One of the hot topics on the table (on both a governmental level and a grass-roots organizational level) is the question of whether or not Israeli Arabs should be required (or urged) to do some form of national service.

Israeli Arabs have always been exempt from serving in the army, as a humanitarian concession. Israel recognizes that Arabs living in Israel may very well have relatives living a few kilometers away, in other nations - and the State of Israel does not want to force their citizens to fight their brethren. That said, there have always been a sizable number of Israeli Arabs who have volunteered for the army, some even making it up to elite units. The Bedouin people are a strong example of this. Their sons often serve in the elite tracking units, and have been invaluable to their country.

I want to be clear, I am not advocating that Israel start drafting its Arab citizens. I do want to talk about the idea of national service. National Service is often used as an alternative to serving in the army. Volunteers work in schools, elderly home-care, hospitals, community centers, etc. They create youth programs to help keep their kids off the streets. In essence, they can give back to the community that they grew up in, and at the same time, help to develop that community.

This conversation about mandatory national service is not complete without mentioning the other sector of the Israeli population that does not serve in the army. What began as an exemption for a few hundred ultra-Orthodox men to study Torah instead of serving in the army when the State was created, has turned into an almost blanket exemption policy for the ultra-Orthodox. The only caveat is that they need to be “studying Torah” - so they also can not be working and earning a living. This results in the majority of ultra-Orthodox Jews living beneath the poverty line. It is the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods that are among the poorest, least educated neighborhoods in Israel. These neighborhoods are rife with sexual assault, mobs, gangs, and an active black-market.

I see many similarities between these two populations - both of whom I believe should be required to do a year or two of national service. Both populations are living on welfare provided by the government, often by tax-payers dollars - and neither are paying taxes. Both populations live in poor conditions - and both communities have a lot to gain being served by their youth.

Let’s talk for a minute about the benefits of national service. The benefits to the community seem self-evident. The benefits to the volunteers can be that they gain a sense of pride and accomplishment; they make job connections for their future; they see themselves as adults who can directly impact their society; and they take personal ownership over the welfare of their people. Although I do think a lot can be gained by having cross-cultural, mixed groups of people working together - neither the Israeli Arabs nor the ultra-Orthodox Jews are very interested in mingling with the “other”. And for the first step, I think it is enough that they serve their own communities before branching out and serving others.

A man far more brilliant than I, once wrote that men who fight together in the army will never fight each other on the street. Israel’s army brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds - right, left, secular, religious, socialist, capitalist, Israeli born, Russian born, Ethiopian born, etc. No matter how different your political or religious views are from one another, the army forces you to put a face to the label. And once you have a face to that label, you may disagree but you won’t be violent against them.

It seems to me that if we have a hope for peace (Israeli Jews and Arabs) and if we have a hope of maintaining one state that respects one another (the ultra-Orthodox and everyone else), we need to create an experience that integrates the ultra-Orthodox, the Israeli Arabs and everyone else together - in a way that both simulates the army bonding experience and at the same time, does not force people to fight when they don’t want to. A mandatory National Service program seems like a win-win solution all around.