Known as national religious, religious Zionist or, colloquially, “knitted kippah” (for the style of head covering favoured by men), the community stands in contrast to the ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredi,who have long resisted military service. They see the army as a route to promote values that some of its key thinkers say are in tension with more secular and progressive Israeli society.
“That’s [secular and progressive Israelis’] fear, that if the national religious are in the most influential positions in the army, that not only will determine the character of the fighting but also the character of Israeli society as a whole,” said Rabbi Oury Cherki, a prominent spiritual leader in the national religious community.
This perhaps explains a lot about some of worst the behaviour of the IDF such as turning a blind eye towards illegal settler’s attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank; or setting an attack dog on an innocent young man with Downs Syndrome sitting in his Syndrome in Gaza, then leaving him locked up alone without his family to die; or shooting the ambulance drivers going to rescue Hind, or killing Hind. Etc