Netanyahu backs Yisrael Beytenu’s stance on national service, says Arabs and haredim must shoulder equal burden

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday indicated support for Yisrael Beytenu in its decision to bolt a Knesset panel devoted to drafting a national service law, emphasizing his backing for a universal solution that would include Arabs as well as the ultra-Orthodox.

“I will not advance any bill in the Knesset that doesn’t fulfill the principle of equality — for the ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs alike,” Netanyahu said, shortly after Yisrael Beytenu and the Jewish Home party bolted the Committee for the Advancement of an Equal Burden. The committee is tasked with coming up with a solution for sweeping draft deferments among Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox.

Netanyahu telephoned several Arab Knesset members and told them that “the reality has changed. Arab citizens must shoulder the burden along with the ultra-Orthodox.”

In a thinly veiled criticism of the recommendations that were presented earlier on Thursday by committee head Yohanan Plesner (Kadima), Netanyahu said, “It’s a matter of principle, and I oppose exempting either [Arabs or ultra-Orthodox Jews from national service].”

“There is new reality in Israel.” Netanyahu added, “and everybody has to shoulder in the burden.”

Yisrael Beytenu and the Jewish Home party left the committee earlier Thursday following Plesner’s announcement of the committee’s intention to grant Arab Israelis who avoid national service a sweeping exemption from the personal sanctions that would be leveled on ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.

A statement from Yisrael Beytenu decried the decision of the committee to “grant special treatment to the Arab-Israeli community and award it with an exemption from national service.” The party also announced that it planned to submit a bill of its own, countering the Committee’s proposed legislation, that would “mandate an equal share of the burden among all segments of society.”

Representatives of the committee, for their part, slammed Yisrael Beytenu, calling its decision to bolt the panel “the populist maneuver of a party that’s good at preaching an equal share in the burden but has no real intention of advancing initiatives to promote [such equality].”

“Today the committee adopted as a national priority the principle of service for all Israeli citizens,” the committee said in a statement. “Yisrael Beytenu has opted to foment discord instead of persisting in the joint work that will bring about the inclusion of tens of thousands of Israeli citizens in serving. It’s a shame that political interests have superseded any sense of responsibility, making it difficult to take advantage of this historic opportunity to implement a comprehensive, balanced solution and effect real change.”