Yishai: Scholarships Won’t Require IDF Service in 2008
Yishai: Scholarships Won’t Require IDF Service in 2008(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor Eli Yishai (Shas) announced Thursday that the ministry’s scholarship program would not give priority next year to students who had finished IDF or national service, or had been disqualified for service due to poor health. The announcement followed an accusation by an organization promoting higher education for Arabs, which said that scholarship program discriminated against Arab students.
While Israeli Arabs are allowed to enlist in the IDF or national service, the vast majority choose not to, and so do not receive the benefits offered to former soldiers. According to the organization for Arab students, such benefits are “in practice, discrimination against Arab students based on their national background.” Yishai said that the issue would be investigated by ministry officials, and that the benefits to former soldiers would be cancelled in the meantime.
So why should any body serve in the IDF?
If Israeli Arabs choose not to serve then why should they be given special treatment?
Israel is rapidly moving towards a point of no return in the Knesset's war on the issue of should Israel be a Jewish State. This newest attack against patriotic members of the Israeli society comes from a member of Shas a religious political party.
We have had the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff this week speak out against secular draft dodgers and then, we get this?
Again, I ask why should anyone serve in the IDF?
