Why should some able-bodied young men and women be asked to risk their lives for the collective while other equally able-bodied members of that collective are not asked to do the same?
Hamas’s savage attack on October 7 shattered many long-held Israeli assumptions.
One was that our enemies were deterred by our power. Another was that hunkering behind a multi-billion-dollar wall would provide adequate protection. A third was that Israel could rely on a small, hi-tech army and did not need to enlist the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox).
All those assumptions proved false. Our enemies did not deem us as powerful as we thought. It took mere minutes for an army of terrorists to crash through Israel’s border wall with Gaza. The army needs more soldiers – and swiftly.
How do we know the army needs more soldiers? Tens of thousands of reservists who were released over the past few weeks after serving more than 100 days – many of them engaged in grueling battles in Gaza – have recently been told they will be called up for yet another stint of reserve duty by the end of the year, ranging from a couple of weeks to more than a month.
The state would not be doing this – ripping husbands from their wives and fathers from their children so soon after they had just served, many of them in active combat – were it not absolutely necessary.
But it is essential, and because it is necessary, post-October 7, Israel no longer has the luxury to exempt an entire segment of its Jewish community – 13% of the population – from army service.
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