Former IAF general running in Democrats primary says next gov’t will ensure all Israelis perform national service

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Nimrod Sheffer, a candidate in the left-leaning Democrats party’s July 20 primary, says the next government will ensure all Israelis perform national service.

Speaking at a poorly attended weekly anti-government protest in Tel Aviv, Sheffer accuses the government of not advancing equal military conscription in order to safeguard the coalition, whose ultra-Orthodox members demand codification of their community’s blanket exemption from the draft.

“Israel needs equality, in both rights and burdens, like it needs air,” he tells the roughly 250 people assembled at Habima Square, roughly half the usual recent attendance.

“We’ll ensure in the next government that all segments of Israeli society will contribute their share in military or civil service,” he says.

Sheffer says “our struggle” is “not ‘against,’ but ‘in favor.'”

“In favor of the rule of law; in favor of equality in the state of Israel; in favor of the belonging of all of us… to the Israeli civic covenant,” Sheffer says.

The former Air Force general, whose party comprises what remains of Israel’s historic left-wing Zionist factions, makes no explicit mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Other speakers at the rally also rail against the Haredi exemption from the draft.

“To all the draft dodgers, you should know — you’ll be drafted whether you like it or not,” says Eliad Shraga, head of the Movement for Quality Government anti-corruption watchdog, which has organized the Habima demonstration in recent weeks.

Looking out on the sparse crowd, Shraga says: “It’s true, we’re few at the square today.”

Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Roni was killed at the Nahal Oz IDF base in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, concurs.

“Maybe there aren’t many people at the square today, but the voice of sanity… will win and set the tone for years to come,” he says.