Smotrich wants to bring reservists home - rivals open fire: 'Now you wake up?'
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich presented a plan to reduce reserve duty days to 30 per year, including the return of some 50,000 soldiers to active service and expanding the enlistment of Haredim. At the 'Bayit…
Assessment
Finance Minister Smotrich's proposal to cap reserve duty at 30 days annually has triggered a sharp political backlash, with critics questioning why the plan emerges only now after years of conflict. The initiative aims to bring 50,000 reservists home and expand ultra-Orthodox enlistment, yet the timing suggests a political maneuver as much as a policy fix. The exchange exposes a deepening divide over military burden-sharing and the government's management of the war's human cost.