They have no interest in fairness or democracy. Only God's law matters, only they know it, and he is on their side, not ours. These people will never be fit citizens of a democracy. They can only be internal enemies and must be controlled as such.

This article fans the disunity .The Answer is Stronger Patriotism for Combat troops by a return to socialism The values of the Palmach without the anti religion .those that agitate against the IDF except for unnecessary sadism and cruelties ought be thrown out by cutting benefits and encouraging the Gallus to take more there they will have to work .

How about dealing with real issues. Such as how the children of the rich like Lapid do their service in air conditioned offices writing about real soldiers instead of actually doing any military service. Hesder students doing their 5 years of service in combat units are a bit more useful to the state of Israel than Lapid's three year internship in journalism preparing him for a life as a pampered millionaire. How much do the hesder students put in reserve duty in combat units for the next 30 years vs the jobnik who never gets called up once. Religious Zionist girls may not serve in the army but they do serve the state in national service for as long as any female soldier. How is their serving in national service helping in hospitals, schools etc less sharing the burden than a jobnik like Lapid in a cushy office job. Pushing to attack the religous Zionist communities commitment to the state only reinforces the haredi world's fear the goal is not the share the burden but to destroy the observant. I'll be happy to draft the secular into hesder units for 5 years so they too can alternate between learning Torah and serving the military but I suspect you would cry religious coercion. Secular coercion is no better.

Hareidim are not required to share a double burden. They share the main burden for protection by learning Torah (which Hesder only does part time) and by keeping Shabbat. These alone are the strongest protections against the enemies. Everyone knows that almost 1/2 of the secular Israelis do not "share the burden" at all, they don't learn Torah at all and don't serve. Why the hypocrisy and racism against hareidim? If there's no Torah there's intolerance, hate, jealousy and evil. Secular is best proof to that.

Try the north Tel Aviv youth for a change

there is no point in this article other than to spread hate

Ever hear of "religious coercion"? How about "ideological coercion"? The concept of a "People's Army" sounds good on paper, and there may be many good reasons for it, but honestly, is the idea of an army to pot-melt the population or is it to defend the country with military force? Modern warfare is mostly a battle of technologies and the foot soldier is less critical in military doctrine than ever. We no longer need to send row upon row of soldiers with muskets and bayonets to stab or shoot the enemy when they see the whites of the enemy's eyes. That's when you needed people, lots of people, as proverbial canon fodder. Old thinking. "People's Armies" are expensive and not necessarily the most effective way of defending a country. Can't we do the same job more efficiently with a significantly smaller, professional army or are we unwilling to analyze the problem being so brain-washed that we must have a "People's Army" regardless of cost or effectiveness?

Men's biological clocks keep on ticking but women's don't. Don't force the girls into longer service. Our ancestors-the guys in the bible- were fighters. Those shirking should man up and defend Israel.

When they all attack and rockets are flying everywhere..... All the seculars will get down on their knees and pray for G-d's protection and every Heredi to fight to save their families. Unfortunately tragedy is the only thing that ever unites Jews or brings us closer to G-d. WHY oh why do we Jews have to learn everything the hard way?!!!

an equal army would also draft israelii arabs the best thing would be t o have an all volunteer army motivated soldiers are the best kind

The End Conscription Campaign in South Africa led to the collapse of the racist regime. Israeli youth should consider this as the right-wing propaganda had run its course. There can only only be one solution: a bi-national democratic state. Anything else had proved to be a disaster (and the end of a Jewish National home).

Haredim and Hasidim engender hatred of themselves through their total disdain and disregard for all - Jewish and otherwise - who don't share their religious obsession and viewpoint. They flout the law, make up new halacha by the day to justify doing so, don't work and expect to be supported by the very people they despise. They're coring Israel out from within as they multiply like rabbits, sucking it dry and contributing next to nothing. The notion that spending one's life davening and reading Torah is going to deflect or avert incoming missiles is lunacy. Israel is facing an existential crisis - whether to continue as a quasi-theocracy favoring the religiously extreme or to revert to what it was intended to be after 1948, a democracy with a Jewish face and heart. I suspect it's already gone too far down the theocratic path to change direction without something between a revolution or a civil war taking place. I hope I'm wrong about that.

Maybe a national service. The percentage of metro TA high school students who don't serve has passesd percentage of charedim who don't serve. What is being done about that? The percentage of charedim serving is on the rise

the "teacher" Adam Verta?

Arab enemies. The next largest threat to Israel are the Haredim. Their values are not the values needed to make Israel strong economically or militarily. Their values, which include not giving their children an education in secular subjects and their marginalization of women, are an anathema to all others. They live on a different planet. As their population grows disproportionally, Israel will become weaker and weaker. Think about it.

