About serving in the army: It is compulsory by law. Men and women alike, at age 18. Men serve for 3 years, women serve for 1.5. There are in fact many ways to bypass this such as claiming to be physically challenged (bribe a doctor), claiming to be a pacifist (which gets you 'delegated' to public service for some time, after talks with counselors and such) or claiming to be part of an extremist religious faction. I don't know how this works for 'Israeli arabs', as most of them don't serve and probably are never called for the preliminary stages unless they
willingly want to serve (there are some arab factions that do this). About what I can answer: extreme Jewish groups, which are about 15%-20% of the overall population. (around 1/3, 1/4 of the Jewish population, and remember that these are extreme groups) These are people that are born into the norm that they don't serve the army and participate in intense bible studies instead -- by law. The law, that was established under extremist influence no doubt, forces these groups, that consider it an impossibility to serve normally due to the differences between them and the atheists, to serve in the army OR study the bible, as that is 'the other way' of 'serving your country', believe it or not. In this way most members of these groups are forced to study the bible instead of getting a job, whether they like it or not, and extremist political parties are forced to give them minimal profits, which come off of everyone's money. This makes Israel an extremely hard place to live in, but I'm getting carried away from the subject here.
Most soldiers are indeed devoted to their parts when they're out there. No doubt influence of the army itself, as you can be liberal before and after your time serving but you're out there 'kicking arab butt' during that time. It's more like peer pressure that gives you the ability to put your liberality aside for 'serving your country'.
Kinda hard to explain most of these stuff. I wish I had the correct terms.
What is your opinion on the notion that the extreme orthodox Jews are essentially mooching off the government (you hinted at it with they can get out of military service, and from my trip to Israel it seemed like they get out of a lot more than just that)?
It's super true and it super stinks, and there's nothing you can do about it so long as you have a sizable portion of the population completely isolated in their 'own country', in which people grow into a completely different community that the usual atheist would grow into. It's essentially impossible to communicate or influence these parties because of these differences. In fact, it's easier making you join them than leave - that's how these things work. Nothing special to Judaism.
And the ordeal with systematical building of settlements in the Palestinian territories kinda undermines the negotiation process (though, it doesn't seem like this is endorsed by the government).
Formally, it isn't endorsed, but what they're doing right now is basically 'moving' settlements a few feet west, or 'compromising' the extremists by building X new compounds for _SMALL AGGRESSIVE ACTION AGAINST SETTLEMENTS_. It is literally that bad.
I guess total separation of religion and politics would be a step in the right direction, to stop all those whiners who justify their harassment with "this is the God-given land of the Israelites" or "We shouldn't cooperate with the Palestinians, they should be banished from this land. We shouldn't strive for peace on our own, because only the Messiah can bring peace" (actual quote from Norwegian newspaper, quoting activists who built settlements in the Palestinian territories). Get those lunatics away from politics, settle down to find the most sensible approach to the problem regardless of what deities people believe in, and work it from there. Of course, this also requires the neighbouring countries to pick up some sense as well.
Now this is a problem people overlook. You can't separate a huge bulk of the population. That's not how democracy works, unfortunately. Only a third of the population are Israelis that are not part of extreme groups, and even most of those are simple and are swayed by propaganda and don't know what they're voting for. It's only worse on the Palestinian side, unfortunately.
Last, a question: I see there is much mouring of the Great Temple that was destroyed by the Romans. Haven't anybody considered, you know, building a new one? If not, then why?
It wasn't done that simply in the bible. I'm an atheist, but I'm pretty sure this would be infuckingacceptable unless some great leader shows up. Won't happen on planet Earth.
