For more than 20 years, I have been part of Israel's military establishment, serving in the Israel Defense Forces reserves. I fought in two wars, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, and I never tried to get out of serving in the army. I always thought that my duty as a loyal citizen and Zionist was to do my part, despite the discomfort and the many risks involved. My children did the same thing. They also fulfilled their obligation as citizens and served in the IDF. In just three years, my oldest grandchild will also be called to serve. He too will open the mailbox and find the well-known brown envelope from the recruiting office calling him for duty. He will do it willingly, with a deep sense of commitment, just like his father and grandfather before him. I didn't participate in the massive demonstrations of reservists in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, but I certainly identified with anyone who did take part, because we have reached the moment of truth. The reality that only 40 percent of citizens among those who reach age 18 are enlisting in the IDF can't continue. The reality in which those who do their civic duty and volunteer for combat units consider themselves to be suckers must end immediately. Men in yeshivas in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Beersheba and Ashkelon need to understand that they are part of this country and they must also bear some of the burden. People expect them to do something. They must follow in the footsteps of Yehuda Meshi Zahav, who was born and raised in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood, and who in his youth, as part of the extreme, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta group and as the chief operations officer of the Edah Haredit organization, participated in protest operations against state institutions. Zahav was able to change his mode of thinking. He founded Zaka, a voluntary community emergency response team. Zaka assists ambulance crews; aids in the identification of the victims of terrorism, road accidents and other disasters; and, where necessary, gathers body parts and spilled blood for proper burial. Just as 2,400 haredim enlisted in the IDF and national service last year, other haredim need to do so as well. They must prove to the Israeli public that it is important to them to do their part, either in uniform or not, in frameworks such as the haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion, Magen David Adom (Israeli national emergency medical service), the air force or the firefighters. We all expect the haredim and their rabbis to understand that current events dictate their participation in society. This is an opportunity they must not miss out on. They must do so of their own volition, like the 200 yeshiva students who started national service last week; not by force, but out of a deep and healthy understanding of their duty to this country.
