The rise of Israel's pious warriors

An army spokeswoman, Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron, predicts the number of right-wing dissenters would be "marginal." But in a sign that it may be worried about a rash of insubordination, the army said Tuesday that it plans to disband units made up exclusively of graduates of special "hesder" yeshivas - programs that allow observant soldiers to serve in segregated religious units for a shortened tour of duty. The army denies any correlation.

Some soldiers admit that they're on the fence. Yossi Hazan, a 34-year-old rabbi and reserve paratrooper, says he instructs pupils at Beit Yatir because instilling an appreciation of the biblical land and Torah helps make better soldiers. An evacuation order, however, would trigger a dilemma between his allegiance to the military and a desire to avoid an internecine conflict.

"These two values clash," he says. "I, myself, don't know what I would do."

About 75 pupils study at Beit Yatir, one of 14 religious prep schools that feed some 1,000 soldiers a year into the army's regular force of 185,000. Most sign up for elite infantry units. In the 1960s and 70s, observant soldiers were exceedingly rare in such outfits. Though Israelis revered combat soldiers, religious youths usually preferred studying in yeshiva seminaries rather than joining the overwhelmingly secular commando forces.

That began to change in the 1980s as a vanguard of right-wing religious settlers led the expansion of Israeli communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The opening of the religious prep schools in the 1990s answered a growing demand among observant Jews to serve in elite units and coincided with the promotion of Israel's first observant general.

When Bentsion Gruber began attending army conferences for reserve commanders a decade ago, he and one other religious officer would search for a prayer service in surrounding hotels. Now, some 40 percent of participants are observant, enough for three separate prayer quorums. "The army used to be the social elite, and the religious were in other places," he says. "When the elite moved to business, the religious moved into the army."

Mr. Gruber, an outspoken critic of the right-wing "refuseniks," worries about a possible rift between the military and religious soldiers. "The army will say, 'OK, we understand, you're educating a fifth column. You are educating people who say on one hand they're listening to the army and on the other hand say they are listening to the rabbis,'" he says. "[The prep schools] are in a trap. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth."

Back in an office decorated with pictures of rabbis and army generals, Hager summarizes his Bible lesson on disobeying orders.

"There are two legitimate opinions," he says, citing conflicting commentary from the Jewish medieval philosopher Maimonides and a 19th-century Lithuanian rabbinic scholar that supports the refuseniks and the army, respectively.

But when pressed about what he would do if he were called up to aid the evacuation, Hager is unequivocal. Instead of heeding the order, he plans to stand with the Gaza settlers resisting the army. "I will be [there]," he says.

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