BREAKING NEWS

FM vows to submit bill requiring all 18-yr-olds to serve

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN

JULY 16, 2012 14:54

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Monday that in the face of the government's failure to come to a compromise by which haredim and minorities will be drafted, his Yisrael Beytenu faction will submit a bill mandating IDF or national service by all 18-year-olds on Wednesday.

Speaking at a Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting, Liberman called on the Likud and Kadima to "bring the simplest bill possible without acts or tricks" to implement universal service.

Liberman stated that only economic sanctions against ultra-Orthodox students who do not serve would prove effective. "Jailing them would play into their hands. We would make them into holy sacrifices. If a haredi knows he won't get support and his yeshiva knows it won't get funding – that is the most effective" way of ensuring the ultra-Orthodox serve, Liberman said.

The foreign minister said that economic sanctions would also be effective in enlisting Arab Israelis into national service. "If minorities know they won't get any unemployment or other benefits and cannot be state workers, it can work."

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