When the Israel Defense Forces was first established, the 1949 defense service law determined that compulsory military service for men would be two years. As for women, the IDF was the first military in the world for which one year of service was made mandatory. Three years later, the law was amended and military service was extended to two and a half years for men and two years for women. Over the years, consensus that this service was too long grew, so in the early 1960s, compulsory service for men was reduced to two years and two months.

When I first entered the army in 1966, the IDF was thinking about extending military service again, so my military ID did not list when my service would end, only when it began. A few months later, it was decided — much to the dismay of everyone who was drafted with me — that compulsory military service would go back to being two and a half years. After the 1967 Six-Day War, with the country overwhelmed by the euphoria of victory and occupation, we were sure that the extended military service would no longer be necessary. But then, in January 1968, compulsory service for men was extended yet again in order for the IDF to maintain control over the newly occupied territories. This time, compulsory service for men was extended to three years.

The move was supposed to be temporary, as the extension was carried out through emergency regulations (which are a legacy of British rule just under a quarter of a century earlier). The overall impression was that the Israeli democracy, which had the longest compulsory military service in the entire Western world, would eventually reduce it. But even now, 52 years later, we have yet to return to the length of service we had in the 1950s and 1960s.

Much has been said in Israel over the years about the need to reduce the length of compulsory military service. Many people have argued that the country faces no greater dangers than it did in 1949, when compulsory military service was just two years. As a result, several ministers of defense have promised — mostly before elections — that they would reduce it. But then, the army fought back to prevent the change from being carried out. This crucial organization suffers constantly from a lack of manpower and is always able to prove it.