A not-so-fictional script: At the age of 18, Rafik from Beit Jann and Aziz from Rahat are inducted into the Israel Defense Forces, while at the same time Orthodox Yosseleh and secular Yossi get out of their army service. Rafik and Aziz spend the next three years sweating through rigorous training exercises by day and freezing during ambushes along the border by night, while Yosseleh and Yossi begin university, work and get drunk. Some years later, as they approach the age of 30, all four vie for the job of manager of the Afula post office. The four reach the final stage head to head, with the same skills and relevant knowledge. Who gets the job? At this point, and only at this point, credit points are added for Rafik and Aziz, who served in the IDF, and not to Yosseleh or Yossi. This is the basic idea of the law proposed by Knesset member Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beitenu), with the support of fellow party member and chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK David Rotem. The law awaits a vote during the upcoming Knesset session. There is opposition, however, by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Minister Benny Begin, and now also Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, who claims that he cannot defend such a law in the Supreme Court. Those who oppose this law are counted among our finest public figures. They do agree that those who serve in the IDF should be compensated, but not through civil service roles. So where and how should they be compensated? No one has provided an alternative solution. The MKs know that the current situation discriminates against those who complete their army service in favor of those who break the law and avoid the draft, but they do not lose sleep over this. No one has yet lifted a finger to change this situation. It is appropriate to point out an amazing fact (if the law passes): During the job application process, Rafik and Aziz would not receive a single credit for their tedious and dangerous service. Only if they reached the finish line evenly matched with other candidates to the point where there was a draw, would they then receive credit points for their military service. What is so bad about that? Indeed, Begin, Weinstein and Rivlin agree that it is appropriate to compensate those who served in the IDF or performed national service. In my opinion, we are talking about a half-hearted and lackluster proposal for a law. The president of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Professor Uriel Reichman, decided that soldiers who had served in combat units would get preferential treatment for academic studies. He was not the first. After World War II, the United States government rightly gave preferential treatment to those returning from Europe and the Far East. It is common practice in many countries that have a mandatory draft. Begin and Rivlin claim that such preferences benefit the minority in society and not the majority. However, as MK Tzipi Hotovely pointed out to them, there is a danger that if the deterioration in Israeli society continues, the majority will become the minority, and vice versa. In any case, a compromise is possible. The initiators of this law are continuing to lead it to a final reading in the Knesset, but if a different law is proposed, one which finds a way to compensate soldiers in another reasonable way, Amar and Rotem and their supporters will rescind their support for the current proposal to give preference in civil service positions to those who carried the burden of the country for three years. Time and the absence of an alternative indicate that this law is not an expression of discrimination. Just the opposite, it is affirmative action.
