Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon and the Arab Draft That Never Was

This article explores an aspect of Pinhas Lavon’s brief tenure as defense minister (1953–1955) that has received very little scholarly attention; namely, Lavon’s order for Israel’s Arab citizens to register for military service beginning in July of 1954. As will be shown, while in theory Lavon strongly supported Arab inclusion in the IDF in order to equalize rights and obligations for all citizens of the state, he only tentatively supported his own draft plan, and by the time he initiated the plan he lacked the political and military support to carry it out. A concurrent argument will be made that Arab youth were enthusiastic enough about the draft plan that it could have been effectuated in spite of Arab parental opposition. Finally, it will be argued that while Arab military service could have positively improved the status of Arabs within Israel, it is just as likely that a successful Arab draft could have undermined the Zionist foundations of the Jewish state.