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

Liberman says he will submit bill in 2 days; Rivlin: I'll seek to extend Knesset session if gov't service bill on table.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
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.
The foreign minister said that any bill by which haredim could defer service until their mid-20s was a surrender. "I hear people say 18 is not realistic. It's very realistic. There are enough challenges in medicine, hospitals, firefighting, education [for national service.] In two or three months, we can raise the entire system. I hope everyone with common sense votes with us. I hope we have a majority. We won't give up."
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."
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Yisrael Beytenu released a YouTube video titled “One citizenship, one obligation, one opportunity, one vote.” The clip warns that, if current trends continue, the majority of Israelis will not enlist in the IDF or do national service, and calls support for their universal service bill.
Meanwhile on Monday, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said that he would seek to extend the Knesset's summer session if the government were to submit a universal service bill to the Knesset next week.
Next week is scheduled to be the last week of the current Knesset session, but Rivlin stated that he would ask the Knesset House Committee to extend the term for the purposes of discussing a bill to replace the Tal Law.  The Tal Law, which allows the framework for haredi Torah students to indefinitely defer IDF service, expires on July 31.
"If the committee rejects my request, I intend on continuing the last Knesset session into the recess until the discussions end and the bill is approved," Rivlin said.
"This is an issue which must be determined. The Knesset cannot cut off the discussion while an answer is being formulated simply because a recess is scheduled," he added.
Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.