Does Israel Really Need A Compulsory Draft?
Published: August 1st, 2012
print
tell a friend
Haredi soldiers who graduated from an IDF course met with the former Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.
Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Office
I have no doubt that the supply will outstrip the demand and that many of the volunteers will receive a negative answer. The IDF will be able to choose whom it really wants and to invest all of its resources in those who are actually improving our security – instead of vast amounts of soldiers who are not really necessary.
Only one problem will remain: What will we fight about next?
tell a friendAbout the Author:
You might also be interested in:
You must log in to post a comment.
No Responses to “Does Israel Really Need A Compulsory Draft?”
Loading ...
Strange logic. What you're actually saying is that the Army needs a complete overhaul. Soldiers sitting around twiddling their thumbs?
Soldiers dropping out of service before their commitment date? Soldiers drafted into the army when they're really needed for the domestic economy? If there is such a shotage of workers why are the haredi taking welfare instead of working? Anyway, aside from point by point refutations to your astonishing statements and conclusions-first order of analysis is —ta da!– history. (this means you have to do a lot of reading-but oh-how wise you'll be). Start with WW11 USA compulsory conscription Everybody in — the big picture and the individual histories. Compare that army and the US volunteer army of today. Then you can begin to understand why all citizens have to be involved in the security of their homes and the consequences when they can opt out at will.. Or just hire mercenaries from all over the world. Sit back and read what happened when Rome did that. History-if you don't study it you repeat it.
So, if only those who choose to serve will be amongst those from whom the army chooses to include, who will end up being in the army? In the present system, which is far from perfect, the army consists of a variety of "types" of soldiers. Some are secular, some more and some less religious, some good in engineering & science type learning, others are poets. Some come from families with lots of money, some from families with less, and some are lone soldiers. This mix keeps the army in touch with the state's citizens, and keeps the army human. The training given those who were to participate in the expulsion from Gush Katif shows the negative side of what can happen. How much worse would that have been without the mix of soldiers that existed? (Look at what Yassamnikim are capable of doing!) And the opportunities of the soldiers to work with and live together with others who are unlike them is important for the unity and positive values of our state. Can we find a way to bring the good things of what you suggest together with the good things of a draft of everyone (even if not everyone is actually included.)?
The reason why the draft is needed was stated by the author as a reason why it is not needed. Only 59% of those eligible for induction can be inducted or can manage to survive the training. At the same time, when entire 'populations' are automatically eliminated from the conscription pool for reasons that are simply not logical. But the most important group involved is the ever-increasing number of young men who stay out of the army's grasp by invoking the phrase that Torah is their calling. Insofar as I know, being in the army doesn't keep anyone from praying. It has been stated time and time again that there are no atheists in foxholes.
Conscription is an institution that has arisen because of an ongoing necessity, and in the process has created the Israeli, and for someone to forgo that experience deprives that individual from grasping who and where that person is.