Permit me to correct you on one point, "contributing next to nothing". No Sir, their contribution is neither next to nothing nor nothing, it is zero minus, deficit. I would also like to comment on your last words, "I hope I am wrong". I hope you are right simply because I perceive this as the only solution, sad, but the sooner Israel wakes up to reality and admits to the facts the less painful it will be.

Actually it is the other way around. I certainly do not underestimate the Arab threat, we know how to deal with this. The Haredi threat is greater by far, the reason for this is not apparent to most people, or if it is then they choose denial. As their numbers increase so will their audacity and inevitably their political clout. The day will come when they feel strong enough to challenge the state and its institutions, by challenge I mean they will go whole hog and try to topple the powers that be at that moment and take control in the name of God and the Torah. This will happen, there is no way of stopping it. Separating religion and state would only be a delaying measure as their numbers would continue to increase, This is their agenda, not hidden but declared and implemented in short steps on a daily basis.

This is why Lapid, Bennett and their henchmen who are of the same opinion want them in to the army, in order to "integrate" them to secular life and - in one word - secularize them, because in another few years haredim and religious Jews in general will no doubt be the majority. This is what the Lapids fear and exactly why haredim will not join the army unless it becomes 100% kosher, not only food-wise, but Shabbat, prayers, no women, etc. In the meantime, values and morals taught in secular schools is going down the drain as we all see, while haredim have truly something to be proud of. Secular subjects needed for work can be learned once they're ready to go out to work like they do in the U.S.

Read the official statistics. 25% of the males males every do not serve in the army. More than 52% of them are Haredim. Included in the other 48% are physically and mentally challenged, Arabs, criminals and those who suffer from mental illness. Do you really want to compare the Haredim to them?

The IDF doesn't need or want the haredi because of the expense involved in doing so and in an era of technology a bigger army doesn't have to be a better one so they are not needed. Draftingt he haredi will cost the IDF millions which with a shrinking budget will have to come at the expense of equipment purchases. Lapids haredi army will be an army of religious jobnicks. The idea of sharing the burden should not mean stick them into the army as a punishment because we all hate haredi, it should be about performing a useful service and if they are not needed by the IDF then create civilian service for them. Civilian service sounds like giving them an easy way out but its logical because they can do useful jobs rather than just be a load of jobnicks and they will learn skills that can be used in the workplace and its jobs we need them to get not uniforms. If the government tries to fight the haredi its going to loose because there are to many of them so look for a compromise.

An all volunteer army is the ideal solution but the problem is that Israel j doesn't have a big enough population. The US has a population of hundreds of millions so there is no shortage of people wanting to enlist. In Israel there are probably about 15,000 career soldiers and there is no reason to assume that number is going to shoot up just because its now a professional army. A volunteer army needs a big population which Israel doesn't have. The army should also not be treated like a box you put everybody into. The arabs cannot be trusted and the haredi are not needed but drafting them will cost the IDF millions. This whole haredi draft idea is a personal grudge Lapid has against haredi. It was his price for joining the coalition so like it or hate it the IDF had to draft the haredi.

Israel and Israelis have really weird issues. While the western world deal with real issues like unemployment, diplomacy, education and science, Israel is still trying to deal with people living in the middle age wether be with the religion in society, the violence or the misbehaviour on the roads How can Israel not claim to be a third world country? It has all the stigmas

are there for soldiers that are 100% kosher , do pray and without women. As for shabat and hagim, the religious law allows to transgress in time of war. So, your arguments are those of a man who doesn't realize the importance of solidarity

The hesder soldiers do not do 17 months of service and then go home. It is misleading to represent it like that without stating the full hesder package that actually is a much longer commitment than the average soldier. Also, the haredim are doing more service. The army is not doing everything it can to promote nahal haredi, which is an impressive unit with some very serious achievements. The army does need to concentrate on the growing number of secular who don't do the army.

The IDF still wears the uniform from 1955. It's still thinking like 1955. Stop putting people who don't want to be there, in there. Make a force that can actually beat Hizbollah in a force-on-force engagement. The IDF's land forces' deterrence capability hasn't been up to par since at least the early 1980's. SF units, intel and the IAF (volunteer units) still dominate but the regular infantry units have been and are a mess for several decades now. Professionalize the army. Keep a national, non-military service in place for social purposes but stop the conscription & professionalize. Israeli youth are too immature now to be lieutenants at 20 and captains at 22. The world has changed, technology has changed. Maybe I'm wrong but performance issues, seen by the whole world, in Lebanon 1982 - 2000; 2006, multiple gaffs, screw-ups and mutinies in recent years, don't lie. The IDF is a mess and the old model isn't working.