JERUSALEM — Malka Greenberg is angry, and admittedly envious.
At 21, she is starting her undergraduate studies in architecture, having delayed her education to serve in the Israeli army. Her life is a juggling act between exams and a part-time job that pays barely enough for books and tuition. Forget about an apartment. She lives with her parents.
Then there is her cousin, also 21. He's an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student. He lives in his own apartment. He doesn't work.
And this is the part that makes her truly furious: He has not served in the Israeli army.
When the state of Israel was established 50 years ago, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, exempted yeshiva students from military service. The idea was to reinvigorate a culture of Jewish scholarship that was largely eradicated by the Holocaust.
There were 400 students at the time.
Today, 28,550 students a year receive exemptions from the army to study in yeshiva - nearly one of 13 Israelis of draft age. The yeshiva students receive housing subsidies and other stipends unavailable to university students, thanks to their champions in the Israeli Knesset.
Here lies the latest battleground in the dispute between religious and secular Israel. It is becoming an increasingly contentious issue as the political clout and population of Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox, increase. The debate has overshadowed even the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in public discourse in recent days.
Many secular Israelis resent the draft exemptions and political muscle enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox. The ultra-Orthodox say studying the Torah is as important for the salvation of Israel as military service.
``We believe what we are doing is very holy - and that, too, is an important part of saving the country,'' said Israel, 23, a yeshiva student in Jerusalem who spoke on condition his surname was not published.
A backlash against the very religious is taking on increasingly nasty overtones. At a rally in Tel Aviv last summer, demonstrators chanted Schnorrer, Schnorrer, Yiddish slang for freeloader. ``Good Morning, Iran,'' a satirical song that began airing this week on Israeli radio stations by left-wing singer Aviv Geffen, complains that the religious are trying to turn Israel into a theocratic state.
