Israel's new problem:
Draft dodgers

TEL AVIV — Israel has launched an effort to increase the number of military reservists amid rising concerns of war in the Middle East. More troubling are projections that Israel faces manpower shortages due to avoidance of the draft, Middle East Newsline reports.

A new study by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies warns that in the coming years less than 50 percent of Israeli youngsters will report to compulsory military service. The study, authored by former Israeli military manpower chief, [Res.] Maj. Gen. Gideon Sheffer, said Israel cannot abandon the current practice of compulsory service without facing a significant deterioration in the quality of manpower.

Sheffer calls for recruits to be paid for military duty in accordance with their positions. Under his proposal, salaries would range from minimum wage to market levels.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Philasof has been authorized to oversee a project meant to facilitate the effort to increase the number of reservists. This would include the offering of tax breaks and educational benefits for Israelis who join reserve units.

The military has allocated tens of millions of dollars to finance a more than 50 percent increase in the number of reserve days over the next year.

This would mean that eligible Israelis would serve up to 46 days in the military during the year that began this month. Last year, Israelis served up to 30 days in the reserves.

Military sources expect the program to encounter resistance. They said commanders have been inundated by complaints from reservists regarding their increased service and what they term is the lack of uniformity in reserve duty. Reserve officers have set up a protest tent to demonstrate against increased duty.

Several senior commanders said that so far the protests cannot be felt in the field. But they warn that many young Israelis cannot be expected to assume an additional military burden without compensation.

"It's not that the reservists are deficient," Brig. Gen. Yair Naveh, head of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, said. "It's the society. The reservists are not getting the incentives that they receive at home."