Plesner says he trusts PM’s ‘good judgment’ to implement proposals on ultra-Orthodox IDF service

MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima) on Wednesday presented the recommendations of his Knesset panel for boosting the participation of ultra-Orthodox Israelis in military service.

He said he had received “full backing” from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said “I trust his judgment” to implement the proposals — even though the prime minister disbanded the committee earlier in the week.

The key recommendations include exemptions from service for 1,500 exceptional Torah scholars per year; military service of 24 months or national service of 18 months for ultra-Orthodox conscripts; and personal sanctions for those who avoid service. He said a plan for national service for Israeli Arabs should be drafted and finalized by next March.

In an interview with Maariv, part of which was published online on Wednesday, Plesner said, “I have not doubt that any proposal I would have brought to the ultra-Orthodox would have been rejected,” Plesner said.

The Prime Minister’s Office would not confirm when Netanyahu would meet with Kadima head Shaul Mofaz over the panel’s findings.

“[Netanyahu] is constantly working on finding legislation that would pass in the Knesset,” a spokesperson said.

Shortly after noon, Mofaz convened a party meeting to study the report’s recommendations.

The goal had been to achieve “greater equality,” Plesner said in a press conference held to present the recommendations, adding that his panel had been motivated by Israel’s security needs, the need for national solidarity, and economic imperatives.

Members of the panel had “abandoned” the effort along the way, he acknowledged. But, employing a military metaphor, he said he was “determined to carry the stretcher forward to the end of the march.”

The panel was guided by the principle of “equal service for all,” he said. Its recommendations also followed the principle of “personal responsibility,” he said, which meant that draft-dodgers should pay a personal price for avoiding military service.

Plesner called for the recommendations, which are intended to replace the expiring Tal Law, to be implemented right away. The Tal Law, which was declared unconstitutional by the High Court earlier this year, allowed for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to avoid enlisting in the military.

“The implementation of this new law must be immediate because we have a constitutional need,” he said. “The arrangement that allows the ultra-Orthodox to defer their enlistment expires at the end of July and we must avoid having a situation with 60,000 draft dodgers. All of the ultra-Orthodox will enlist except for a small group.”

Under his plan, ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students would need to register for the draft at age 17, and continue to do so annually until age 22, when they would be forced to enlist in military service, civilian national service, or a third option to be determined by the Defense Ministry and a yeshiva committee.

Students who joined up before age 22 would receive extra benefits, he said, and those who avoid the draft would face fines.

“We chose a slow, measured solution that takes into account the needs of the population. We thought it right to allow a delayed enlistment, but [it must be] while the men are still young enough to properly share the burden,” he said.

Also among Plesner’s recommendations is the reduction of the length of mandatory service for all men in the IDF. “The government should order implementation of the first phase of a shortened military service for IDF soldiers,” Plesner said.

He recommended reducing the length of mandatory service for all men in the IDF from the current requirement of 36 months to 32 months, beginning in 2013, with the possibility of a further reduction to 28 months in the more distant future.

Any soldier choosing to remain in the IDF more than 32 months would receive an additional NIS 3,000 per month, according to the recommendation.

This recommendation is in accordance with the findings and proposals made by the Ben-Bassat Commission in January 2006, which had been appointed by then-defense minister Shaul Mofaz, who was charged with exploring the possibility of reducing the period of compulsory military service.

Plesner’s press conference was repeatedly interrupted by MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), who complained that the panel’s “racist” findings had not addressed the need for Israeli Arabs to perform national service.

The MK was removed from the room at Plesner’s request.

MK Haim Amsallem, who is starting a new party based on a platform of integrating ultra-Orthodox into national life, said he accepted the findings for the most part.

“Let’s open a new page of unity among the Jewish people,” he said.

Netanyahu had sought to prevent the Plesner committee from releasing its recommendations, preferring to resolve the controversy surrounding its findings out of the public eye.

Following the release of the 100-page report, Kadima head Shaul Mofaz was expected to meet with Netanyahu. At stake in the meeting could be the survival of the coalition in its present form, as Kadima has threatened to join the opposition if Netanyahu refuses to accept the committee’s recommendations.

The creation of the Plesner panel, tasked with drafting universal enlistment legislation, was one of the main tenets of Kadima’s agreement to join the coalition in May. Netanyahu disbanded the committee on Monday, and Kadima responded by threatening to leave the government.

Netanyahu is reportedly willing to accept many of the committee’s recommendations, but wanted to keep the panel’s findings under wraps.

On Wednesday morning MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) said that he expected Netanyahu to accept the majority of proposals laid down by the Plesner committee in order to keep Kadima in the coalition, Israel Radio reported.

On Tuesday the prime minister sent a message to Mofaz saying that “our viewpoints are not so different — with a meeting we can reach a conclusion,” according to the Israel Hayom daily.

Netanyahu reportedly scrapped the panel after ultra-Orthodox parties objected to the sanctions on those who don’t serve. Several members of the panel defected over the issues of sanctions and service for Arabs in the days before the committee was disbanded.

While the government has said it wants to draft the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs into some sort of national service, Haredi groups have threatened mass protest if forced to serve. Shas party spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef said Tuesday that his party would bolt the coalition if sanctions go through.

Netanyahu enlisted the assistance of his ousted former bureau chief Natan Eshel to convince Plesner not to publish the committee’s report. But Plesner was quoted on Tuesday night as saying that he would present the committee’s findings as planned on Wednesday morning, and that “the ball will then be in the court of the politicians.”

In order to preserve the coalition, Netanyahu has attempted several times since Monday to meet with Kadima head Shaul Mofaz. On Monday Mofaz said that he would not meet with Netanyahu until after the findings were published, and hinted he would reconsider the party’s future in the coalition.

Eshel reportedly spoke with a number of Kadima MKs on Tuesday to persuade them not to break away from the unity government, as several had vowed to do earlier in the day.

Eshel, who was ousted from the Prime Minister’s Bureau following a sexual harassment scandal involving a colleague, had earlier been revealed to have been a key part in putting the wide coalition together.

Describing the current government as dysfunctional, Labor Party head Shelly Yachimovich called Tuesday for the Knesset to be dissolved and for early elections to be set.

“The elections were scheduled for September and staved off by the cynical survival exercise of Likud and Kadima, which left them in a huge, useless coalition that cannot even produce a reasonable consensus around the Tal Law,” Yachimovich said.