1. The Ultra Religious mass demonstration in Jerusalem should be a huge wake-up call to all of us. As the demonstrators were mainly male it is not unreasonable to assume that they represent at least one million and probably even more. If we add to this the number of the Arabs in Israel we find that over 40 per cent of the citizens of Israel don't want to serve in the Army. And so while the army was the unifying force and a leveller of the diverse segments of our population make-up in the 50s and 60s, it has now become a divisive factor added together with other factors to weaken Israel from within.
2. Gradually the army moved from being a unifying factor to
become over the years a divisive social factor. It churned out generals and
officers that created military oligarchies
within the civil, economic and the political life of the country to the exclusion not only
of the Haredi religious community but also to some immigrant communities and
certainly to all the Arab minorities. This
highlights sharply how the people in Israel are divided and it calls for
immediate and long term measures to rectify this serious situation.
3. This is not a healthy state of affairs and therefore it
has become imperative to find a long term consensual solution. One such simple
solution is to separate National Service from Military Service by creating a
modern professional smaller army fit for the emerging warfare of the 21st
century. How?
4. All adult citizens irrespective of religion, nationality or
ethnicity are to serve by law a period of 2/3 years Compulsory National Service
from age 18. This Service concentrates on Home Defence, emergency duties and
social services and extends to farming and infrastructural projects. Nachal was
a great and proud division of the IDF. We would do well by avoiding imported
foreign labour into Israel
stalking for ourselves future problems.
5. Military Service will be based on army voluntary recruits.
These recruits have to be passed by the army as to their suitability for
military service, especially for combat specialised units for the defence of
the country from outside threats.
6. Salaries of members of both services are set in favour of
the military recruits to incentify them. Moreover Military Service exempts its
members automatically from National Service once they served equal term in the
Army to that set for the National Service.
Aharon Nathan, 4th March 2014