In March the Israeli government enacted its biggest budget ever. Tucked inside and approved late at night through a procedural move that caused opposition lawmakers to back it by mistake was NIS 800 million in new money for yeshivas and ultra-Orthodox bodies. These funds went to communities that have never served in the IDF or reserves yet also received NIS 2.2 billion in coalition support during the same cycle.

That same week a 23-year-old engineering student back from his fifth reserve rotation discovered his classes had advanced without him. His daily reservist pay stood at the legal minimum of NIS 311. Any tax relief he could claim was hardly worth the paperwork.

This situation represents both a moral lapse and an economic error. It amounts to a system that draws from tomorrow to support inaction.

Israel's technology sector forms the core of the economy. It produces 17 percent of GDP and 57 percent of exports while fueling global standing. The government's own committee on high-tech labeled technological training the nation's Iron Dome. Without steady numbers of engineers and scientists the system risks collapse and signs of strain are already visible.

The pipeline is under pressure.

Ben-Gurion University which educates about a third of the country's engineers cautioned that hundreds of its students may finish a year late. Extending that pattern across major schools and 70,000 student-reservists reveals the full scope.

Israel's hi-tech workforce shrinks

The Israel Innovation Authority reported that the high-tech workforce contracted for the first time in ten years during 2025. Entry-level applicants now face only a 5 percent chance of securing a tech position. The cause is not sector decline but exhaustion from reserve duty study catch-up and departures abroad.

Between 2023 and 2024 roughly 90,000 Israelis departed. Most were young educated and secular the very group carrying the service load. Researchers at Tel Aviv University warned the outflow could match brain drains seen in Venezuela and South Africa. Nobel winner Aaron Ciechanover termed it an existential risk.

What response has the government offered?

A reservist tax credit worth NIS 242 per point each month serves as the main perk. For a senior tech worker earning NIS 30,000 monthly the sum helps yet for a student earning NIS 4,000 to 5,000 from part-time work the benefit is negligible. The State Comptroller noted that 57 percent of student-reservists received only minimum pay.

The Finance Committee chair conceded the original measure disadvantaged lower earners. The official reply to years of disrupted studies and lost income was a digital wallet limited to NIS 5,000 usable solely for state fees or recreation.

Higher prior earnings bring greater state returns. Younger less established individuals lose more and gain less.

In economic terms this reflects a national misallocation of human capital. A country that pulls its most productive future workers from education for extended periods underpays them and then observes their exit is eroding its own base.

While student-reservists claimed credits they could scarcely apply the Knesset passed NIS 1.56 billion for yeshivas whose students are legally obligated to serve yet do not.

The Bank of Israel calculated that Haredi non-enlistment drains NIS 9 billion from the economy each year. Every month of reserve duty costs NIS 50,000 per soldier in lost output or NIS 660 million weekly. That cost lands almost entirely on the secular working tax-paying population already serving.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated of the reservist benefits law that those who contribute more receive more. He approved both measures.

The inconsistency is clear. It creates a political economy that takes sacrifice from one segment rewards another for staying away and relies on patriotism to maintain silence.

With elections set by October 2026 this issue should dominate debate. Surveys indicate 60 percent of voters including past coalition backers view draft exemptions as decisive. Those most affected young and over-deployed are the same citizens asked to support another term of the current government.

Each reservist who departs for work overseas carries years of state investment.

Each yeshiva funded by young reservists and students represents a wager against Israel's future.

The government often claims Israel's strength lies in its people. It is time to lead as though that statement holds true. Go out and vote!

The writer is a lone soldier and oleh who moved to Israel 8 years ago. He is an active Israeli special forces reservist having served nearly 400 days of reserve duty since October 7 and a 3rd-year Government student in the Argov Fellows program in Leadership and Diplomacy at Reichman University's International School.