IDF personnel chief: All Israelis including ultra-Orthodox should serve in military
Major-General Orna Barbibai was speaking at Knesset committee meeting to discuss 'Tal Law,' which deals with exceptions from compulsory military service granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews.
By Jonathan Lis Tags: IDF Orthodox Jews KnessetHead of the Israel Defense Forces' personnel directorate Major-General Orna Barbibai said on Monday that the IDF should enlist every Israeli "into meaningful service."
Barbibai was speaking at a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the "Tal Law," which allows full-time yeshiva students to defer military service.
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New recruits to the army, from the ultra-Orthodox community. |
"There is no dispute that the challenging security reality demands that we enlist everyone into meaningful service," Barbai said.
According to Barbibai, one out of every four Israeli men and almost half of Israeli women are not drafted into military or national service. "These statistics indicate a need to conduct a thorough re-evaluation of the universal requirement to serve and equal distribution of the burden [of service]."
National Economic Council head Eugene Kandel, who represented the government in the discussion, took issue with Barbibai's statements, claiming the IDF would have difficulty absorbing additional ultra-Orthodox conscripts.
According to official IDF statistics presented by Kandel, the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripts to the IDF rose from 288 in 2007 to 1,282 in 2011, which he said exceeded goals set by the government.
Committee chairman Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) criticized the law and called to abandon it in its present form. According to Mofaz, only half of young people of draft age in Israel are actually drafted into service, and the number is expected to fall to forty percent by 2020.
"We cannot accept the norm that the peoples' army will become the army of half the people, and in eight years, the army of the minority of the people," he said.
MK Yohanan Plessner (Kadima), who heads the team charged with monitoring the law's implementation on behalf of the committee, said that instead of increasing equality, the law was bolstering inequality.
"We must put forward an alternative to the existing legislation, and we have a window of opportunity to create a new agenda," he said.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the law, which expires in the summer, will not be extended for another five years. However, following a disagreement with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the matter, Netanyahu later announced that the law would be extended for another five years.
Barak recently called to extend the law for one year, while formulating an alternative framework in the interim period. Under such a framework, he said, the IDF would choose who to draft, while everyone else would be required to complete a year of national service.
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Not sure its the greatest idea to have young, fanatical religious zealots sitting behind the controls of Merkava (Merkabah?) battle tanks. Religion and the military are usually a bad combination, the bloody pages of history are strong testament to this.
god is god, and joining the army is joining the army. In a secular enlightened country, religion must be kept as a private affair. not a bit more. practicing seperaton between the two will avoid a civil war in israel.
weapons should not be in the hands of any religious extremists.
...MANY MANY SECULARS DO NOT GO TO THE ARMY WHILE MORE AND MORE UNITS ARE MADE UP OF RELIGIOUS JEWS
If you've got an officer corp infested with these fanatics presently, how much worse could you get. Already they won't take orders from female officers, they won't attend ceremonies where a woman's voice is heard. You can only imagine what their next demands would be. Seperate units of Druse and Bedouin soldiers that do not mix or eat with Jews, no visible female garments to be seen on any base, unless it is all female and eventually separate bases for men and women, with the final clarion going out that no females will be allowed into military units. Then the rabbis in the IDF will posken that it is permissible to kill Palestinian women and children since the one are breeders of the eteranl enemy and the other will grow up to become the enemy of the entire Jewish People so they must be killed. That's the trajectory of their agenda.
Get all or most of these loafers to serve in one capacity or the other for the benefit of Israel society.
Too little, too late.
You won't be at the back of the bus, you won't BE on the bus.
All men must be drafted b/c there is a Milchemet Mitzvah - a war of obligation on us today and all men are obligated by the Torah to take part in this. Women on the other hand should not be in the army for many reasons, halachic and secular reasons.
Women are free humans, able to make their own decisions, boker tov!
That is the only way we will survive as a nation and people. Everybody has to change their attitude.
Smart?
You are so right! The Haredi community must contribute it's part to national defense - and the secularists must contribute their part to Jewish identity. Militant secularist Israelis who beg for money all over the world, claiming to represent "the Jewish State" while doing all they can to demolish Jewish traditions in Israel, are hypocritical frauds. Haredim cannot hide from their national duties any more than secularists can hide from theirs.