Shas faction chairman and Industry, Trade and Employment Minister Eli Yishai yesterday became the first ultra-Orthodox political leader to visit the IDF's ultra-Orthodox unit yesterday.

Yishai preferred to speak about his ministry's efforts to find work for ultra-Orthodox soldiers after military service, steering away from the implications of his visit to ultra-Orthodox circles.

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The Netzah Yehuda Battalion (until recently the Nahal Haredi) commanders see Yishai's visit as a triumph and hope other ultra-Orthodox politicians and figures will follow suit.

The battalion was founded in 1999 as an attempt to allow Haredi Israelis to serve in the IDF in an atmosphere conducive to their religious beliefs.

The service combines military and vocational training. At first it consisted of only 30 soldiers. As of 2006, the battalion had grown to over 1,000 soldiers, and intends to become a fully functioning brigade in the future. The battalion's main action arena is the Jordan valley.

The project received the blessing of Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, head of the Torah Sages Council of Degel HaTorah, the party of Lithuanian hasids. The latter, however, backed down following the commotion that arose in radical ultra-Orthodox circles.

Enlisting only dropouts

Despite its rapid growth, the unit failed in its main goal: to be ultra-Orthodox. It did not enlist yeshiva students but those who dropped out of them.

In fact, in eight years, only a minority of the unit's soldiers came from the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian hasidic core.

The number of Sephardi soldiers in the battalion has grown, as has the presence of those who don knitted skullcaps - mainly nationalist-religious types and settlers.

Now the IDF and Netzah Yehuda NGO are working to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox soldiers in the battalion. About a year ago IDF OC Manpower Major General Elazar Stern gave ordered that 70 percent of recruits be ultra-Orthodox.

As part of this new policy, the recruits must be graduates of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas from a list prepared with the help of the NGO. The new policy was applied only in the last recruitment rounds, a source in the battalion said.

"As time goes by you will see more and more black skullcaps and beards," he said.

As the battalion runs on a voluntary basis and does not draft soldiers, it is one of the only battalions in the IDF which depends on recruitment drives in order to bring in new troops. To that end, the NGO is raising funds and running public relations campaigns to attract recruits. NGO activists also accompany the soldiers in the third year of service.

Hoping for immigrants

An English language Web site featuring mainly ultra-Orthodox soldiers attempts to persuade ultra-Orthodox men overseas to immigrate to Israel and enlist. Stalls dotting Jerusalem streets are meant to collect ultra-Orthodox yeshiva dropouts.

The NGO also invites ultra-Orthodox rabbis, politicians and artists to the base and has hired a spokesman whose duty, among other things, is to break the ultra-Orthodox media's boycott on the battalion.

Netzah Yehuda commanders hope that Yishai's visit will pave the way for United Torah Judaism's visits to the battalion.

MK Yishai himself commended the ultra-Orthodox youngsters for their combat service but was careful not to make sweeping statements encouraging the recruitment of others.

"Anyone who is a full-time yeshiva student should remain so," he said. "Anyone who isn't studying should join the army."