Way back when, some time last year, which in Israeli politics is ages, the public discussion turned to focus on the sharing of the burden of army service, with a specific focus on the haredim. Eventually the issue of hesder yeshiva students serving shorter periods of army service came up - HaBayit HaYehudi worked out a law that changed the status of the hesder yeshivot to be different than the haredi yeshivot, so they would not be affected by the same discussion. Shas even filed an appeal, which they rescinded shortly after, that would keep the hesder yeshivot in the same category as the haredi yeshivot that would have made them susceptible to whatever decision would eventually be taken against the haredi yeshivot regarding army service.

Now it looks like the hesder yeshivot are back on the table.

The IDF now has to make up for an expected shortfall of soldiers. They just announced a plan, that was approved, to cut the general army service by four months - from three years to 2 years and 8 months (not including combat soldiers and some others). In the committee discussion about this, one of the possibilities raised, that seems to have support among a majority of the ministers in this committee, is to make up the shortfall by lengthening the army portion of the hesder yeshiva students by an additional four months. If not, the burden of the extra service would end up being carried mostly by the reserve soldiers.

Minister of Housing Uri Ariel expressed concern that such an increase would push potential hesder students away from the hesder program and more into the "toraso umanuso" yeshiva programs, creating a net loss due to less boys being in hesder yeshivot.

I do not think Ariel is correct, as boys going to hesder generally see the combined army-yeshiva system as being ideal and I doubt the four months will scare them off. But I could be wrong.

To Ariel's claim, Minister of Sport Limor Livnat responded that anyway most religious people are not in hesder and do 3 years of service, and there is no reason the hesder students cannot do some more. Minister of Protecting the Environment Amir Peretz also added that if we are demanding the haredi yeshivot change their style and norms that have been in practice for tens of years, the same should be true for the hesder students.
(source: NRG)

The decision will come at a later stage, as there are some pitfalls to the concept, specifically the coalition agreements that protect the status of the hesder yeshivot. I do not see any  discussion, yet, regarding where those 4 months would come from - would the total amount of time in the hesder package be increased by 4 months, or maybe more to equally increase the yeshiva portion, or maybe the 4 months will come at the expense of some of the learning period?

Either way, the discussion of "shivyon b'netel" was always at risk of boomeranging back on the people who promoted it - and now that is happening. And don't think this is the end. Now it is four months, eventually it might be more. Eventually it might be religious girls not getting their exemptions automatically any longer, and eventually it might even increase the Sheirut Leumi system to a longer period of service. And maybe eventually someone will also start dealing with the inequality regarding the lack of service among the Arab sectors...