There is an internal problem in Israel that must be faced. It is not as serious as the one concerning the reform of the Supreme Court of this nation. That one called forth mass protests, and God forbid!, threats from IDF officers not to do their duty.
To what am I referring? It is to the fact that the army draft will now include all men of a certain age, including members of the Chasidic community who have long been exempt from this obligation. When the country began in 1948, there were so few such folk that this was not such a serious problem, although it was still unjust to include some and not others. But as the size of this demographic grew, and with the advent of the war begun by Hamas with its atrocity of Oct. 7, 2023, more and more soldiers were needed, and more and more citizens began to resent this unequal treatment.
What to do about this difficult situation? I have several suggestions.
First, keep the draft and apply it to all otherwise legal candidates, certainly including the ultra-Orthodox. This will take the wind out of the sails of those who correctly see the unfairness of previous arrangements in this regard.
Second, allow people to buy their way out of military service. Allow a free enterprise marketplace that will enable draftees to arrange with each other the purchase and sale of required duty to the IDF.
Stipulate, arguendo, that the Haredim are truly far more passionate about avoiding service as soldiers than are others. This will enable them to disproportionately circumvent such a duty and stick to their Talmudic studies. The average Israeli unhappy with the previous system can hardly object since this option would be open to all. This is one of the benefits of the free enterprise system: it allows participants to register the degree of their desires with the coin of the realm.
Is this a hare-brained scheme? Well, maybe so, in the view of some. However, it has the benefit of actually being employed. It was utilized during the War Between the States in the US in the early 1860s and functioned reasonably well. The only difficulty with this scheme is that the Haredi are amongst the poorest part of the population in Israeli society. Very few young rabbis will be able to benefit from this policy.
Third, the Israeli government should award families for the number of children they bear. The ultra-Orthodox, on average, have larger families than the less religious. This, too, is a contribution to the viability of the country. Fair is fair. They should be rewarded for this positive input. It would be non-discriminatory since it would apply to all.
Needless to say, this would allow more Haredim to honorably escape military service.
I am an anarcho-capitalist libertarian. How do I come to be offering this sort of advice to the only civilized country in the Middle East? How can I reconcile this recommendation with my philosophical perspective? If truth be told, the best thing for Israel, in my view, would be to entirely disband its government. Then, private defense agencies would better take care of safety than this illegitimate institution. The modern-day equivalents of Irgun, Stern (Lehi), Hagenah, and Palmach would have long ago made sure that Iran had no nuclear capability. They would have pulverized Hamas in the present war and not lost over 400 precious Israeli soldiers with only, so far, partial success. These groups did pretty well in 1948; for all intents and purposes, they were the IDF at that time.
Even from a more moderate libertarian position, the perspective from which I wrote my 2021 book The Classical Liberal Case for Israel (co-authored with Alan G. Futerman), the military draft and child subsidies would be strictly prohibited. How, then, these suggestions of mine? This is due to the fact that I am also a social scientist and fascinated with addressing challenges such as this one.
