Jerusalem’s sea of black last week was not merely a massive protest — it was a reckoning. An estimated 200,000 ultra-Orthodox men filled the streets that day to demand exemption from the draft, insisting that their sons remain outside the laws that bind everyone else.

It was a display of defiance by a community that enjoys every privilege of Israeli citizenship while rejecting one of its most basic obligations. The laws are clear. It is time to enforce them. Enough delay. Enough excuses.

The Haredi draft issue is not a dispute about faith. It is about fairness and the meaning of citizenship. The Haredi establishment draws deeply from the public purse — housing subsidies, stipends, political influence — and yet denies the legitimacy of the very state that provides them.

Its leaders call

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