The Israel Defense Force has always relied on its reservist forces, in addition to the core of career officers and conscripts. After an initial three years of compulsory army service, men serve an average of 40 days of reserve duty a year until the age of 45. According to figures from Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, there are some 445,000 reservists in the Israeli army, and just 186,500 full-time soldiers. All of them were drafted at age 18. Students make up about one-quarter of the reserve force.
Recent figures show that only about half of Israeli men serve in the army.
We need a major response to this. The IDF has to re-evaluate the reservist system. During the last five years, as the peace process with the Palestinians appeared to be bearing fruit, Israel relaxed the terms of reserve duty. The army began canceling reserve duty for men older than 45 and planned to cancel call-ups for reservists older than 41. There also was talk of shortening mandatory service for draftees.