Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke Thursday evening with Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Mohammed Barakeh about the Plesner Committee, in an apparent effort to make it possible to recruit young Arabs to national service.
Netanyahu told them that despite the Plesner Committee's recommendation not to take action against Arab draft dodgers, he still believes in the idea of "enlistment for all."
"The world has changed, the country has changed and the situation Is not what it was in the past," Netanyahu told the two. "Everyone should share the burden."
Netanyahu said that the Arab MKs should not "build up hopes" after the Committee's decision, and that the possibility of a conscripting Arabs to do national service "is still being discussed."
The Plesner Committee's announcement that it would not recommend sanctions against Arabs who do not enlist caused Yisrael Beytenu and the Jewish Home to announce they were pulling out of the Plesner Committee. Netanyahu's statement to the Arab MKs can be seen as evidence that he essentially agrees with the Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu's disappointment with the Plesner Committee's laxness regarding Arabs.