Compare this news report on 31 October 2012 in Haaretz:

Number of ultra-Orthodox men exempted from IDF service reaches all-time high

IDF says it expects number of exemptions for ultra-Orthodox to continue rising, unless government decides to draft them; in 2011, a quarter of all draft-eligible Israeli males received exemptions from military service for various reasons.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/number-of-ultra-orthodox-men-exempted-from-idf-service-reaches-all-time-high.premium-1.473349

In Israel, there is one rule for conscientious objectors to military service in the IDF and a totally different rule for ultra-orthodox Israeli jews.

@1. Bob B: “In Israel, there is one rule for conscientious objectors to military service in the IDF and a totally different rule for ultra-orthodox Israeli jews.”

The link that you suggest is “subscriber only” and my house doesn’t have a subscription.

This link suggests that Israel conscripts ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19492627

As a small L liberal, I care about conscientious objectors everywhere. Ultra-Orthodox Jews may or may not be conscientious objectors; depending on how they feel, they may be asked to sign up or may sign up voluntarily. Like monks.

—
I send my belated holiday wishes for freedom to Natan Blanc.

@ Bob B

“In Israel, there is one rule for conscientious objectors to military service in the IDF and a totally different rule for ultra-orthodox Israeli jews.”

When the UK had conscription, it was far easier to get off on religious grounds than moral ones. Maybe that’s common around the world.

Chaise: “When the UK had conscription, it was far easier to get off on religious grounds than moral ones. Maybe that’s common around the world.”

Thanks for that illuminating observation. It would seem that national exemption boards – or whatever they are called – feel inhibited about delving into theological objections to military service but not to ethical ones.

By wide repute, a common question often put to conscientious objectors to military service citing personal objections to the use of lethal force was:

What would you do if your mother/sister was being raped/attacked?

Responses of the kind that: My deity forbids lethal force, seems to have been often conclusive. OTOH people claiming direction by supernatural forces in other contexts tend to get sectioned – or the equivalent – under mental health legislation.

Indeed, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Opinion 24/2003 on Israel came to the conclusion that the repeated imprisonment of conscientious objectors in Israel is arbitrary.

How does Israel treat its naked ramblers?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Gough

“How does Israel treat its naked ramblers?”

Even the city of San Francisco, where flower power prevails, has found it necessary to recently approve an ordinance banning public nudity in response to mounting public complaints. This soon followed previous ordinances banning nudity in restaurants and making it obligatory for nudists to place covers on public seats before sitting down for reasons of maintaining public hygiene.

2 Charlieman:

Thanks for updating me. By reports, Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has terminated the exemption from military service for Ultra-Orthodox Israelis. Reports in the American press on this are illuminating:

Ultra-Orthodox leader Meir Porush, a former lawmaker, says drafting his people would unleash a “civil war.” He says the military neither needs nor wants to be flooded with devoutly religious conscripts.

The exemption, which involved only a few hundred top rabbinical students in 1949, has mushroomed into an exemption that has allowed 60,000 able-bodied men to forego military service each year.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/08/israel-to-drop-military-exemption-for-ultra-orthodox-jews/1

It appears that exemption from military service for ultra-orthodox Israelis is not the only issue of national contention. Another is that a disproportionate number are said to be workless and living off social security benefits. Yet another is that in areas with high densities of ultra-orthodox Israelis live, women are obliged to sit at the back of buses to avoid distressing male passengers.