Army service may be shortened

Mandatory IDF service will soon be several months shorter in accordance with a plan sanctioned on Monday by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.

The plan, set to be introduced in 2015, recommends shortening the enlistment period by four months for all recruits, as well as linking length of service to specialty area instead of sex. Currently, 18-year-old men sign up for three years of mandatory service and 18-year-old women for two.

The recommendations are part of a general plan being formulated by the Peri Committee, the government body tasked with finding a solution to the problem of universal draft in Israel.

In addition to the shortened service, the plan recommends a re-organization of alternative service tracks like national service that might be appropriate for religious recruits, Army Radio reported. The committee is also looking at ways to integrate Israeli-Arabs into the IDF.

When the committee was first convened in early April, Channel 10 reported that according to a senior committee member, the goal is to have the ultra-Orthodox serve in the Prison Service, Magen David Adom emergency services, fire services and other security apparatuses.

The final plan must still be approved by the Knesset.

The dearth of ultra-Orthodox recruits serving alongside the general population has long been a thorn in secular-religious relations. In February 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the Tal Law, which had granted sweeping exemptions from military or national service to ultra-Orthodox Israelis, was unconstitutional.

Following the ruling, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Knesset would draft a revised, more equitable law within months.

Last July, Netanyahu disbanded a committee headed by Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner that was seeking to draft a resolution to the issue, after some right-wing legislators resigned from the panel.