Rabbi Dov Lando remarks have stirred intense debate in Israel after newly broadcast footage showed the ultra-Orthodox leader questioning the value of a Jewish state and criticizing Religious Zionist soldiers. The video, aired three weeks before the October 27 parliamentary election, has injected fresh tension into an already divisive campaign centered on ultra-Orthodox conscription.
Rabbi Dov Lando remarks resurface
Channel 12 aired footage on Monday of the 96-year-old rabbi, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party, speaking at a closed meeting in his Bnei Brak home. In the clip, he says soldiers adhering to Religious Zionism who were killed in Israel’s wars died because of what their rabbis taught them.
He added that many military operations occur not to save lives but for the honor of the state. Lando’s party is a faction of the United Torah Judaism alliance, which won seven seats in 2022 and supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition before ministers resigned last year, though the bloc offered intermittent backing afterward.
The remarks were first published in February 2025, but their return to the spotlight comes amid a fierce dispute over Haredi military exemptions. In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled there was no legal basis to exempt ultra-Orthodox seminary students from service, and efforts to pass new legislation have since stalled, prompting large protests across the divide.
Better ‘without a state’
Lando also serves as a spiritual authority for Israel’s Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, which accounts for about a third of the country’s 1.45 million Haredim. In May, he said he no longer trusted Netanyahu and called for parliament to be dissolved.
In the latest footage, he argued it would have been possible to live well alongside Arabs without a state and suggested international or Palestinian rule might have been the best arrangement. He contended that Zionism led Arabs to hate Jews and brought physical and spiritual harm, describing secular Israelis as having created a state of apostasy and heresy.
Observers note these views reflect non-Zionist and anti-Zionist currents that were once dominant within parts of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, though his explicit reference to a non-Zionist political framework is particularly contentious. A conflict studies scholar said the comments draw a line between Zionism and Judaism from within the Jewish community, challenging official narratives that conflate the two.
He cautioned, however, that the ultra-Orthodox polity in Israel is generally right-wing and some leaders have made offensive remarks about Arabs and Palestinians. Regional tensions have remained high, with health agencies warning about the humanitarian fallout of the war in Gaza, including recent alerts from the World Health Organization.
Political ammunition in the conscription debate
Opposition figures quickly seized on the video to attack a prominent rabbinic leader aligned with Netanyahu’s electoral bloc. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the statements anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-military, accusing Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of backing Lando and directing vast funds to his allies.
Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party campaigns for enforcing the draft, urged Zionist parties to refuse to sit with Lando’s faction. Netanyahu, who previously made headlines when he said Israel warned the UK before an incident at RAF Fairford, has frequently relied on ultra-Orthodox partners, as examined in coverage of when Netanyahu says Israel warned UK before RAF Fairford incident.
Netanyahu publicly rejected Lando’s remarks in July when the rabbi accused the Religious Zionism movement of incitement to murder over its support for drafting seminary students. He has not commented on the latest footage.
One analyst described Netanyahu’s silence as calculated. If he attacks Lando, he risks alienating Haredi partners needed to form a government. If he stays quiet, rivals can argue he depends on religious leaders who question Zionism.
Who fights and who dies
Analysts say the conscription debate has shifted from a religion-state dispute to a fundamental question about Israel’s social contract. Who fights, who dies, and who receives exemptions, budgets, and political leverage in return.
Another expert said the question that prompted Lando’s response touches a nerve within ultra-Orthodox society itself, pointing to young religious men who combine Torah study with service and asking why others do not. He added that by labeling their teachings a distorted Torah, Lando aimed to close the door on emulating them and to reinforce boundaries for his own followers.
Commentators warn the rift may be more perilous for Netanyahu because it runs through the right, not only between secular and religious camps. Religious Zionists have borne heavy wartime losses, while ultra-Orthodox leaders still reject conscription.
Netanyahu needs both groups and cannot fully satisfy either. Whether the controversy shifts votes is unclear. One analyst expects it to harden existing positions, though it could influence right-wing voters who serve and resent ultra-Orthodox demands.
Even so, if Netanyahu requires ultra-Orthodox parties to assemble a majority, that need is unlikely to vanish because of a rabbi’s words. Channel 12 reported that, frustrated by the failure to secure a draft exemption law, United Torah Judaism would not rule out supporting a government led by Eisenkot.
As one researcher put it, the Israeli right has housed two currents with near-opposite visions of the Jewish state. One sanctifies the state and seeks to expand its sovereignty. In the other, one of its leading rabbis suggests it might have been better had the state never been founded.