As protesters gathered Tuesday to demand that hareidi-religious men be required to enlist in the army, a counter-protest demanded that mandatory enlistment be dropped completely. The rival demonstration was organized by the Movement for a Professional Army. Both groups did not address major principles that are behind the present policies and the hareidi issue.
Members of the Professional Army movement said their goal of completely voluntary enlistment has supporters across the political spectrum, from the far left to the Likud's nationalist Jewish Leadership faction.
Contrary to popular belief, forcing hareidi religious men to enlist will not create a situation in which all Israelis give equally of their time to the army, they argued. “As long as enlistment is mandatory, we won't have equality between the citizens of Israel. There are significant differences between soldiers within the army.
“While one soldier is put in Golani and has a difficult service, risks his life, and does not gain anything that will serve him in civilian life, another is put in the IDF theater and has an easy, unnecessary service in which his life is in no danger. He learns to work at the army's expense, and he finds a nice job when his service ends,” they said. “This fact disproves the slogan of 'sharing the burden equally.'”
He did not take into account physical and intellectual differences between soldiers that are the factors behind the assignments as well as the fact that combat and special units such as Golani are voluntary decisions on the part of inductees. The size of the army and the strength of the enemies faced by Israel were also not mentioned as factors in compulsory draft.
Cancelling mandatory service would lead to true equality, with soldiers being paid for their hard work, the group said.
Movement head Yaron Lerman listed other possible benefits to making IDF service voluntary. By drawing its soldiers from “highly motivated patriots who are compensated well,” the army will spend less time enforcing discipline and can cut back on the resources it puts into military prison, psychologists, and special benefits for soldiers from a low socio-economic background, he said.
However, Israel has always seen army service as an equalizer and integrator in a country of immigrants from varied geographic and cultural backgrounds, as well as a way to pull up soldiers "by their bootstraps" since innate abilities are encouraged to shine in the IDF setting. Army service is the common meeting ground for most non-hareidi citizens of Israel through years of active and reserve duty.
Ultimately an army of soldiers who choose to serve will be more professional, Lerman insists. “It's impossible to reach true professionalism in an army where recruits are drafted by force,” he said, adding that a professional army “will give us the strong army we deserve.”
He described the protesters as hypocrites for calling for the draft to be imposed on hareidi religious men. The same people who demand that hareidim be forced to perform national service as citizens of Israel call Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman “fascist” for calling on citizens to take a loyalty oath, according to Lerman.