NIS 30,000 a month in an office in Tel Aviv in front of a security guard's salary at the mall: Will the IDF be able to save the combatant status?

The stars cried out, in the entertainment programs mocked, but the reality on the ground everyone knows: When high-tech becomes the leading locomotive in the Israeli economy, IDF cyber servants leave crumbs for fighters upon their release to citizenship.

Amir Bohbot

25/12/2021

Saturday, December 25, 2021, 08:15

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

More than a hundred years ago, generals' preoccupation between wars revolved around the structure of the army and the equipment in its possession. The discourse focused on tanks, planes and horses. Time passed. The old-fashioned means were exiled to a distant world, and in their place grew the cyber world, the cyber space where the IDF can reach any arena in the world and attack thousands of miles away, without any soldier leaving its base. In a vest, and rushes forward to defeat the enemy.

In the past week, with the rise of the equality of opportunity debate between fighters and those in the ranks of technological arrays, the critical and cynical discourse on the status of the fighter in the IDF has been flooded. To the Israeli economy. The IDF has known these allegations for years: the members of the rear forces finish the service with a profession in hand, the fighters are sent to secure the malls.

With the rise of the high-tech industry and the thirst for workers, this gap has only intensified.

More on Walla!

On the high-tech front: a cyber warrior training program

To the full article

More on Walla!

• Soldiers' salaries skyrocket, how much will the fighters earn?

• Conditions for admission and dealing with terrorist organizations: Unit 8200 - inside view

• The secret to improving your sex life - now on a special sale

"It was important to the chief of staff that not only the soldiers hear him but also the candidates for the security service." In a military exercise (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

"Once former Chief of Staff Gadi Izenkot recognized the contempt for the IDF's combatant status, he decided to get into this explosive social issue and invented the concept - a sharp fighter - to strengthen and single them out," a former senior officer in the IDF's Personnel Division said this week. L. "It is not possible to operate an unmanned aerial vehicle operator or an Iron Dome operator for a Golani fighter who is attacking a Hezbollah fighter in Saluki or for a 13th Squadron fighter that is swept out of the sea on the shores of an enemy state. It was therefore decided to upgrade his status with benefits and a sharp warrior certificate. But in 2021 it is not enough. "

The debate over the status of the fighter has intensified in recent years, but it culminated with the publication of a sketch in a wonderful country that highlighted the way high-tech companies in Israel perceive IDF fighters compared to soldiers who had just completed service in the cyber professions in 8200. Social protests began when signs were circulating calling for the good of the cyber to enlist in high-tech companies and he was among the ranks of IDF fighters who saw this as an insult.

Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Aviv Kochavi, who is not in a hurry to express himself on social issues unlike his predecessor and usually prefers to respond late and receives quite a bit of criticism at home, this time decided to take a clear stand at this week's pilot graduation ceremony.

"Who is marching in the silent column and capturing the killers in the heart of a Palestinian village - the fighters. Who is deployed along the borders and preventing infiltration - the fighters. Who crosses the state borders week after week and flies to attack weapons - the fighters," A huge sign is placed these days and it says - 'The best for cyber'.

No, no, that's a mistake. "

"The chief of staff had a sharp and uncritical statement of values ​​about cyber." Kochavi (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)

The Minister of Intelligence, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Elazar Stern, explained in the past that despite the same mistake, the military system knows how to sort the best manpower that the IDF deserves for demanding combat roles. "The skills inherent in everyone, turns to you on your own initiative and offers you the technological units. Only there is a real dilemma."

"Senior officials in the IDF said after the chief of staff's speech and the public outcry it provoked that it was important for the chief of staff not only the soldiers to hear him but also the candidates for security service, their parents and other sections of Israeli society." They said. "The good ones should be warriors and it's not just him who said that in the pilot course.

Why?

Because if there was once a battle against Jobnik today it is a battle against cyber.

"It is not for nothing that the chief of staff insisted on raising the salaries of the soldiers in general and the salaries of the fighters separately.

If once there was a battle against Jobnik, today it is a battle against cyber.

