Conscripting large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Israelis for military service depends on the implementation of hard-hitting, long-term sanctions on draft dodgers, the Finance Ministry told lawmakers in a position paper last Thursday.

In a letter sent to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yogev Gardos, the head of the ministry’s budget department, argued that sanctions would only be effective if they have a significant impact on household income, continue “over a long period of time,” and cannot be bypassed through alternative funding channels.

According to Gardos, benefits that could be cut under a sanctions regime for draft dodgers include daycare subsidies, yeshiva stipends, discounts on National Insurance Institute payments, housing subsidies, and property tax discounts.

Cutting these benefits would be ineffective if the sanctions are limited in duration, however, and should be applied over “a significant period of time,” he stated. “Accordingly, we believe that if an expiration age is set for[an individual to become exempt from these] economic sanctions, it must be an older age that ensures a long period of application.”

Even if both of these points were implemented, any penalties imposed for evasion would continue to fail to achieve their goal if the government is allowed to set up “alternative financing channels that would allow the circumvention of economic........

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