This voluntary enrolment reflects a realisation among some haredim that the situation is untenable.
ECONOMIST: The prime minister bows again to the religious right
Impending changes to the army draft for haredim offer hope for more integration in the future.
The haredim, perhaps incongruously, could offer hope for a more temperate, less obdurate ethos of Jewish nationhood.
Granted, the haredim are not currently part of that ferment, but nor are they oblivious to it.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the haredim must no longer be exempt from military or national service.
ECONOMIST: Israel needs to solve a problem with its most religious Jews
When haredim come up in conversation, diaspora leaders automatically shift from the first person plural to the third.
Israeli leaders, too, especially moderate ones, would be wise to draw the haredim into the mainstream of national life.
The question naturally arises, why do haredim dominate what by rights ought to be a field occupied by secular feminists?
Even if it is, now, almost impossible to imagine these 40, 000 haredim being removed and re-housed, Modiin Illit does, however, remain a settlement.
In Israel the onus should be on persuading the haredim to play a greater role, not just in the army but in the economy.
ECONOMIST: Israel needs to solve a problem with its most religious Jews
But will they have the courage to take on the haredim, knowing that next time around they may need them again in a coalition?
Moreover, 60% of male haredim of working age are jobless scholars.
ECONOMIST: Israel needs to solve a problem with its most religious Jews
The prime minister says he is ready to foot that bill and to reach his goals gradually rather than provoke a head-on confrontation with the dogged haredim.
ECONOMIST: The prime minister bows again to the religious right
The haredim, a tiny proportion of the Jewish population when Israel was created in 1948, are now the fastest-growing section of society: 26% of Jewish children entering primary school in Israel are haredim.
ECONOMIST: Israel needs to solve a problem with its most religious Jews
He will also point out that the army is going ahead with plans to set up more special units for the small but growing number of haredim who are already leaving the yeshivas and enlisting.
ECONOMIST: The prime minister bows again to the religious right
Mr Netanyahu intends to submit his own bill to the cabinet providing for a phased enlistment of haredim, which would mean more of them joining up or doing civilian service over a period of years.
ECONOMIST: The prime minister bows again to the religious right
For the haredim, the ultra-Orthodox, who believe that the Jews should return to their Biblical homeland only after the appearance of the mashiach, the Messiah, Zionism was a threat, even an apostasy, which ran counter to the traditional attachment to Jewish law.
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