leaving the real fight to the government. These draft notices come despite Defense Minister Israel Katz replacing Yoav Gallant last week and despite general opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his haredi coalition partners to changes of policy other than solidifying the existing blanket exemption from military service.