Command: • IDF recruits more than 2,000 reserve personnel, and once full closure is imposed, rescue and rescue battalions enter action • No other factor in the economy can handle the Corona challenge • All there is to know about the "summer cage" order on the way to eradicate the epidemic
Transferring responsibility for the Corona crisis to the Ministry of Defense and the IDF is only a matter of time. Given the increase in the number of patients, and the estimates that there are thousands more that have not yet been discovered, there is no other factor in the economy that will be able to handle the challenge. In the gap between closing the issue and the newspaper distribution.
Netanyahu's message to the public: "It's not freedom, the Corona is a matter of life and death" // Photo: GPO
At the National Security Headquarters, the Ministry of Defense was instructed to be prepared immediately. If in the army the commands are written in the language of P. + 0 - that is, how long it must take from the moment of the order to its execution - here it is P. + 0. Once the decision is made, the IDF takes responsibility. Everything, including everything.
In this situation, the Ministry of Defense will become the owner of the state. All other offices will work for him, and under him. It will not pass without problems, mainly because the systems have not yet experienced such a scenario. Although he does exist in books and programs, he never came to fruition. That is why Defense Minister Naftali Bennett convened this week's headquarters (emergency farm) to produce a start of traffic to the destination.
As part of this, the IDF began to work on a regular watch. This is a situation reserved for emergencies. Each morning begins with an assessment of the situation, and the day continues with regular and rigorous procedures of war, with clear and orderly decision-making processes written in the blood. About the Civil Systems: Its strong and stable structure ensures that you will deal with every problem and think about every point, and not live for the excellence of individuals.
Many in the defense establishment believe that the prime minister has not made the responsibility to the IDF already last week. That the event is larger in some figures on the Ministry of Health, and that is before we even began to deal with the outrageous neglect of the health system in recent years, and the alarming delay in responding to Corona - which was reflected, among other things, in delays. Equipping with the procurement of protective kits and testing, and failing to provide stricter guidelines at earlier stages of hospital management.
Now, when it comes to an unprecedented national crisis that, according to all the experts, is still ahead of us, it seems that only the IDF can deliver. This is a built-in malfunction that previously failed attempts. The Ministry of Home Defense was established in 2011. From the Ministry of Defense, one factor that will coordinate the activities of all parties - and later also assume responsibility for the Home Front Command - and release the IDF to concentrate on its main mission: to defeat the enemy at the front.
Ego wars and budget have failed the young office, which opened its soul in 2014. The Ministry of Defense was big on him in some numbers. The responsibility remained in Kerry in Tel Aviv, but nothing significant came with her: the Home Front remains the stepson in the family. With few budgets, few standards (including scandalous cancellation of one of the districts) and too little impact.
The safes are filled with warning letters from the Home Front Command champions for their generations. The needs facing the answer, and the apocalypse that will occur here in a great war or disaster. No one was excited, and now the account is filed. The Home Front Command will be able to handle the challenge thanks to its excellent people, and also because he has no other choice: after him there is only an abyss.
A mess of a mess
The security system is now preparing for two steps: the current one, in which assistance to the various civilian bodies continues, and the next - of taking full responsibility for the incident. Preparations for this are under the command of Operation Summer Cage, which was originally written to deal with a natural disaster (especially a strong earthquake), and is now undergoing adjustments to the Corona epidemic.
In preparation, the IDF has already recruited more than 2,000 reserve personnel, most of them to the Home Front Command.
No compromises. Nightingale // Photo by Oren Ben Hakun
The IDF hopes there will be no need to mobilize large-scale reserves. As a general rule, the effort is currently to keep the reservists out of the army. Not only because they cost money, but these frequent contacts between citizenship and bases are a constant potential for mass infection. For this reason, all training has been canceled. The reserves planned for the coming period, and in the coming days, may also decide to cancel the soon-to-be operational operations of several regiments.
This policy will only change if the situation deteriorates quickly, and tight closure will have to be imposed on certain areas and perhaps even entire cities. The person who is supposed to do this is the police, but she is not sure she will do so with her limited powers and numerous missions. In that case, the mission will be transferred - partially or fully - to the military.
The IDF, like the IDF, is already preparing the operation order: Each military area will be assigned a military commander, who will receive troops and missions. In such an apocalyptic script, city-level drones may find themselves, and underneath are commanders in charge of neighborhoods and company commanders in charge of streets.
In such a situation, too, the IDF will strive to use the regular forces, which will almost completely cease operations and training. The IDF also prepares bases for temporary hospital facilities for thousands of patients, in addition to the hotel project that started this week, and even for mass funerals in the event of thousands of people getting rid of the virus. The military transport system will also be deployed to ensure the continuity of supply from the factories to the civilian. This will be the opposite: Instead of captivating the economy for the purposes of the IDF as in a normal war, the IDF will be defeated for the benefit of the economy.
Meanwhile, the IDF is mainly guarding itself. Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who coordinates the Corona project in the IDF, issued detailed and uncompromising instructions and instructions. By leaving all essential systems and course trainees at the bases "until a new announcement" (soldiers are told to prepare for at least a month), and to separations made in critical squadrons, cruises, and intelligence units to make sure that in the case of Corona morbidity, not the entire system sits, but a permanent operational redundancy remains.
Zamir himself has hardly met in the past two weeks with Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, who is on the other side of the same floor in the General Staff Tower in Keren. They hold their conversations and discussions mainly in video conferencing, to ensure that if one of them sticks, the other continues to function. This strict policy is maintained throughout the IDF; a General Staff discussion held this week has been conducted from four centers in parallel, with no more than ten officers in the same room.
