The news in Israel is a worrying surge of haredi protests over new legislation to address the IDF draft. Roads are blocked. There are violent clashes with the police. A Supreme Court judge was attacked in his home.
Thousands of haredi Jews are protesting against sanctions implemented by the Attorney General.
Reserve soldiers from all sectors are furious that they continue to carry the burden of war while an entire sector remains largely exempt from military service. Families are exhausted after multiple rounds and hundreds of days with a husband, father, or brother serving on the front lines. They resent the lack of uniform rule of law and that they bear the burden while others do not.
This is a real crisis, without a doubt.
But I believe a much bigger story lies beneath the surface. The draft is merely the battlefield on which a much deeper struggle is being fought. Understanding it is essential in understanding the situation in Israel today.
We are living through one of the most extraordinary periods in Jewish history. For close to three years, Israel has been fighting a war against a 1400-year-old jihadist enemy openly committed to its destruction. Sunni Hamas, Shiite Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Houthis in Yemen.
All global jihadi movements openly declare that Israel must be destroyed. They openly declare that the Jewish people must be defeated.
And yet, despite everything the Sunni-Shiite jihadi world has thrown at us, we are not collapsing. On the contrary. We are becoming stronger. That’s the miracle.
October 7th was supposed to destroy us. Instead, it awakened us. A generation that was disconnected from its Jewish identity is rediscovering its roots. A generation that viewed Judaism as merely cultural is rediscovering that they are part of something far bigger than themselves.
We have seen an upsurge in Israel teenage boys wearing tzitzit, and teenage girls going to Selichot services. Nachal Oz, one of Israel's secular pioneers in the kibbutz movement, requested and dedicated a Torah scroll for prayer services.
Israeli society is becoming more connected to Jewish identity, to Jewish history, to Jewish destiny, and relating to the land of Israel as the land of the Jews more than ever before.
Israeli society is more connected to the understanding that we are one nation, not just citizens sharing a state, and a nation with a mission.
This all has developed while at the same time, Israel is emerging as a geopolitical power unlike anything we have seen in modern Jewish history.
The Jewish people are no longer victims, no longer dependent on others for survival. We are defending ourselves and defeating enemies who outnumber us. Israel continues to build a thriving economy, advancing technologically, and returning to lands our ancestors could only dream of seeing rebuilt.
This is an extraordinary national revival.
Opposition emerges as something holy is built. This has been true throughout Jewish history. The greater the potential for growth, the stronger the forces that try to stop it.
That is how I view much of what we’re seeing unfold, not only in terms of the haredi draft crisis, but across Israeli society as a whole: increased efforts to spread hatred between secular and religious Jews, between settlers and non-settlers, endless attempts to convince Israelis that those who advocated accepting international dictates are leaders capable of bringing us to victory.
International organizations, are funding groups dedicated to sowing division inside Israeli society. Relentless campaigns have popped up portraying Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as the primary obstacle to peace while ignoring ongoing terror attacks.
While so much attention is focused on internal division, something else is happening. Terror attacks are on the rise. An Arab-Israeli citizen went on a shooting spree near Kochav Yair last week, killing one man and wounding four others. Jewish families driving on the roads of Judea and Samaria are targeted, soldiers are attacked, and entire communities are living under growing security threats.
The Palestinian Authority continues to educate another generation to hate Jews and glorify those who murder them. Terrorists continue to be released and celebrated as heroes. Children are taught that all of Israel is occupied land.
Yet somehow, despite this reality, much of the public conversation remains focused on blaming Jews rather than confronting the ideology driving the jihadi violence we are up against.
Yes, we are seeing disturbing divisions inside Israeli society. It is not a separate issue, however.
The more Israel grows stronger, the more our enemies seek to weaken us from within, because they understand something too many Israelis forget. Our enemies cannot defeat us militarily when we are united. That’s why every fault line within Israeli society is a target.
The goal is always the same: to turn Jews against one another while the real enemy continues advancing.
For months, Israel was consumed by internal political warfare while Hamas watched carefully and concluded that Israeli society was fractured and vulnerable.
Today, as terror attacks rise and our enemies continue searching for opportunities to strike, we cannot afford to repeat that mistake.
The growing terrorism directed against Israelis is not occurring in a vacuum; it is part of a broader struggle against Jewish sovereignty itself.
These issues are all connected. The battles over the draft, national identity, Judea and Samaria, against terrorism, and against international pressure. At their core, they are all part of the same struggle over whether the Jewish people will continue embracing their national revival or retreat from it.
We see a global media obsessed with every Israeli mistake while refusing to acknowledge the evil ideology within Islam that drives the jihadist war against civilization itself. We see anti-Israel hatred exploding throughout the Western world, and governments pressuring Israel to stop fighting before victory is achieved.
Through it all, one thing remains constant: the overwhelming refusal to confront the actual threat: jihadist ideology that is openly committed to destroying Israel and ultimately undermining every free society on earth.
That should give us pause.
There is real pain over the issue of haredi Jews in Israel being drafted into the IDF. The frustration felt by reserve soldiers and their families is legitimate. After months and years of sacrifice, many Israelis cannot understand why the burden is not being shared more equally.
At the same time, there is also genuine frustration within the haredi community. Many haredim sincerely believe promises made to them over the years regarding service frameworks, religious accommodations, and protection of their way of life have repeatedly been violated. Many do not trust the military establishment and believe parts of the security and legal establishment are less interested in integrating haredim into military service and more interested in reshaping haredi society itself. Ignoring those concerns does not solve the problem. It only deepens the divide.
The challenge before us is not to defeat one another but to find a path that strengthens the entire nation. Whether one wears a knitted kippah, a black hat, or no kippah at all, we are all living through the same historic moment.
The return of Jewish power, of Jewish sovereignty, of Jewish purpose, and confidence comes with real growing pains. Every national rebirth comes with them; the process was never going to be easy.
Every family has disagreements, and every nation has internal struggles. The question is whether we allow those disagreements to blind us to the bigger picture, when that is what we need to focus on.
The Jewish people are stronger today than we were before October 7th. Our enemies are weaker. Our national identity is stronger. Our connection to Jewish history is stronger, our understanding of who we are is stronger.
We have serious problems to solve, including the haredi draft issue. We must solve them, but only while keeping sight of what is happening around us.
We are under attack from so many directions because something extraordinary - dare I say holy? - is happening. The Jewish people are rising. Leaving behind the paradigm of being victims and emerging as a nation of victors. There are forces, physical, political, ideological, and spiritual, that desperately want to stop that rise.
They will not succeed. The story of Israel today is not ultimately a story of division; it is a story of national rebirth. It is a story of a people returning to themselves.
Despite all the noise, all the protests, all the political battles, and all the attempts to divide us, that story is moving forward before our eyes every single day.
The Jewish people are winning. And that is precisely why the battle against us has become so fierce.
Avi Abelow is the host of The Pulse of Israel daily video podcast and CEO of 12Tribe Films Foundation, which produces media content highlighting Israel’s biblical, historical, and strategic importance. Abelow hosts the Annual Pulse of Israel Conference in Jerusalem. This year’s conference, “From Victims to Victors: The Jewish People’s Next Chapter," will take place in July. Learn more and register at PulseofIsrael.com. Abelow is the 2025 recipient of Ari Fuld Project’s “Lion of Zion Award."