With another election on the horizon, I’ve been thinking about a simple question: What would it actually take for a political party to earn my vote?

For years, Israeli politics has revolved around personalities, coalitions, and identity politics. Every election, we’re told to vote based on who can block one politician or empower another. Every sector demands more funding for itself. Every party promises to be the champion of its own constituency.

I think we’re asking the wrong question.

The real question is not which sector deserves more. The question is what kind of society are we trying to build?

A nation reveals its priorities by how it allocates its resources.

For too long, Israel’s national priorities have drifted away from the people who carry the greatest burden of building, defending, and sustaining the State. The men and women who serve in the IDF, answer reserve duty year after year, work, pay taxes, raise families, and contribute to Israel’s economy have become just another interest group competing for government attention.

That is backwards.

If a government asks extraordinary sacrifice from its citizens, those citizens should not have to compete with everyone else for recognition. They should be the first priority.

This isn’t about creating a privileged class. It is about restoring a basic principle of fairness.

Those who contribute the most to Israel’s security, economy, and future should receive meaningful recognition and tangible support from the State. Responsibility should be rewarded. Contribution should matter.

Most importantly, national priorities are not simply about spending more money. They are about choosing where limited resources go. Every shekel allocated to one program is a shekel that cannot be spent somewhere else. If we truly believe that those who defend the country, work, pay taxes, and build Israel should come first, then our national budget must reflect that reality. That means shifting resources away from lower priorities and toward those who carry the greatest share of the national burden. Budgets are moral documents. They reveal what a government truly values.

That is the standard by which I will judge every political party.

A party that wants my vote should support policies like these:

Reward Military and National Service

• Replace voucher-based reservist benefits with direct financial compensation.
• Increase reserve pay to reflect the true demands of wartime service, including repeated deployments and combat risk.
• Expand Arnona discounts for active reservists.
• Create a national benefits framework that gives veterans and reservists priority in selected government programs.

Protect Working Families and Taxpayers

• Reduce income taxes for working households.
• Expand tax credits for families in which parents participate in the workforce or serve in the defense of the State.
• Prioritize government benefits for citizens who work, pay taxes, and contribute to Israel’s economy.
• Simplify the tax code and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for small businesses.

Strengthen Businesses That Carry the Burden

• Provide tax reductions and automatic grants for businesses whose owners or employees are called up for reserve duty.
• Expand access to government-backed, interest-free loans for reservist-owned businesses.
• Offer tax incentives to employers who hire and retain reservists.
• Give preference in government procurement to businesses with strong records of employing reservists and veterans.

Make Housing More Affordable for Contributors

• Offer government-backed low-interest mortgages for long-serving reservists.
• Prioritize veterans, reservists, and working families in subsidized housing programs.
• Reduce purchase taxes on one vehicle every five years for active reservists serving significant annual reserve duty.
• Invest in infrastructure and transportation in communities with high rates of military service.

Reward Education and Service

• Guarantee tuition protection and academic accommodations for reservists.
• Prioritize university admissions and scholarships for veterans and reservists.
• Expand state-funded tutoring and academic recovery following reserve service.
• Increase funding to institutions serving large numbers of reservist students.

Realign National Spending

• Conduct a comprehensive review of government spending to eliminate waste and duplication.
• Redirect wartime spending toward reservists, veterans, working families, education, infrastructure, and national resilience.
• Require every major new government expenditure to demonstrate measurable national benefit.
• Establish permanent funding mechanisms for reserve service and veteran support.

Restore a Strategy of Victory

• Replace conflict management with a doctrine focused on defeating Israel’s enemies.
• Negotiate only from a position of military strength.
• Ensure that aggression against Israel carries meaningful military, strategic, and territorial consequences.

Give the IDF the Freedom to Win

• Remove unnecessary legal barriers that interfere with battlefield decision-making.
• Strengthen legal protections for commanders acting in combat.
• Ensure military doctrine prioritizes defeating the enemy while protecting Israeli soldiers.

This list is not exhaustive. It isn’t even primarily about reservists.

It is about restoring the relationship between contribution and reward.

Israel’s greatest strength has never been its natural resources or even its technology. It has been its people. The citizens who choose to build businesses, pay taxes, raise families, volunteer, and repeatedly leave everything behind when the country calls.

If we continue treating those citizens as just another constituency competing for government resources, we risk undermining the very foundation of the Zionist project.

A healthy society should encourage contribution. It should reward responsibility. It should make young people aspire to serve, work, build, and invest in the country—not because they expect financial rewards, but because they know those sacrifices will be respected and valued.

That is the social contract I want to see restored.

When I walk into the voting booth, I won’t be asking which party promises the most benefits or speaks most eloquently about patriotism. I’ll be asking a much simpler question:

Which party understands that Israel’s first national priority should be the people who defend it, build it, and sustain it?

That is the party that will earn my vote.

If these ideas resonate with you, or if you’d like to discuss them further or become involved in building a movement around them, I’d love to hear from you.

Email: ari.kalker@gmail.com