Nightshot of the Israeli supreme court building in Jerusalem. Photo: wiki commons.

Fox News – A court order to stop Israel’s longtime practice of exempting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from military service has become a central issue in upcoming elections and could reshape the face of the society. If they are forced to serve, their rabbis fear, they could also enter the work force and come under the influence of the secular world.

That matters little to Israel’s secular majority, chafing under the twin burdens of compulsory military service and financing the state subsidies and stipends that maintain the ultra-Orthodox in their insular life style.

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