To an outsider, it would seem self-evident that Ḥaredim are conservatives, given their passionate attachment to religion and to the family, and to preserving their way of life. Yet, notes Yehoshua Pfeffer, there is something deeply radical about the ḥaredi community’s demand for religious intensity and personal sacrifice by all of its members. As ultra-Orthodoxy, especially in Israel, is beginning to undergo major changes in the face of a variety of economic and demographic pressures, Pfeffer argues that Western conservative thought can provide Ḥaredim with necessary guidance and perspective. Basing himself on his 2017 essay “Toward a Conservative Chareidism” as a point of departure, he discusses these ideas with Mark Gottlieb. (Audio, 35 minutes.)

This week, there have been numerous unconfirmed reports about the fate of Esmail Qaani, who is the head of the Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Benny Avni writes:

On Thursday, Sky News Arabic reported that Mr. Qaani was rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. He became [the Quds Force] commander in 2020, after an American drone strike killed his predecessor, Qassem Suleimani. The unit oversees the Islamic Republic’s various Mideast proxies, as well as the exporting of the Iranian revolution to the region and beyond.

The Sky News report attempts to put to rest earlier claims that Mr. Qaani was killed at Beirut. It follows several reports asserting he has been arrested and interrogated at Tehran over suspicion that he, or a top lieutenant, leaked information to Israel. Five days ago, the Arabic-language al-Arabiya network reported that Mr. Qaani “is under surveillance and isolation, following the Israeli assassinations of prominent Iranian leaders.”

Iranians are desperately scrambling to plug possible leaks that gave Israel precise intelligence to conduct pinpoint strikes against Hizballah commanders. . . . “I find it hard to believe that Qaani was compromised,” an Iran watcher at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Beni Sabti, tells the Sun. Perhaps one or more of [Qaani’s] top aides have been recruited by Israel, he says, adding that “psychological warfare” could well be stoking the rumor mill.

If so, prominent Iranians seem to be exacerbating the internal turmoil by alleging that the country’s security apparatus has been infiltrated.