If The U.S. Can, Israel Can't?

There's new legislation in the coming at the American Congress to create the National Civilian Community Corps, H.R. 1388: Serve America Act.

And it includes this definition of purposes:

National Civilian Community Corps

SEC. 1501. PURPOSE.

Section 151 (42 U.S.C. 12611) is amended to read as follows:

‘SEC. 151. PURPOSE.

‘It is the purpose of this subtitle to authorize the operation of, and support for, residential and other service programs that combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service, including leadership and team building, to meet national and community needs. The needs to be met under such programs include those needs related to--

(1) natural and other disasters;

(2) infrastructure improvement;

(3) environmental stewardship and conservation;

(4) energy conservation; and

(5) urban and rural development

Some claim it's mandatory.

Here:

But the bill's opponents -- and there are only a few in Congress -- say it could cram ideology down the throats of young "volunteers," many of whom could be forced into service since the bill creates a "Congressional Commission on Civic Service."

The bipartisan commission will be tasked with exploring a number of topics, including "whether a workable, fair and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the nation."

Could not find the reference but found this, which sounds ominous enough:

(3) in subsection (c)--

(A) in the subsection heading, by striking ‘Backrounds’ and inserting ‘Backgrounds’; and

(B) by adding at the end the following: ‘The Director shall take appropriate steps, including through outreach and recruitment activities, to increase the percentage of participants in the program who are disadvantaged youth to 50 percent of all participants by year 2012. The Director shall report to the authorizing committees biennially on such steps, any challenges faced, and the annual participation rates of disadvantaged youth in the program.’;

But, in any case, why can't Arabs in Israel enroll in a parallel framwweork of volunteering?

For example, even Ha-Ha-Haaretz reported last year:

Opposition to national service in Israel's Arab sector is bitter

A few weeks ago, pandemonium broke out at the University of Haifa while it was hosting a conference on the subject of a state-sponsored national service program for Israeli Arab youth. Inside, at the conference, Israeli Arab academics lashed out at their colleagues who carried out a survey polling the willingness of young people from the sector to participate in the program.

Speeches for and against were made, while each side accused the other of misinterpreting the poll's data. Meanwhile, Arab young people from both sides of the debate almost came to blows outside the building, and university security rushed to the scene to separate them...

The state says the program is aimed at offering Israel's Arab citizens, who for security reasons are exempt from military service and the benefits it entails, an alternative way of contributing...

And from two years ago:

Arab-Israeli MK: Don't Israelify us

Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka (Balad) took part in a protest conference against a government initiative to draft Arab youths for national service, and expressed his opposition to the idea on Saturday. "Anyone who does national service will become a leper and Arab society will throw him up from its midst," the minister [sic! MK]told Ynet.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee of Israeli Arabs...has launched a campaign to minimize the number of volunteers.

The conference, which took place in Haifa at the initiative of the Balanda (our country) charity in which many Arab youths from across the political spectrum are involved, also saw Knesset Members, heads of the Arab community, and youths from various political parties take part. Participants sought to protest the government initiative which is expected to make waves by the start of January 2008..."We totally reject national service in all forms, but on the other hand we also are willing to consider fostering projects of the culture of volunteering towards (Arab) society," Anbatawi said. Those who chose to volunteer, he said, "need to be argued with and explained the severity of the act of this volunteering, but not be thrown out of our midst."

What's good for the disadvantaged youth in the US, is not could for Israel's Arabs?