The IDF's decision to make military service mandatory for HIV-positive recruits and making cancer survivors eligible for combat roles rights a historic wrong for young people who have dealt with or are dealing with serious diseases. But if we take a step back and look at the current situation, in which 28% of young men who fit the IDF's criteria for enlistment to not serve, the newest change to regulations is a drop in the bucket.
Changes to the IDF's medical criteria are just part of the army's dedication to remaining an "army of the people." The IDF is trying to preserve the appearance of universal conscription, even though only about 50% of Israeli society actually serves in the army (and that includes those for whom service is not mandatory, such as Bedouin.) Out of the population that is required by law to serve, only 72% of the men and 58% of the women actually enlist.
The prevailing idea among the upper echelon is that if the "army of the people" model is altered, it would be nothing less than destructive – if for no other reason than because the concept gives the military legal backing to draft the sectors of society it wants to. To keep the principle of universal service alive, the IDF attempts from time to time to lower the enlistment requirements and conscript people who at one time were ineligible for service for various reasons, both medical and social.
But beyond the message that the IDF is trying to send by making these latest changes, we cannot ignore the fact that in 2018, IDF service is still a status symbol in Israeli society, and in many places, including places of employment, people are labeled according to the jobs they held in the army.
The change is also the result of advances in medicine and how society sees HIV-positive people. Today, we know that they are not contagious outside of sexual contact, and live normal lifestyles other than the drugs they must take regularly. Making military service compulsory for them might also help mitigate the social stigma that still exist about their condition.
It's also good that the IDF is now allowing young men and women who survived cancer to serve in combat positions. The healthy youth who underwent serious illness as young children used to arrive at the recruitment office and have to relive a terrible time in their lives, only to discover that the horrible disease had barred them from something else – enlisting in combat units along with rest of their friends.
The bottom line is that the concept of an "army of the people" means that enlistment is open to everyone, but also that anyone who can serve, must. The IDF must continue to open its door to groups that until now were unable to serve, but society as a whole has to address the 28% of the men who are required by law to serve but don't, 53% (i.e., 15% of the total draftable men) of whom are exempt because of their yeshiva student status. When it comes to that group, the ball is now in the court of the legislative branch.
