Facing manpower shortage, government backs raising mandatory IDF service to 3 years
Attorney General’s Office questions legality of measure, calling on government to take ‘immediate steps’ to ‘increase the equality of the burden’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The government on Sunday voted to back a bill lengthening mandatory service for male Israel Defense Forces soldiers to three years, in an attempt to alleviate manpower shortages caused by ongoing hostilities on the northern border and the war in Gaza.
According to the proposed legislation, which is expected to be passed in an expedited manner, for the next five years, male soldiers will serve 36 months, meaning the order will effectively cover a period of eight years.
The decision will apply to soldiers currently serving, as well as to women serving in positions whose service period is equal to that of men in the same roles. All soldiers who serve more than 28 months will receive an unspecified bonus.
At the end of the period, army service will return to the current 32-month term.
The IDF is suffering manpower shortages caused by the hostilities on the northern border and the ongoing war in Gaza, which began on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Political infighting
Advancement of the extension had been held up due to a dispute on the matter between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
Smotrich has been highly critical of the defense establishment in recent months, fighting over budgets and senior appointments in the wake of October 7.
They reached a compromise after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally intervened, enabling the security cabinet to send the bill for government approval.
Gallant and Smotrich were reportedly divided on two key issues: Gallant wanted the extension to last for ten years to rebuild the army’s fighting power, while the Finance Ministry wanted to keep the order to just five years because lengthening service for soldiers impacts the economy by keeping them out of the workforce.
Additionally, the Finance Ministry wanted the service extension to be linked to soldiers’ roles in the forces, with combat troops serving the full three years, but noncombat soldiers getting an earlier release, though also less pay.
The Defense Ministry, for its part, insisted that such a program could only be implemented in another two or three years when there is a clearer picture as to whether there is a need for more soldiers in non-frontline roles.
A legal complication
Writing to Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon argued that it is “not possible to place the burden of service solely on specific segments of the population” and that any move to extend service for some must be made as part of an overarching arrangement to arrive at “a fair and equitable distribution of the burden of military service.”
As such, the constitutionality of the extension stands in direct relation to the defense establishment’s efforts to increase recruitment among ultra-Orthodox Jews, Limon wrote — calling on the government to take “immediate steps” to “increase the equality of the burden.”
Limon’s letter was criticized by former cabinet member and New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, who said it failed to mention how extending mandatory service would reduce the burden on reservists and argued that leaving Israelis without a sufficient military defense would violate their fundamental right to life.
The cabinet versus Gallant
During last week’s cabinet meeting, Gallant faced scorn from fellow ministers, including Netanyahu, over his push to extend soldiers’ terms while refusing to back a controversial Haredi draft bill unless it earned broad consensus in the Knesset, including from opposition lawmakers.
Netanyahu reportedly called Gallant’s stance on the Haredi draft bill “the height of cynicism and politicization.”
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently working on an ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill that chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) has also said will advance only if there is “broad agreement,” angering Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox, who see it as the only way to prevent a mass mobilization of yeshiva students.
If passed, the legislation would set the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students at 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
Gallant was the only member of the coalition to vote last month against reviving the bill, which initially passed its first reading under the previous government.
The defense minister recently announced that, in line with last month’s High Court of Justice ruling that there is no legal basis for exempting ultra-Orthodox men from the military draft, the IDF will begin mobilizing Haredim in August.
However, even though the military currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers, Gallant told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier this month that it can only accommodate the enlistment of an additional 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men this year, which would be in addition to the 1,800 Haredi soldiers who are drafted annually.
Political criticism
While current military realities make the move to extend terms of service necessary, it must be accompanied by the passage of a service outline for the ultra-Orthodox “to ensure that in a few years, we can again shorten the service and distribute it more equitably,” declared former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz.
“He who has the courage to send soldiers into battle should also be expected to have the courage to endanger his coalition for the sake of Israel’s security,” he tweeted.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer accused the government of “spitting in the face of IDF fighters” by working to extend their service “while continuing to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from conscription.”
Ahead of the vote, the centrist Yesh Atid party tweeted a photo of several far-right and ultra-Orthodox ministers, accusing them of “sending only those who are politically convenient for them to the battlefield.”
Brothers in Arms, a protest group founded by reserve soldiers, also panned the government’s decision to back the bill, accusing Gallant of adding to the burden of those already serving while “illegally” refraining from sending call-up notices to all eligible Haredim.
Another extension
In another move to keep up the military’s size, the government is also working to pass legislation delaying retirement for IDF reservists by extending a temporary measure passed last December.
However, last month Edelstein held up that bill at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, claiming he would only advance it for votes in the plenum if there is a broad consensus on that too.
If passed, the law would extend a temporary measure raising the exemption age for reserve military service from 40 to 41 for soldiers and from 45 to 46 for officers for several additional months due to a manpower shortage amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
