For the third year in a row, the youth of the town of Efrat in Judea and Samaria are at the very top of the IDF annual enlistment statistics, which also show that this town provides the highest share of officers per capita in the country. And so, according to Makor Rishon, this year, as in previous ones, the head of the local municipality Oded Ravivi was invited to participate last Wednesday—along with the rest of the heads of municipalities that are leaders in terms of their military recruits—in the annual ceremony conducted by HR Chief Maj.-General Orna Barbivai.

But, this year, Mayor Ravivi opted not to come to the ceremony: in his view, the current stats are a terrible injustice to young National Religious people who are serving their country.

“The IDF stats only include those who enlisted in the army. In Efrat the girls are also enlisting, but because most of our population is National Religious, most of our girls do National Service.”

Ravivi was enraged, saying, “It’s unacceptable that we’re the leaders in all the most important statistics, yet, in the end, we find ourselves in the 60th percentile because our young women prefer national service over the army. If the IDF does not appreciate our high number of officers and combatants, I prefer to stay away from this get together.”

Young Israelis of both sexes are able to choose, according to the law, between military service and national service—the latter including teaching in needy areas, work in hospitals and in EMT units.

According to the IDF HR enlistment statistics for 2012, 22.2 of Efrat’s recruits go on to make officers, while 80.4 of the town’s men serve as combat soldiers. About a quarter of the local girls also opt for military service, and out of those, 24% continue to officer school.

“We work hard to encourage doing a significant IDF service,” Ravivi told Makor Rishon. “Our youth are raised in an environment that stresses contributing to the nation. We offer pre-enlistment prep programs, so our young people learn how to arrive at those places.”

The Knesset committee tasked with crafting an alternative to the Tal Law for haredi service in Israel is reportedly drafting a proposal which would defer the enlistment of haredi men till age 22, offer financial incentives to yeshivot that have younger enlistment rates, and begin to levy economic sanctions on haredim who don’t enlist by age 23.

The proposal being floated in the Plesner Committee seeks to implement a “carrot and stick” approach to encouraging early recruitment, directed at both yeshivot and individual students: a point system would be established whereby each student that enlists in the IDF between the ages of 18-19 would confer upon his yeshiva 1.5 “points” towards allocation of state funds. The later a student enlists, the lower the points the yeshiva would be granted, declining to .4 points for a student that still has not enlisted by age 22. According to the committee, the benefits of early enlistment are two-fold: yeshivot would receive greater budget allocations than they do today, and it would lower the number of students the yeshivot have to finance at any given time. At age 22, the “carrots” end and the “sticks” begin, most of which would be shouldered by the individual students, and would include sanctions like denial of housing benefits.

The committee would also determine recruitment targets for each year. The draft proposal has carved out a permanent exemption for Torah prodigies, the numbers of which are expected to be far less than those today. Reports have suggested that some 1,500 individuals in each draft class would qualify for the exemption.

According to the plan, haredi men would perform two years of national or military service (in contrast to the three years mandated for male soldiers in the IDF), and the state would offer haredim a variety of recruitment options to choose from, like additional “Nahal Haredi” units and special tracks within the Police force and the Prison Services.

On Tuesday, a report released by the Knesset Research and Information Center found that haredi enlistment would come at a high financial cost, due mainly to the fact that most of the draftees would already be married and many would already have children, requiring commensurate salaries; whereas non-married non-combat soldiers receive salaries of around NIS 350/month, and non-married combat soldiers receive approximately NIS 700/month, married soldiers and soldiers with children are paid at least NIS 5000/month.

Israeli news sources Ynet and Walla quoted officials in the haredi community as saying that imposing military or national service on yeshiva students would “set the streets on fire.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with committee Chair MK Yochanan Plesner (Kadima) on Tuesday and reportedly pressured him to offer a more moderate proposal, one that is palatable to both the coalition and the broader public. He also met Tuesday with MKs Yakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism). He is scheduled to meet with Shas MKs Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias on Wednesday to allay the concerns of the fourth biggest party in his coalition.

Netanyahu is reported to be considering asking the High Court of Justice for an extension on implementing a replacement to the Tal law, which is set to expire on July 31.

Changes to the proposal may still be made in the remaining deliberations this week; the proposal is expected to be submitted to the government early next week.

Yisrael Beiteinu on Tuesday introduced a bill that would restrict Knesset membership to citizens that have completed IDF or national service.

The proposal was submitted on Tuesday by MK Moshe Matalon, who said that “serving the country is part of the Israeli ethos . . . Knesset members are supposed to be role models.”

If passed, the bill would effectively mean that the Arab and Ultra-Orthodox parties would be dissolved, as neither community serves in the IDF. With Shas and United Torah Judaism serving as influential members of the current governing coalition, it is unlikely the bill will be passed into law.