Netanyahu promises military draft reform Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister has vowed to push ahead with a "historic" reform of the military draft, in a bid to force more ultra-Orthodox Jews and members of Israel's Arab minority to perform national service. The promise on Sunday followed days of intense pressure both from his centrist coalition partners and from the Israeli street. Discontent with the draft regime culminated in a mass demonstration on Saturday night, when tens of thousands of largely secular Israelis marched through Tel Aviv demanding that all parts of the population share the burden of military and national service. Neither the army, the economy nor society can continue on the current path. I completely understand the demand of those who serve and their families," Mr Netanyahu said ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. We are citizens of one state and we must all participate in bearing the burden of service to the state. We intend to give positive incentives to those who serve, negative incentives to those who evade and to enact genuine enforcement measures. The goal, Mr Netanyahu added, was to bring about a "dramatic increase in the participation of the ultra-Orthodox and Arab publics in bearing the burden." Under the current regime, the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are known as Haredim, and Israeli Palestinians are exempted from military service. Young Haredi men are excused from service as long as they devote their lives to religious study. The Arab community, meanwhile, has been largely exempt because it was deemed unreasonable to involve them in a conflict with their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. However, the ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities account for about a third of the Israeli population, and form the fastest-growing social groups. Their rapid demographic rise has heightened the sense among other Israelis that the draft exemptions are increasingly unfair and can no longer be maintained. That mood was expressed forcefully at Saturday's street demonstration, which was billed as the protest of the "suckers" - mainstream Israelis who feel they carry a disproportionate share of the financial and defence burden in the country. "We think that enough is enough," said Maoz Haviv, a protester wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan Equal Service for Everybody. "As citizens of this country we have to share all the rights and all the duties," he added. Analysts and officials agree that drafting the Haredim and Israeli Palestinians into the army or, more likely, encouraging them to perform an alternative form of service in hospitals and other social institutions, will be difficult. According to one Israeli official, the government hopes to allay Haredi and Arab concerns by implementing any reform only incrementally. Mr Netanyahu faces not least a formidable political obstacle in the shape of his Haredi coalition partners. It was opposition from within his coalition that led the prime minister last week to disband an earlier committee tasked with reforming the draft system. That move caused anger among Mr Netanyahu's partners in Kadima, the centrist party that joined the government in May. Shaul Mofaz, the Kadima leader, will now be part of a new team tasked with formulating a revised military service law by next Sunday. Asked about the likely Haredi opposition to any draft overhaul, an adviser to the prime minister said on Sunday: "We don't expect the Haredi parties to vote in favour of reform - but we hope the coalition remains intact."