JERUSALEM — As soldiers in Israel’s army, one of the most grueling training regimens we had to endure was a long march while carrying a comrade on a stretcher. I’m reminded of those hikes today as the government works to ease the burden of the “national stretcher” on Israeli society, in which fewer and fewer citizens are carrying an ever-heavier load.

With extremely low labor participation, ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli-Arab women have unfortunately slipped into a situation of welfare and poverty. For ultra-Orthodox men, it stems from a refusal to serve in the military and instead to sign up for religious study in yeshivas. For Arab women, it has been the lack of education and a culture in which they are expected to stay at home.

Already, just over a quarter of first graders in Israel are ultra-Orthodox. Israel will not be able to sustain itself if these children are not integrated into society and the labor market. Meanwhile, the secular and national religious camps — the backbone of the middle class — serve in the Israel Defense Forces, work and pay exorbitant taxes, reaching up to 50 percent of their income.

This situation must end.

My goal is to get ultra-Orthodox men and Arab women into the work force, to free them from the clutches of poverty, and to get the ultra-Orthodox to enlist in the I.D.F.