The army is considering proposals to raise the induction age from 18 to 19 or possibly 20. While military sources stressed that the idea is for from being implemented and must be studied for its implications with respect to manpower needs, Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eytan appears to favor the prospect of older conscripts.
At a question and answer session with Boy Scouts in Haifa today, Eytan noted that a higher induction age would allow youngsters to finish high school and possibly a year or two of university studies. They would enter the armed forces more mature and with fewer adjustment problems They would have an opportunity before induction to contribute to socially productive tasks such as neighborhood work and new town development. he said.
Eytan also lectured the scouts on the necessity for continued Jewish settlements on the West Bank and claimed that world opinion is demanding that Israel return not only to its pre-1967 borders but to those of 1947. He said that the State was founded on five main principles: Zionism, settlement, immigration, Jewish labor and freedom to work and live anywhere in the country.
But according to Eytan, the old ideals have long been forgotten or lost and the time has come to search for new ones and revive the old ones, “If we do not revive and rejuvenate the attractive power of the land of Israel we may have to pay a very dear price,” the Chief of Staff said.
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