Today's Situation

HALF THE NATION, July 31, 2007

The thorny issue of draft avoidance by a growing number of Israel youth is back on the front pages of two of Israel's leading dailies on Tuesday, following comments made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak at a evening in memory of Haaretz's veteran military commentator Ze'ev Schiff, how passed away last month.

In the lead story in Yedioth Ahronoth, Barak is quoted as warning that the growing number of youth who dodge the draft will eventually harm national security and turn the IDF from a 'people's army' into an 'army of half the people.'

'When a soldier who goes out to the battlefield feels like a sucker, this harms national security,' Barak said during the conference at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security. He added that Israel needed to return to the days when military service was something to be proud of and draft dodgers carried the mark of Cain. Barak added that Israel's true heroes were those who served in the IDF.

According to recent reports, statistics show a sharp rise in the number of teenagers dodging military service. The total reaches one in four of youth born in 1989 and scheduled to enlist in the IDF this summer.

Haaretz leads its Tuesday edition with a plan being floated by the Finance Ministry that aims to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox men in the workforce. Under current laws, any yeshiva student who has been exempted from military service to pursue religious studies could be drafted into the army should he decide to leave his studies and seek employment. The new proposal would grant a permanent exemption from military service to any ultra-Orthodox man aged 23 or over who is married with at least two children. If adopted, the change would effectively annul the controversial Tal Law, which regulated the postponement of military service for ultra-Orthodox men.

The Jerusalem Post, meanwhile, leads with comments from unnamed officials in Jerusalem who warn that the massive arms between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia - reported in the U.S. press over the weekend and confirmed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ahead of her trip to the region on Monday - may not ensure more active Saudi involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Rice announced the deal, without going into the specifics of which type of arms would be sold or the total cost of the deal, en route for Egypt, the first leg of her latest Middle East mission. According to Israel Radio, she also rejected Iranian charges that arms deal, and the increase in military aid to Israel and Egypt, would destabilize the region. She said the military aid package was not an issue of quid pro quo in order to get the assistance of moderate Arab regimes, but rather a way to work with these states to fight back extremism and give a chance to the forces of moderation and reform.

Rice said that the Arab countries receiving the weapons all have the same interest in a stable Iraq that can defend itself. She said that if there is destabilization in the region it can be laid at the feet of an Iranian regime. She said the aid was not aimed at shifting the military balance in the region or kicking off a new arms race.

Rice is traveling to the region with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. They will visit jointly Egypt and Saudi Arabia and then Rice is due to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

On the Palestinian issue, Arutz 7 reports that Rice said that the recent split between Fateh and Hamas is not necessarily an obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian Authority-led state in Israel. Rather, she said, the creation of a state would be the 'unifying force' that would lead Palestinians to 'decide whether they are outside the consensus.'

 Rice explained that a Palestinian state would be created 'when conditions are ripe,' and said that the U.S. would refuse to talk with groups such as Hamas that reject the two-state solution. 

In other diplomatic developments, Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa said Monday that peace in the Middle East cannot be completed without an Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory, according to Israel Radio. He said that any international gathering has to be comprehensive and the agenda must be considered carefully.

According to Haaretz, meanwhile, the Israel Foreign Ministry has changed its official policy, and has ordered diplomatic representatives to renew their ties with PLO representatives. Ties were severed some 18 months ago, after Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections. In a statement to Israeli embassies and consulates around the world, the government explained that policy would be changed due to Fateh's split from Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas' decision to establish a Fateh-led emergency government in the West Bank. Several Israeli diplomats have reportedly met with PLO representatives since receiving the new orders.

Finally, the Reuters news agency reports Wednesday that Israel is preparing to remove some of the roadblocks and checkpoints that restrict Palestinian movement in the West Bank, as another gesture to Abbas. The reported quoted sources as saying a list of barriers and restrictions is being compiled to be presented to Olmert and Barak for final approval. One source said it is clear to everybody that these measures should be taken soon.

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