old-timers and new immigrants - we are all one people. The NRP works toward national unity, absorption of immigration, and bringing people together from all sectors of the population. Without hatred and without coercion. Gently, pleasantly, and with a smile. They called this principle Ahavat Israel (אהבת ישראל, "Love of Israel"). The party was the patron of most of the national religious schools (חינוך ממלכתי-דתי), which teach both Judaism and general mandatory educational subjects such as mathematics, English, literature, physics, biology, etc. It sponsored some pre-military schools that provide higher education to future IDF officers and commanders. Besides funding and patronizing national religious schools, it also supported Yeshiva schools and Beit Midrash schools, places dedicated solely to Torah study. They also ran Yeshivot Hesder, an idea developed by Rav Yehuda Amital in which religious soldiers combine combat military service with learning Torah. The Hesder program is typically five years. The NRP actively promotes Torah in Israel and strengthens national religious institutions: Zionist rabbinical training institutes, Zionist Kollels, Yeshivot gevohot, Hesder Yeshivot, Yeshiva high schools, and more. The NRP encourages Zionist rabbis to take on active roles as teachers in Yeshivot, and as spiritual leaders in cities and in neighborhoods. The party believed that the land of Israel is holy and belongs to the Jews on the basis of God's promise to Abraham, and later to Isaac and Jacob. They believe it is God's will to settle all the land of Israel and nurture it. This principle has great impact on NRP policy toward the West Bank and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Religion and state The NRP's policy was that Israel ought to retain its special Jewish character and retain a vague commitment to Judaism. The party argued that affairs of personal status, (such as marriage, divorces, and burial), should be kept under the authority of Israel's rabbis (or other religious clerics for non-Jews). The NRP claimed that the Jewish state show respect for the Jewish religion by observing the Sabbath and serving Kosher food in its institutions and organizations (as it applies to the IDF, public transportation, the Israeli police, and governmental companies.) The party, along with the other Orthodox political parties in Israel, wanted entrenchment into Israeli law so that converts to Judaism who wish to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return can only be accepted if their conversions were conducted according to strict Orthodox standards. This was