for arabs who harm you has diminished from 1948. Israeli Jews look with contempt upon their own leaders because their safety has not been won inspite of all the wars they & their ancestors fought. Israelis want peace . . . except arab Israelis & their friends of foreign nations. Israeli Jews want to enter the modern age . . . arab Israelis don't. Israeli Jews do not want arabs to drag them down & they want to be free of them & their harm.

If you have a draft, almost everybody goes. Otherwise you have a volunteer military with all the problems of a professional military class. Going halfway doesn't work. During our Viet Nam war, the middle class bought its way out with educational exemptions. Except for the first Iraq war, we have not won a war since then. Israel, which faces an existential threat, can't afford to lose. It needs an honest draft.

So we're out there doing most of the fighting, while the woosies from Ramat Aviv are either throwing rocks at our soldiers in Nahalin or getting tans on the beach. Look where I live and look where I'm coming from, fellow citizens, and wake up. Yea, I'm a "right-wing settler" who says Israel needs a strong left wing to fight for social democracy. I miss the real left parties like Ratz and Shinui (not Tommy Lapid's, but the real one before that) who led the fight for social progress in Israel. The right wing doesn't give a damn. But the really sad thing is that the right wing parties care more for social democracy than the current left wing parties. Labor is lost, and Meretz is committed to a single issue - a Palestinian state at any cost including the security of Israel. No wonder we turn up our noses at the left - they don't stand for anything anymore. Ben Gurion is rolling over in his grave and weeping. The left is so mired in its own political incorrectness they can't even be bothered to teach their kids the value of Israel, so their kids turn to drugs, money, and hedonistic pursuits as a way of life. The left has so little ideology remaining and so little to offer, that their kids aren't willing to serve and fight for anything anymore. Shame on the left. Shame on their leaders. Shame on Barak and Peretz and GalOn and Oron. Shame on them and their predecessors for offering the Israeli voters the single issue of voting the defunct "peace camp" and its blind acceptance of a Palestinian state and a blind eye turned towards Palestinian war crimes. They offered the electorate nothing else. No social programs, not fight for education and against poverty. Nothing except Palestine and the annual gay pride parade. No wonder we vote for the less and less each time.

I say disband the IDF. Israel doesn't need an army, better your young men study torah, day and night. Only hashem will protect you but only if you keep all the mitzvahs.

When the rockets start landing in Tel Aviv this will all change. Sometimes a little bit of blood will wake up the idiots on the beach.

Perhaps maybe Tel Aviv is the most populated city in israel ? There are many sub demographics that weren't included in the statistics. I live in Tel Aviv and am in a special combat unit. The fact that Tel Aviv has these "idiots on the beach" is something to be proud of that we are a strong enough army to have such free and naive people.

You can't count on God for everything. We're not supposed to be mooching off of him to protect us. We need to protect ourselves using our own means. Hope I can enlist to become an IDF doctor in the future. ~~~~

The left? This shows how delusional some of the far right are wanting to blame every problem in society on some imaginary left. The people who are avoiding the army are the haredim. Did you see the bottom three cities ranked? Bnei Brak, Beiter Illit, Modiin Illit are all Haredi. Jerusalem has a horrible rate. They are the ones with the high birthrates. And for #4, that's exactly how the Holocaust happened. The same people saying "if you pray, God will protect you". This is why Israel needs to exist because only people can protect people.

My 18 year old son--in the USA--announced to us last night that he wants to join the IDF after he finishes high school in June. Until I read this article I was supportive. But if my son is willing to go alone to Israel and put his life on the line for a country that he did not even grow up in, why is it that the government of Israel cannot find a way to get every 18 year old into the army. If you ask me it is pretty simple: go to the IDF or go to jail--take your pick. And if you go to jail you never receive any benefits from the government. That would work. This really crushes me and, if I can help it, the IDF will not get my son.

NO ONE escapes service unless they have legitimate reasons.

Moshe of the UK, are you serious or are you a fake name for someone who despises the haredim and wants to make them look stupid. If you pay attention to the Torah, not just Talmud Bavli, you will discover that the Holy One commands the formation of an army! The haredim and mitnagim of eastern Europe may have followed every mitzvah possible outside the Eretz, but without an army, their observance and devotion could not prevent their slaughter. Th Holy One has restored us to our land and enabled us to build one of the world's best armies so we can stay there.

