Thank you very much for timely response! Just to ask a few follow ups to what you replied. 1. Of course the State of Israel is more than entitled to defend itself according what is stated in Sanhedrin 72a and need not ask permission from any entity beforehand, however that doesnt necessarily constitute the halachic definition of a milchemet mitzvah. Even if the root of the principle of milchemet mitzvot is in self defense, but one would need a halachic source that that is one of the defining parameters of its halachic qualifications which creates a milchemet mitzvah. Additionally, the implication the sources (both the Rambad in Hilchot Melachim and the Gemarah in Sanhedrin he is sourced from) is that specifically a melech of Am Yisrael is able to wage what is called a milchemet mitzvah, and we do not have a melech today. So even if there is a mitzvah of self defense but maybe that doesnt constitute a milchemet mitzvah. 2. it seems as if the only response given to my inquiry regarding a soldiers potential deterioration in halachic standards when joining the army was that now there is the Chashmonaim birgade. Does that mean that until the last few years when there was no such option, that there was in fact such a concern as mentioned, and if so what would be the halachic status accorded to such a situation. Thank you again for your time.

The halachic parameters of a war of self-defense are simple: if the Jewish nation doesn't fight, they will kill us. Theoretically there could be some grey areas, but let's be honest, today our enemies are so clear time and again, especially over the last 3 years. How much more so in modern warfare, the weapons of mass destruction speak for themselves, and the need for self-defense is obvious. In addition, if there is no Melech, what would you suggest? For everyone to volunteer to give their life is unrealistic? To abandon our country and Holy Land as I wrote previously is not viable. To say Tehilim or learn Torah and rely on miracles is halachically not allowed. Accordingly, Rav Kook (Resp. Mishpat Kohen, p. 336, who was the first to address the issue but since then, all concur) writes the obvious answer, that the national Jewish leadership has the obligation and right to decide, and as I wrote previously, the leadership returns to the people. As in the Maccabean revolt, there was no king and no meeting of any Sanhedrin, but the Hashmonaim, took responsibility and they went to war. Similarly in the Bar Kochva revolt, there was no king and R. Akiva did not convene the Sanhedrin, but they took responsibility and went to war. How much more so today, when we clearly do have an elected government representing most of the Jews in the world, and an internationally recognized army, that it's absurd to try and figure who has the right to bring Israel out to wars of self-defense and milchamot mitzvah. All of the poskim that have dealt with the issue [R. E. Waldenberg, Resp. Tzitz Eliezer, III, 9 and VII, 48; R.BZ.M.Ch. Uziel, Resp. Mishpitei Uziel VIII, 21, 9; R. Y. Herzog, Resp. Heichal Yitzchak, Or. Ch. 31 ; R. K. Tchorsh, "Milchemet Reshut, Mitzva and Obligatory", B'Tzomet HaTorah v'HaMedina, Jerusalem 5751, pp. 243- 252; R. Ovadia Yosef, Resp. Yichaveh Da'at II, 14; R. Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe Y.D. IV, ch. 33 ("The matter of [serving in] the IDF is a great one") and Ch.M. II, 78 ("only when the gentiles attacked Israel like Antiochus… where it is for SELF-DEFENSE, we went out to war during the Second Temple"); R. Ephraim Greenblatt, in personal correspondence who himself fought in the War of Independence; R. Y.Y. Halberstam (Tzanz-Klausenberg Rebbe), Resp. Divrei Yatziv, Ch.M. ch. 81, 3; R. Sh.Z. Auerbach, Resp. V'Alehu lo Yivol III (R.N. Stepansky), 354; R. Osher Weiss, https://shorturl.at/51NqV,] agree that it's a Milchemet Mitzvah for self-defense, so how can anyone think they know better? Regarding your 2nd question, in answering questions on any website, the goal is to keep things as concise & simple as possible rather than getting into pilpulim or grey areas. Before there was the Chashmonai Brigade I would write that the solution was to go to Hesder, but now it's even simpler even for Haredim, and one has to be pretty imaginative and deny reality in order to use that as an excuse to exempt one's self from this super-important mitzvah. My wife is on a group where the Haredi women admit straight out- they are scared for their sons to be killed in war. But so is everyone, but we must get used to these new types of national mitzvot. Even fear, which is surely one of the main reasons people don't want to go to the IDF, doesn't exempt from Milchemet Mitzvah.