Israel’s Silent Crisis, Part II: The Gap Between Reservists’ Lives and Public Policy

Key Takeaways

Israel’s reserve service crisis is driven less by compensation gaps or exemptions and more by structural instability and an imbalanced distribution of service obligations.
Economic incentives matter, but they cannot succeed without parallel reforms that remove rewards for draft exemptions and avoidance.
Any effective solution must link benefits and obligation into a single, coherent framework defining who is compensated by the state, and why.
From both a policy and electoral perspective, the continued imbalance in reserve service is politically unsustainable.

The Gap Between Reservists’ Lives and Public Policy

When I wrote about Israel’s silent crisis among reservists, I did not anticipate either the volume or the nature of the responses that followed.

I heard from reservists, spouses, employers, and fellow commanders. Many reached out simply to say thank you, not for sympathy, but for articulating a reality they had been living quietly. Others went further. They shared the argument publicly and added a critical point of their own: something must change, not only for those already serving, but in how military service is distributed across Israeli society.

Again and again, the same message surfaced: this imbalance cannot continue to fall on the same people, in the same life stage, year after year. Support matters, but fairness matters just as much.

This discussion has now moved squarely into the political arena. Lived experience is forcing its way into policy debate, including around the coalition’s draft law and the broader question of who is expected to serve, and at what cost.

Why the Reserve Service Crisis Is Structural, Not Abstract

For many reservists, the strain is not theoretical, ideological, or even primarily financial. It is lived, day to day.

It looks like:

Missing another parent-teacher conference
Explaining, again, to an employer why you are leaving mid-project
A partner carrying the household alone for months at a time
The growing sense that civilian life is something you visit, not something you fully inhabit

These pressures do not disappear with a grant or a benefit.

Financial tools matter, but they are insufficient when operating alongside a deeper issue: instability. Repeated call-ups, unclear timelines, and the erosion of a predictable civilian rhythm are at the heart of the crisis. Israel’s security reality may limit predictability, but it does not excuse ignoring the cost of instability.

Any policy response that treats reserve service as a short-term economic inconvenience, rather than a long-term structural imbalance, will miss the mark. Those expected to drop everything with little or no notice must be compensated accordingly.

Why Economic Incentives Matter in Israel’s Reservist Policy

From a policy-making perspective in the Knesset, incentives are not cosmetic. They are functional. Their logic is not theoretical; it is observable.

Incentives:

Change behavior
Signal state priorities
Translate values into enforceable systems

Housing assistance, childcare support, education benefits, and employment protections are not “nice to have.” They are concrete acknowledgments that reserve service carries real, measurable costs to families, careers, and mental health.

In that sense, a comprehensive incentive package, when paired with structural reform, is serious policy, not symbolism.

Why Incentives Alone Cannot Fix the Fairness Problem

Here is the central limitation that too many proposals avoid.

No incentive framework can succeed if it operates alongside parallel systems that reward non-participation.

Any draft law, no matter how generous, will fail if it coexists with:

Broad exemptions without consequence
Social and political arrangements that entrench avoidance
A shrinking pool of reservists carrying a growing share of the load

In such an environment, benefits do not restore fairness. They merely compensate those who continue to serve while others are structurally protected from obligation.

This is not a moral argument. It is a systemic one.

What a Coherent Reserve Service Reform Must Include

A sustainable solution must rebalance obligation and recognition simultaneously. That requires two parallel moves:

Removing structural incentives for avoidance
Properly recognizing service, through meaningful benefits that reflect the real cost of reserve duty

Without both elements, incentives become a pressure valve rather than a solution, making an unsustainable system slightly more tolerable while leaving its core imbalance intact.

Reservists are not asking to be rewarded for heroism. They are asking not to be treated as an endlessly elastic resource.

Evaluating the Policy, Not the Politics

Engaging seriously with proposals currently in circulation does not require endorsing the politicians behind them. Nor does acknowledging their limits negate their value.

Reducing this debate to political camps or electoral slogans is a mistake.

Reservists do not live in abstractions. They live in:

Calendars
WhatsApp messages from home
Quiet calculations about whether they can afford, personally, professionally, and emotionally, to keep saying yes

Based on public opinion data and electoral trends, it is increasingly clear that this issue resonates far beyond the reservist community itself.

The Standard Any Reform Must Meet

If the past year has clarified anything, it is this: Israel’s security depends not only on military capability, but on whether those asked to step away from their lives can still recognize those lives when they return.

That is the standard any reform must meet.

Not how generous it sounds, but whether it moves Israel toward a system in which:

Contribution is properly incentivized
Reserve service is sustainable over time
Recognition is paired with real structural change

Some may argue that this position reflects a conflict of interest. I would argue the opposite.

Applying a veil of ignorance: if you did not know who would serve, for how long, or at what cost to their family and livelihood, would you design a different system?

If the answer is yes, then it is time to say so out loud for the sake of a more just society, and for a Jewish, democratic, and secure Israel.

Jeremy Saltan is a political analyst, strategist and Knesset insider known for his work in the center-right and national-religious sectors of Israeli politics. Over the past 15 years, Saltan has worked as a legislative and political advisor in and around the Knesset and held appointed and elected positions within national and municipal Israeli politics. Among his most recent prominent positions, he served as Knesset Faction Secretary of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party during the previous administration, he served as an Israeli board member of the World Jewish Congress from 2021-2023 and was a member of the Central Election Committee that organized the 25th Knesset elections.

Saltan publishes opinion pieces in the Israeli press and appears on television as an expert on Israeli foreign policy, national security challenges and domestic politics. Among his recent work can be found the advocation for a “new national camp” as part of the philosophy of a “Jewish, democratic and secure” Israel. Saltan has a MA in international security and diplomacy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.