Yes, G-d was the one protecting you in 1967 and the 1973 against the Arabs. Not. It was the brave soldiers that actually fought and died, not the wimps that hid in their yeshivas reading books.

by that time, the arabs will have become wiser, though i doubt it, the palestinians will have a state, hopefully peace loving, and then there will be no need to an idf or iaf. this is hope, but unfortunatelly, not reality be cause jewx and israel are hated in that part of the world. not by their own doing, but by muslim idiots and violent islamic society and arab shame/ honor immaturity and vengeance. for what, i don't know. they are just like that. violent and hateful people full of antisemitism and hate. barbarians to boot. unfortunately for israel, it is a light in the middle of depravity, despotism, backwardness, repression and hatefulness. hameed aboughaze, iranian

Again, playing with statistics. So many variables exist that make this report practically void. In each area mentioned so many variables have to be taken into consideration: age demographics for example. How many "residents" in Modi'in are above the age of 60 and how many in Tel Aviv are above this age? Just one example.

We see the proof of the liberal education system. It teaches a moral-less system of belief that equates the Arab lies to the truth. More social drop outs and yordim come from the secular system than any other place in this country. We need a reform in the educational system that instills JEWISH VALUES in the minds and hearts of our youth before they grow up to drop out and ruin our beautiful country.

Moshe # 4 I think that you should come to Israel with all your Family and say that again, you will soon change your mind! You Dear Mussa are deranged.

It appears that we already have a volunteer Army. Give veterans benefits like cheap mortgages, education and priority in hiring. Do not give these things to non veterans. Give reserve troops special benefits as well. This "old, retired" tanker wouldn't mind some retroactive appreciation. I served willingly with pride but felt a bit of a sucker seeing so many able bodied young people being released of their obligations.

Because they'll still expect the settlers to fight to protect them. Secular Tel Aviv will remain a bastion of hypocrisy.

Are onlyJews enlisted to the army!! What about the Druze!! One Jewish house give one or two boys and may be one girl to the army, but one Druze house gives six or seven or eight sons to the army. I believe the highst enlistment to the army is the Druze villages. It is shame how in every thing you think only of yourselves, as if only Jews live in this land

This article is a joke and completely misleading. You have not accounted for the 20% of arabs in Israel who are except from the army. In Tel Aviv you have Jaffa, a large arab area. You also haven't accounted for the Ethiopians, Druze and Christian percentage who do not serve. Finally you haven't accounted for the charedi community who do not serve because they pray and use the state instead instead of helping the state. Therefore your stupid 60% is more likely to be one of about 20% of Jews in Israel actually refusing. I wonder when Ynet will ever learn not to write rubbish and misleading articles which feed articles for the international papers. Which ultimately leads to an increase in antisemitism worldwide, affecting jews worldwide, just in time for Ynets next story: antisemitism is up in the world. Foolish!

The US Jewish liberal mentality of "let someone elses son defend the country" is begining to infect Israel which is freightening.I hope you print this because what I say is true.

but tie your horse anyway.

What about all the chayelim bodedim that leave their countries JUST to enlist? What are their numbers?

Hashem will certainly support you ,but he will not fight your battles for you.

Well the army is not doing much to make it possible for the religious to enlist by forcing them to compromise their values. "You must join the army and you must do things that you believe G-d does not want you to do like listen to women sing and have women in your units, and that he doesn't want u to choose during the sefira etc" The IDF is forcing them to choose between two of their values - army and segregation of the sexes etc. - and gets angry when they choose the "wrong" one, meaning they choose the value that the secular don't share...obviously that's the wrong value to choose. Hypocrites

Very bleek news. When enquireing why we hear the main reasons for youngsters refuseing to give anything to the state of Israel ,These youngsters are tired of seeing how the state treats thier elderly parents who built the country Girls treated as rubbish because the IDF has allowed the datim to take over army. security.

Enjoy you high-tech life in Palo Alto. You should be supportive of your son who you have influenced so greatly in your "mini-Israel" Palo Alto bubble. Be thankful that though you have abandoned Israel you son has not. Furthermore, if everyone had the same mindset as you, there would not only be a shortage of Israelis joining the army but Lone Soldiers like myself. See the big picture.