Rabbi Isser Kalonski, the Rabbi of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood in Jerusalem and a leading disciple of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, addressed the issue of yeshiva students' recruitment in a special lecture he gave at the Meiri yeshiva.
"I support young men studying Torah, and I think that young men should go to the army. I think that someone who studies very passionately should not go to the army, but should at least get a legal deferment. Someone who studies less passionately should go to the army, at least in the Hesder system. To oppose the army as an army? It is a crime, stupidity, and wickedness like no other to oppose the army as such."
Rabbi Klonansky also addressed claims about modesty problems in military service. He said, "Do you not enter a bank despite how people dress there? Do you go to pay the cashier in the supermarket, or do you only enter if she is dressed modestly? Perhaps, if you would also avoid going outside at all, this would be a reason to avoid the army. I admire the commitment to modesty, but it must not confuse this issue."
He claimed the protest against the draft was for politics, not faith. "The current struggle is political. None of the left want them to enlist. They want to plunge the country into a mood of horror and topple the government. Therefore, I do not object too strongly to the demonstration. I object to it because it spilled over into being a protest against the state. It is a crime to speak against those who protect you at the cost of their own lives. How can we say about someone that they don't love the Torah, just because they wear knitted kippot?"
"If there had not been Rav Kook 100 years ago and the Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook 70 years ago, we would have failed in the war. The people of Israel would not have succeeded. It is true there are also anti-religious soldiers, but the overall spirit that led the soldiers, at the deepest level, began with Rav Kook and continued to roughly 80 Hesder yeshivot. In this war, the living spirit came from our community."
The Rabbi noted that his neighborhood lost the soldier Gilad Elmaliach in the war. "He used to sit in my classes on Rav Kook's teachings. He was absolutely righteous. He left five children and an exemplary wife. Without his spirit and those like him, we would not have succeeded in the war."