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Israeli Army, a National Melting Pot, Faces New Challenges in Training Officers
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Israel’s defense forces are considered among the world’s best, a people’s army that combines professionalism and informality, and serves as a melting pot for a complicated society with real enemies. Yet it also faces challenges, including an effort to recover from a poorly run war, a rise in the number of young people dodging military service and an increase in religious Israelis, many of them settlers, who serve.
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Col. Ziki Sela, who is in charge of personnel planning for the military, said it was important to distinguish between those who were not asked to serve — Israeli Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, the ill — and the roughly 25 percent of eligible male draftees who found a way not to serve. That figure is nearly twice as high as in 1980, yet not much different from five years ago.
But some of the draft dodgers, both men and women, have been prominent in entertainment, including a famous model and five of the eight finalists in Israel’s version of “American Idol.”
Today, Colonel Sela said, about 54 percent of Israel’s 18-year-old men are being inducted, which is not enough to meet his needs, especially for support personnel. About 43 percent of eligible women do not serve either, he said, in part because a young woman can merely state that she “follows a traditional lifestyle” to be exempted as too religious for the army.
But of the 25 percent of eligible men who do not serve, many live overseas, have criminal records or medical exemptions. Colonel Sela said about 12 percent were draft dodgers. But some analysts, like Stuart Cohen, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, argue that the real figure for true draft dodgers is 5 percent or less.
What the figures disguise, however, is the undiminished fervor of young men volunteering to fight in combat units, which make up roughly a third of the army. The Golani infantry brigade, for instance, gets 10 applicants for every place.
But in another challenge for the army, a large proportion of those volunteering for combat units — 30 percent to 40 percent — come from the “national religious” sector, Zionists who tend to wear knitted skullcaps and are frequently settlers. In the past, many fighters volunteered from Israel’s kibbutzim, or collective farms. But now, large numbers are “the new pioneers,” the children of settlers.
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The army draws many of its best combat soldiers and officers from the “national religious.” Here, they make up about 10 percent of the staff officers, 15 percent of the combat support officers and up to 40 percent of the combat officers, the colonel said. “You don’t find them in Tel Aviv, but all over the hills of Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical names for the West Bank. “They are the pioneers of today.”
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The national religious are estimated to make up some 15 percent of Israel’s population, and they have growing influence in the officer corps. Yael Paz-Melamed, a leftist columnist for the daily newspaper Maariv, warned that the army was becoming “increasingly political and right wing.”
The “hesder yeshivas,” which combine military service and Torah study for some of the most religious candidates, also raise concerns. The hesder yeshivas now turn out 1,200 recruits a year, Colonel Sela said, a 40 percent increase in five years. “We’re not happy with that,” he said. “It’s too much. We want about 900.”
. . . . . .
Israel’s defense forces are considered among the world’s best, a people’s army that combines professionalism and informality, and serves as a melting pot for a complicated society with real enemies. Yet it also faces challenges, including an effort to recover from a poorly run war, a rise in the number of young people dodging military service and an increase in religious Israelis, many of them settlers, who serve.
. . . . . .
Col. Ziki Sela, who is in charge of personnel planning for the military, said it was important to distinguish between those who were not asked to serve — Israeli Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, the ill — and the roughly 25 percent of eligible male draftees who found a way not to serve. That figure is nearly twice as high as in 1980, yet not much different from five years ago.
But some of the draft dodgers, both men and women, have been prominent in entertainment, including a famous model and five of the eight finalists in Israel’s version of “American Idol.”
Today, Colonel Sela said, about 54 percent of Israel’s 18-year-old men are being inducted, which is not enough to meet his needs, especially for support personnel. About 43 percent of eligible women do not serve either, he said, in part because a young woman can merely state that she “follows a traditional lifestyle” to be exempted as too religious for the army.
But of the 25 percent of eligible men who do not serve, many live overseas, have criminal records or medical exemptions. Colonel Sela said about 12 percent were draft dodgers. But some analysts, like Stuart Cohen, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, argue that the real figure for true draft dodgers is 5 percent or less.
What the figures disguise, however, is the undiminished fervor of young men volunteering to fight in combat units, which make up roughly a third of the army. The Golani infantry brigade, for instance, gets 10 applicants for every place.
But in another challenge for the army, a large proportion of those volunteering for combat units — 30 percent to 40 percent — come from the “national religious” sector, Zionists who tend to wear knitted skullcaps and are frequently settlers. In the past, many fighters volunteered from Israel’s kibbutzim, or collective farms. But now, large numbers are “the new pioneers,” the children of settlers.
. . . . . .
The army draws many of its best combat soldiers and officers from the “national religious.” Here, they make up about 10 percent of the staff officers, 15 percent of the combat support officers and up to 40 percent of the combat officers, the colonel said. “You don’t find them in Tel Aviv, but all over the hills of Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical names for the West Bank. “They are the pioneers of today.”
. . . . . .
The national religious are estimated to make up some 15 percent of Israel’s population, and they have growing influence in the officer corps. Yael Paz-Melamed, a leftist columnist for the daily newspaper Maariv, warned that the army was becoming “increasingly political and right wing.”
The “hesder yeshivas,” which combine military service and Torah study for some of the most religious candidates, also raise concerns. The hesder yeshivas now turn out 1,200 recruits a year, Colonel Sela said, a 40 percent increase in five years. “We’re not happy with that,” he said. “It’s too much. We want about 900.”
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