Unit 8200 (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

The big question is whether the chief of staff's remarks intensify the criticism and widen the gap between the desire of the IDF General Staff and the reality on the ground. According to the Ministry of Defense, 68.8% of the men who reach the first order enlist in the IDF, when it comes to women, the figure is lower - 55.5%. "He skips the academy. Certainly if he comes from a cyber-attack profession because he has a starting salary of at least NIS 30,000 and a pampering office on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv. If he finishes as a fighter in Givati? "A decision must be made on the recognition and appreciation of those fighters for regular scholarships, housing discounts, tax breaks and a host of other benefits. This is the people's army, but today not everyone sends their child to such an army."

MK Eli Cohen (Likud), who previously served as intelligence minister and a member of the political-security cabinet, criticized the grim reality in which parents prefer their children to enlist in a unit like 8200 or Iron Dome. He protested the army's conduct, The gaps only deepened. "I welcome the policy as stated by the Chief of Staff, but recently it has not been implemented and even the actual situation has led to an increase in social gaps," he said. "Recruitment for intelligence comes from the upper socio-economic strata and these receive tempting offers in high-tech companies at the end of their service, compared to fighters, many of whom reach security positions."

He reinforced the words of the former senior ACA official: “Kochavi’s de facto statement should be translated into higher service conditions, significantly for combatants as well as a longer service period for recruits to cyber and technology units.

In our day in government we not only talked but also did.

At the Ministry of Intelligence, I initiated that the ministry for the first time devote a considerable part of its budget to the "Leap" project, for the benefit of training boys and girls from the periphery for intelligence units, and opening technology incubators with the GSS in the periphery.

Within the IDF and among the retirees, the call is forming for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to delve into the field and make a decision on the uniqueness of the fighters' status in legislation and permanent benefits over the years, in addition to subsistence fees and improved service conditions.

Bread instead of cream

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and former deputy head of the Mossad, MK Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid), responded to the chief of staff's remarks in a conversation with Walla !. There are fighters, "he said. "The value and strength of the Israel Defense Forces is in the combination of the various systems, the cyber system, the land warrior system, the air system, the logistics system, armament, maintenance, medicine, the navy and the cyber systems. The army sorts its people according to the candidates' capabilities and needs. Appropriate support and preparation for citizenship must be obtained, such as the "Dimensions for Studies" program, grants and professional training so that they can integrate properly into the labor and high-tech market, even if they have not served in IDF technology units.

Y. is the deputy commander of a reserve battalion that until recently held a senior position in a start-up company. During his service he was a candidate for the SLA for heroic action in Operation Eitan. He also praised the Chief of Staff's speech. "It's exciting to see that the star who went through the orbit as head of the Armed Forces has not forgotten where he grew up and grew up. It's good to see that Lebanon's mud is still clinging to its soles. " The best measure of this is the high failure rate in high-tech - because they live on cream and not on bread. High-tech fighters will live on bread, others will live on cream - most of the budget goes to Ben & Jerry's and beers and food stamps. "The personal ability and strength of the fighters, the creativity to harness them to tasks without background noises of the convenience of high-tech is much greater than the children who are looking for the coffee with the exact smell of the morning."

There are programs for training fighters for high-tech employment.

Operational activity near Jenin (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

Y. pointed to processes in the Israeli high-tech world in which discharged combatants are equipped for the high-tech industry and provide them with access to and training for sought-after professions.

One of the programs belongs to Scale-Up Velocity from Start-Up Nation Central in collaboration with Semiotiv Technologies and a professional for life called Data4s, which aims to provide an opportunity for combatants and veterans without prior knowledge and experience to become Data Analysts within four months - one of the most coveted high-tech positions.

Scale-Up Velocity CEO Matty Zweig told Walla! That the organization leads countless programs aimed at increasing the human capital supply in the high-tech industry and providing solutions to challenges in the human capital field.

A program like Data4s, which opened last week with dozens of discharged combatants, provides combatants with a significant employment horizon.

In the first round of this program, which opened two weeks ago, 70 fighters from Magellan, Cherry, Paratroopers, Nahal, the Navy, Karkal, 669, Givati, Golani, Paratroopers, the Engineering Corps and others began. "

• news

• Army and Security

Tags

• IDF

• Cyber

• Warriors

• Hi Tech

• Spring Stars