According to a report presented this Tuesday to the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, of the 3,000 military summons sent to ultra-Orthodox young people, only 280 presented themselves at the recruitment offices.
The head of the IDF's personnel planning and management division, Shai Tayeb, stressed that even extending mandatory military service to three years, combined with the potential recruitment of 4,800 ultra-Orthodox, would not be enough to resolve the shortage. personnel in the Israeli army.
This situation occurs in a context of growing political tensions. The newspaper “Hamodia”, close to the Agoudat Israel party and Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, mentioned a “third way”: the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox could withdraw from politics if the coalition does not pass the law on military exemptions or the one about daycares. Last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the gradual sending of 7,000 mobilization orders to the ultra-Orthodox, continuing the policy of his predecessor Yoav Gallant. Katz said he wanted to engage in “in-depth dialogue with all parties” to find a consensual solution, emphasizing the importance of integrating the ultra-Orthodox community to ease the burden on regular, professional and reservist soldiers.
