Not everyone needs to be drafted, says former IDF chief

Every Israeli citizen should serve his or her country but not everyone needs to be drafted into the army, former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi said on Wednesday. In light of the turbulent events in Egypt, he encouraged decision makers to strengthen the ties with the moderate forces.

The IDF should select who it wants to draft first, and those not drafted should serve in other frameworks such as the police and firefighters, Ashkenazi said. Speaking at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, the former IDF chief of General Staff laid out his beliefs regarding universal draft laws being proposed.

“I don’t understand why someone from Taibeh [an Israeli-Arab city in central Israel] can be a nurse at a hospital and not a paramedic in Magen David Adom,” Ashkenazi said regarding the inclusion of Arab citizens into Israeli society.

Turning to the drafting of ultra-Orthodox men into the army, Ashkenazi said it was important to make them, too, a part of society and part of the workforce. He said the top rabbis would “have to choose who stays in yeshiva. All the rest will go to the army.”

The former chief of staff said having members of the religious community serve was not only morally right but also necessary for a united society.

Regarding the Egyptian elections, Ashkenazi said Israel always preferred a stable regime over a democratic one. “It’s important to be surrounded by democracies, but stability is more important,” he said. It’s crucial for Israel to have a direct channel for dialogue, he noted.

Though former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, now on his deathbed after being sentenced to life in prison, was far from being a democrat or a Zionist, “he was an anchor of stability in the region,” Ashkenazi said. He suggested Israel turn to the moderate forces in Egypt, including the army, and strengthen those ties.

Ashkenazi said financial leverage could be used in the region both by Israel and the US. Egyptian officials he spoke to after last year’s riots said their main worry was “how to bake 90 million pitas” every day, re reported.

Turkey is a strategic asset, and Israel should attempt to maintain and strengthen ties with it, Asheknazi said. He also noted that the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria would weaken an anti-Israel coalition composed of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.