A recent poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute revealed that a plurality of Jewish Israelis want to repeal the draft.
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In a first for the survey, 47% of Jewish Israelis polled approved of ending Israel's mandatory conscription in favor of the creation of a professional military. Forty-two percent supported keeping the draft in place.
At 80%, Haredi Israelis were most likely to support a professional military. Religious Zionists were the least likely to favor such a move at 32%. Nearly half of secular Jews surveyed, 47%, said Israel should end the draft.
"For the first time since the Israel Democracy Institute began surveying this issue in 2017, more respondents support abolishing the mandatory draft and transforming the IDF into a professional army than oppose this idea," a statement on the research center's website detailed.
In 2017, 59% of respondents said they opposed transitioning the Israel Defense Forces into a professional military, while 38% said they would support such a move. In 2018, 49% of Jewish Israelis polled opposed a professional military compared to 39% who said they were in favor. By 2019, 46.5% said they were against ending conscription while 41% said they approved.
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A majority of respondents, 80%, had a positive opinion of the military's operational capabilities, rating them "good" or "excellent."
However, the IDF ranked lower in terms of gender equality, with just 43% of those polled saying they approved of the military's approach to the matter.
Just 31% percent of respondents approved of how the army manages its finances and 25% approved of the military's treatment of its conscripts.
The survey was conducted with a sample size of 1,003 Israeli respondents aged 18 or older.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
