Over the course of the past year, it has become clear that much-vaunted government efforts to transform ḥaredi society have come to naught: yeshiva students still receive draft deferments, laws increasing the secular-education requirements at ḥaredi schools have been repealed, and subsidies have been reinstated. However, argues Yedidia Stern, this return to the “status quo ante” doesn’t mean stagnation; it’s only a reminder that governments can encourage social change, but can’t bring it about:

Politics and the law have only a limited role to play: to permit [beneficial social] change, support it, and not impede it.

[C]hange from below is already taking place. Today, about half of all ultra-Orthodox men hold jobs; the number of ultra-Orthodox individuals enrolled in colleges and universities has grown several-fold; and the percentage of “modern” ultra-Orthodox families who want their sons to receive a general, and not only Torah, education has expanded. . . .

Going forward, the public purse must be used intelligently. . . . Economic benefits to those who do not serve in the IDF and do not work should be curtailed, on the one hand; but the coffers should be opened to pay for employment-oriented higher-educational programs and the promotion of jobs in the ultra-Orthodox sector, on the other.

Rather than reduce the total budgetary outlay for these categories, funds should be distributed in a different fashion than they have been until now. The ultra-Orthodox public will both understand and support this.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.