Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Is Israel Surrounded by Enemies?

 The argument for drafting Haredim is that Israel is surrounded by enemies so the whole country needs to be in the army.

Is Israel surrounded by enemies? Here's a graphic of deployment of American military hardware and personnel in the Mideast. It's all there to attack Iran on behalf of Israel:





In other words, America on behalf of Israel is being supported by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, and Iraq. That's seven Mideastern Arab countries plus Egypt, the biggest of them all. There are only 10 Mideastern Arab countries in total. That's 7 of 11, plus Egypt, which is in Africa Only Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon are not assisting, even though they aren't obstructing.

Thus, the most wealthy Arab country assists Israel. The most populated Arab country, with the biggest army, assists Israel. 

During the 11 day war, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE all assisted in defense of Israel, by shooting down drones and missiles, sharing intelligence, etc.

That is not what you call being surrounded by enemies. It's more like being surrounded by friends. If you want to say they only do it for the money, so be it. You still don't need Haredim in the army. You only need to keep paying off the Arab states. 

The attempt to draft Haredim is an attempt to stamp out Haredi life, to turn all Jews living in Israel into Zionists. Rav Hirsch opposed Zionism:

"It was not the land that Moses had been commanded to proclaim to his people at the outset of his mission as מורשה, as the inheritance they were to preserve (Ex. 6,8). The Law, to be translated into full reality upon that soil, was to be the true מורשה, the one true, everlasting inheritance, the one true center around which the nation and its leaders were to gather as one united community. Herein lay the goal and the destiny, the character and the significance of the people."

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch "The Kehillah," Collected Writings, Vol. VI, p. 62

"Israel was not given the Law so that it might win political independence and national prosperity; rather, Israel was given political independence and national prosperity so that it might be able to observe the Law. תורה, the Law, remains the eternal, unchanging goal, the purpose of the national existence of the Jew. This purpose does not vary with the degree of independence or prosperity that the Jewish nation enjoys at any given time. Freedom makes it easier for Israel to observe the Law; prosperity enables the people of Israel to accomplish its mission more fully. Political pressure will make observance of the Law more difficult, and lack of independence will leave the fulfillment of Israel's mission incomplete. But all of Israel's apparent fate signifies only a greater or smaller allotment of means for accomplishing the mission assigned to it by the Law of God. Israel's mission as such remains unchanged, and hence also remains the one unchanging bond that unites the larger Kehillath Ya'akov as a whole, as well as each small Kehillah that exists only as a daughter branch of the great, total Kehillah." 

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch "The Kehillah," Collected Writings, Vol. VI, pp. 64-5

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