Haredim at IDF recruitment center (archives)
Photo: Ofer Amram
Tami Arad
Photo: Vardi Kahana
The IDF can do without haredi soldiers
Op-ed: What Israel needs today is a medium-sized army which will focus on training fighters to defend the state, rather than serve as an employment bureau for yeshiva students.
The equal share of the burden law, which was enacted based on principles of morality and equality, has been given a degrading burial.
We must be honest and say, however, that had it been implemented, it would not have led to equality and would not have actually eased the burden on the serving soldiers.
If we put the moral question - which is at the basis of IDF enlistment - aside for a minute, it would be better if the haredim are not drafted. Israel needs today a medium-sized army which will recruit high-quality and motivated soldiers and reward them with nice salaries from the day they enlist, so that they can serve the State of Israel in peace of mind. Such an army will make it possible to maintain a large reserve force and reward it accordingly too.
The enlisting ultra-Orthodox would have received inflated salaries for having families, and their service conditions would have been different from the conditions of soldiers in the regular route. Even today, soldiers belonging to the Hesder Yeshiva arrangement or Nahal Haredi unit serve for shorter periods of time, not to mention the difficulties their service imposes on the army due to their special needs.
Equal Burden
Miri Baron, head of the Forum for Equality in the National Burden, will resign after Knesset vote rejecting equality of military service: 'Either everyone serves or no one does'.
Even if the law had been implemented, it would not have led to equality and would not have eased the burden on the serving soldiers (Photo: Reuters)
And taking the medium-sized army vision further, girls and boys will only be drafted for combat roles, combat-supporting roles and defined designated roles. The army of junior clerks will have the honor of doing significant national service which will be equal in time to the military service, and the commanders - excluding the chief of staff - will make their own coffee and summon meetings at the touch of a keyboard.
According to that same hypothetical vision, the haredim and the Arabs will also do coordinated national service, and the equality problem will be solved.
But it's too early to rejoice. It won't happen because in a democratic country it’s hard and even impossible to define "inequality" in a law. There is no equality today either, but since it isn't defined in a law, we know how to live with it. In addition, the moral problem will be waved above the law and will not allow us to turn a blind eye like in the current amorphous situation.
The reality at our doorstep is making Israel face difficult security challenges, and allegedly contradicts the thesis of a small army. But a high-quality army is not necessarily measured by its size. Israel should aspire to become a state with an army, not an army with a state. It's the army's job to train fighters to defend the state, not to serve as an employment bureau or a placement office for people seeking to cross over from yeshiva life to work life.
And like what often happens here, the buried law has an inverse relationship to the Israeli public's attitude towards the IDF and military service. Most of us, if not all of us, are connected to our soldiers through the umbilical cord, and the recently published annual Israeli sympathy survey gives these feelings statistical proof.
At times of war, the people of Israel build towers of solidarity, sanctify the battle ethos, push injustice under the emergency rug, and the embrace, pain and solidarity flow together in one uterus of an anxious and committed country. It's both our weakness and our strength.
Nonetheless, the road to solving the frustration of those carrying the burden appears longer than ever today. As long as the election system doesn’t change and small parties continue to determine the coalition's fate, the moral question at the basis of the unequal military service will remain unsolvable.