As part of the planning ahead, the Ministry of Defense (in the opinion of the Yad Lebanese organization) decided to cancel the Memorial Day events for IDF soldiers. The ceremony for the outstanding soldiers for the President will also be canceled, and probably the events of Independence Day.
The IDF estimates that this crisis will accompany us at least in the coming months. That's what health experts say, and that's why preparations are being made. As mentioned, the focus is now on the Home Front Command. His commander, Tamir Yedai, was to finish his job in three months and be appointed Central Command champion, but As he always finds himself in the middle of the mess, it has happened to him in almost every role he has played; "a mess of magnet" he says of himself.
In a conversation with reporters this week, Yedidi called on the media to avoid hysteria and apocalyptic scenarios. He is right of course, but part of the mess stems from the fact that there is no one to explain the incident, and there is a lack of information. Government offices are messy, inaccessible, ineffective for the most part. The public remains confused: when are there buses, what hours of stores are open, what forms should be submitted to receive unemployment or IPS. The solution is twofold: a flow of information - "to every question answer" - and one, authoritative and reassuring figure that will be the face of this operation , The "Nachman Shay" of the Corona War.
Swing in slowdown
The first victim of the Corona was the IDF's multi-year program, "Flywheel." It was Kochavi's flagship project, the highlight of his chief of staff. He put an endless amount of effort and thought into it before taking office, and much more than ever since he became chief of staff.
Every IDF was harnessed to the new Torah. Dozens of working groups, hundreds of discussions, and thousands of hours of work were invested in what was supposed - Kochavi believed - to bounce the IDF into the next decade and give it a significant advantage over our enemies. He is convinced that "momentum" was the patented move to reopen this gap, in her favor.
Naturally, the part of the program that caught the eye (and the headlines) was the lethal matter. The IDF was to become a factory for the serial production of thousands of targets a day, and to destroy them quickly and efficiently. This required systemic changes - some of which have already entered into execution processes - and, in particular, large investments in development and adaptation of capabilities, and procurement. An additional budget of several billion shekels a year to implement the plan.
The Corona stopped everything. In any case, "momentum" has not yet been approved by the government and in the absence of a state budget, it is also unclear what form the IDF could carry it out of, but the grandiose plans will now go into the drawer. Money will not, it is clear already. It is likely to require a significant cut in its budget (and possibly also in salaries of permanent and retired employees, as part of a possible cut in wages in the entire public sector). "We will have to sit now and rethink the whole of the Bible. To see what we can do and what not, "a senior officer said this week." 2020 has certainly gone for us, and maybe 2021 as well. "
30% of headquarters soldiers - home
The IDF, like the entire economy, is far from realizing the size of the budget pit it enters, but as with any crisis - it has at least two bright spots. The first concerns people. Those who met Kochavi recently found that his main concern was not about Iran or Hamas And not for money, but for manpower: how to persuade youth to enlist, and how to leave the good ones in permanent service, in the face of a competitive civilian economy and zero unemployment.
This is a real crisis, regular and permanent. The sharp drop in the exemption percentage (and even more so in service motivation) could threaten the rationale that underpins the People's Army in the coming years. At the same time, permanent people are being released wholesale; Who would want to work 24/7, with all the crazy responsibilities that are around, while you are waiting for a salary and pampering conditions, and the possibility of being home every evening and every weekend with the family.
Now, in the face of the huge wave of layoffs that the economy is experiencing (and probably more will experience), the IDF will return to what it always has been: a stable, safe and attractive employer. They may sit there for weeks, maybe months, until the crisis is over.
The IDF will learn to manage without them; with fewer drivers in each unit and fewer secretaries in each bureau. When the routine returns, he will ask himself if he ever needs so many regular soldiers. On the other hand, the soldiers themselves want to stay. The motivation will rise. Not because of any external threat. But because of the economy: those who do not enlist will find it difficult to find work, at least the military will provide them with a framework, and perhaps a future profession.
Strategic rethinking
The second bright spot concerns the external threats. Last week it was written here that the level of terrorism has dropped to almost zero, in all sectors. The Arabs are also busy in Corona. It changes their world and threatens their lives. The biggest crisis is happening in Iran. The official numbers speak of nearly 1,000 dead and about 15,000 patients. Truth figures are probably much higher. The top echelons of the administration and security forces, including the Revolutionary Guards, were also severely damaged. The Supreme Leader Khamenei is closing in on his home, in light of the illness of many of his associates.
There are quite a few experts who believe this event has the potential to collapse government in Tehran. Certainly when he came on the back of paralyzing economic sanctions that hit almost every home in the country. This optimistic vision still seems distant, but the effect of the corona is well felt in our cut. Syria and Lebanon (and Yemen, too) politely asked the Iranians not to come. They are considered lepers. Disease distributors. The greatest asset of terrorist organizations and states has become their angel of death.
In Israel, billions have been invested in recent years to push Iran out of Syria, and to limit Hezbollah's armaments efforts. There is no untried effort, no unspoiled path: kinetic, secret, economic, diplomatic, conscious. Nothing - including the assassination of Qassem Suleimani - made the Iranians stop. Up to Corona.
This security quiet does not allow Israel to sit safely, but it certainly gives it significant calm. More than that, it commits it to strategic, rethinking. The Corona is a huge threat, but it is also a one-time opportunity. Hamas and Hezbollah (or Syria) hate Israel, but are much feared by the Corona. Israel can be the clinic for the region. This is farther away, but if - as is the way of Israeli science and industry - it will also be at the forefront in responding to Corona, it can help its neighbors, even those currently defined as the enemy. Be their clinic. From here, the sky may be the limit. It may turn out in the future that what a man did, a bat.