Bennett: Most coalition party leaders are draft dodgers or failed to serve in any meaningful way

While the majority of Israelis have shown unity in purpose, reporting for reserve duty again and again, most of the leaders of the government are either draft dodgers or failed to serve in any meaningful way, former prime minister Naftali Bennett declares at a tech conference in Ness Ziona.

“Those serving are the millions of Israelis who get up to work every day, pay taxes and also do reserve duty and give to the state. But there is an anomaly… Five out of six coalition party leaders are either draft dodgers or have evaded significant military service,” declares Bennett, a former member of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkal unit.

“The heads of the state today are working day and night to find ways to transfer billions to continue the same evasion. So there is a nation with a majority that serves, being led by a leadership that pushes evasion, and that must change, and the people want the big change,” he continues.

In fact, two of the six coalition party leaders had what Bennett would describe as “meaningful” army service.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the Otzma Yehudit chairman, was rejected from compulsory service in the IDF because of extremist activism in his youth, though he has claimed he campaigned to be drafted despite the rejection.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Religious Zionism chairman, served for 14 months in the operations division of the General Staff at the age of 28.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri served three months in the IDF when he was in his late 20s. Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, the United Torah Judaism chairman, did not serve at all.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, the New Hope chairman, served in the IDF’s Golani Brigade. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud chairman, was, like Bennett, a commando in Sayeret Matkal.