Opinion | Public trust in the IDF: There is no room for forgery | Israel Today

In 2003, when the head of the GSS, Avi Dichter, was a guest at the Herzliya Conference, he spoke in an extraordinary way. "Inside it, we did not provide the people of Israel with the protective suit they deserve."

Dichter clarified in his speech that "Israel has failed to dry up the sources of the Palestinian Authority's weapons."

It was a speech of bowing of the head and an apology.

Not every day stands the head of the GSS, an organization that won the pinnacle of public trust, and even in the midst of a campaign, and as he admits: "We did not do enough, we are not entitled to high trust, we had to function much better, reach the public much more."

At the end of the week, the Public Confidence Index in the IDF published by the Institute for Democracy was published. The headlines did the content a favor.

Indeed, as was also emphasized, the IDF is still marked as a body that enjoys the highest level of trust in Israel compared to other institutions. Not only expresses political criticism from the left but also exists on the right.

This is an unprecedented crisis: if the public and the heads of the military and the state were aware of the psychology according to which most of the respondents in these surveys respond, they would not allow the index to pass without a cry of frustration.

For the majority of the public - a survey on the degree of trust in the IDF is similar to a survey in which a child is asked about his degree of trust in his parents. In other words: it is not a procedure of objective assessment. It is a procedure of subjective dependence.

At the height of the attacks and Qassams, when no defensive wall was seen on the horizon, the public gave the IDF unimaginable levels of trust. What is the miracle? It clings to this trust, on which it rests. Is faith. Is leaning. Is dependency. Is what leaves most of us in a "protected refuge" called the State of Israel. When only 61 percent indicate that the IDF provides them with security - this is a crazy, sad figure, screaming to the skies, reflecting an unprecedented distrust of the army's authentic ability.

How did we get here? If we connect the "puzzle" of the current term of the current General Staff, we can understand that it is not too complex: why the public was exposed? Withdrew years ago, but the security of Israeli citizens.

In inverse relation to the army's performance - Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi won the increase in pensions for permanent employees and their wage conditions. ) As the fragments of the "cyber army", which abandoned the maneuver and turned the IDF into a "sterile army" that forgot the values ​​of the fighting. And this very gap is illustrated by the results of the latest confidence index.

British cynics would call out to the chief of staff: mind the gap. I will allow myself to suggest to him: Take an example from a poet. That the data does not lie.

As an enthusiastic speaker and publicist, you must be the first to understand: the public does not tolerate detached leaders, and is the first to identify counterfeiters. This is the sole reason for the difficult data published in the Institute for Democracy Index.

Were we wrong?

Fixed!

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