How should army veterans be assisted?

In a recent Israel Hayom Weekend Magazine article, Dan Margalit responded to a recent piece that we wrote in Maariv, detailing our opposition to the proposed Knesset bill which would favor military or national service veterans for civil service.

Our article was odd, Margalit said. We disagree.

The proposed bill, as we understand it, distorts the very mechanism of affirmative action and violates that sacred notion of equal opportunity employment. The bill, in its current form, takes the basic principle of equality that forms our Basic Law -- the principle of human dignity and liberty -- and disfigures it.

Others who analyzed the proposed bill had similar reactions. The Knesset's legal advisor, the chairwoman of the Equal Employment Commission and members of the Ministry of Justice agree with us. Even the attorney general himself, Yehuda Weinstein, took the unusual step of petitioning the prime minister to halt the bill.

Even as he admitted that "service graduates today enjoy a de facto advantage when attempting to enter public service," Margalit said he was surprised by our viewpoint. In Israel, it is understood that military service should provide veterans with leadership skills an the ability to perform under pressure. Most of those currently employed by the civil service, especially in senior positions, are those that have completed military service, and applicants expect their time in the IDF to be considered when the seek a civil service position.

It is for precisely these reasons that we are opposed to legal action that applies so-called affirmative action in integrating veterans into the civil service. Affirmative action has noble, significant applications, and there are of course other groups who are severely underrepresented in the civil service. It is for these groups that the affirmative action program was intended, not for those completing the army.

Margalit claims that military veterans enjoy no significant advantage in the employment market. As evidence, he references the recent phenomenon of soldiers taking extended absences from their jobs to perform reserve duty, only to return and find they have been replaced at work. A closer look, however, reveals no connection between this unfortunate trend and the bill at hand. The law being proposed does not deal with any sort of discrimination against reserve soldiers. Certainly this discrimination, which is rampant in the private sector and not the civil one, must be firmly dealt with. But it in no way justifies adopting a far-reaching policy of favoritism toward those who have completed military or national service.

Veterans begin college three years later than their peers who do not serve in the military, Margalit writes, therefore beginning their university studies at an inherent disadvantage. While this fact is true, it too cannot be used to justify the use of affirmative action. These same veterans who initially found themselves lagging behind students who matriculated to college straight from high school are no longer at any sort of disadvantage once they complete their degrees and begin applying for civil service positions. If anything, an applicant who has a college degree as well as military or national service background will be favored next to an applicant who holds only a B.A.

Margalit actually provides the proper solution himself when it comes to the three "lost years" they spend in service, veterans can be compensated in the form of larger release grants. That is exactly our point: Grants and financial benefits after military release are the most effective way to honor our veterans and also compensate them for the years they spent serving our country.

There is no question that those who serve our country deserve recognition and fair compensation for their sacrifice. The question, then, is what is the proper way in which this admiral goal can be achieved? Our opinion -- and that of the experts who support us -- is that preferred access into the civil service is unjustified, especially as other groups who truly need affirmative action would be marginalized as a result.

A civil service composed of individuals from various social groups ensures that the state governs its citizens equally, following the tenets it committed to itself in its declaration of independence. Veterans can easily receive the benefit they deserve without inflicting a fatal blow to equal opportunity, and without distorting the definition of affirmative action.

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