This is meaningless. A six-fold increase, why would anyone use such a misleading statistic? 1400, mostly girls, what a total failure. Why pretend? What's the use of this make-believe? People who refuse to do some form of national service should be ineligible for ANY state benefits. No right to vote, no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no scholarships, no family allowance, NOTHING. Put some teeth in the law & you'll see results.

It means many arab israeli start feeling connected to Israel and not palastine. 6 times more volenteers is 6 times more arabs deciding to join their Israeli country. If it was 3% of them in the past then its 18% of them today. Yes that IS a lot. Remember not all Arabs that feel Israeli chose to serve, the same goes to Jews and any other nationality in Israel.

If you were running a business with this kind of sales result, you would be bankrupt. The statistic that would be meaningful is the percentage of all elibible candidates for national service, including military service. And, how do you account for 92% of those that did enter NS are girls? What this proves is that male Arabs obviously DO NOT identify with Israel. Take off the rose coloured liberal sunglasses & see reality.

...draft laws should not discriminate between Jew and Arab. Integrate all public Schools, and society.

Terry your premise is wrong, a 6 fold increase would be wonderful for most companies. It is not a question of total market size but of customers. In this case 1,233 more Arabs are participating when in the past the number was 0. That does make an improvement. More important is that the ultra-Orthodox sector is also picking up their responsibilities - and there involvement is expected to grow next year. With all the draft dodgers and those who should give to the country but are shirking their responsibilities getting these 2sectors involved is a great improvement - but yes we need this kind of growth over years to get to equal support.

There is unemployment out there. This way they (a) get paid (b) to learn things and get experience (c) with their own people. Connection to the State of Israel? not so sure this is the motivation but I hope it leads to it.

If palastinian girls support Israel then it is still indeed a victory. The only diffrence is that it means less combat palastinian soldiers but i was talking about palastinian support to their country not just how much they give to the country in whole.

the kind that doesn't go on flotilas.

That six-fold increase still means that only roughly 1% of the Arab community is serving in any capacity - encouraging, but still pitifully small. I agree with Terry. Some 10 years ago, I called for a "new social contract" which basically insists that there are not just rights and privileges, but also obligations. Jarbi notes that the Arab leadership has demanded "justifiably" benefits for Arab youths similar to those received by discharged soldiers. There is nothing "justifiable" about such a demand. If you don't give, you shouldn't get.

this isnt combat service but what's sure is that it means they connect to their country by serving there in Shirut le'umi. I mean this isn't just volunteering its donating years 'for the country', if this wasn't about serving the country they would have volunteered in some other place or just give a donation.

themselves palastinians over Israeli. But that 'majority' part seems to loosen up with time, if this goes on imagine the outcome.

Unfortunately, I'm not there in Israel to understand all this, but how should people who volunteer on the home front be afforded the same recognition and benefits as men and women who are on the front lines? If you had a disability and couldn't fight, that's one thing. But the SAME recognition? Doesn't seem fair, and I'm talking about Arab and Haredi volunteers.

Eric, let's turn this into a concrete example. Each Arab who does NS, we will call a Shekel. This is your salary. Your starting salary is 240 Shekels. Over the course of five years, your salary will increase to 1473 Shekels. I guarantee that if you move to Israel with a salary of 1473 Shekels, you will not be over-joyed with your six-fold increase. That's if you don't starve to death before the five years are up.

their arab friends are very likely to start hating them for this. And remember its the woman were talking about, very few woman go to the front lines.

Government needs to make clear of the benifits and provide concreat examples to counter balance the radical in the arab street. This will bring to a flood of Israeli-arabs joining this program

including the Ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva Students!