Images are hard to deal with.
They tend to be fixed in the public's mind, even when the facts are far from them.
These are the two images that the IDF leadership has recently been dealing with: the first states that it is no longer the people's army. By emphasizing the proportion of recruits in relation to the entire population, the IDF is described as nothing more than half the people's army.
According to the second image, two armies were created in the IDF: the "army of occupation" - members of the door of the people, the ground troops, who are mainly employed in "policing tasks" in the "territories" - and in front of it the "technology and cyber army", in which members of the higher socioeconomic class serve .
Images, of course, endanger the cohesion of the IDF. The Personnel Division of the General Staff approached a comprehensive examination of the issue, and found that the database turns out to refute both images.
A critical investigation of the first image, in the issue of the IDF as the people's army, clarifies at the outset that also regarding the ratio of those who enlist versus those who do not enlist, the meaning of the data depends - as in all data processing - on the background assumptions at the starting point of the investigation. The basic question depends on the issue of the recruitment of Israeli citizens from Arab society, that from the beginning the mandatory conscription law does not apply to them. According to the CBS data, the Jewish community makes up 77% of the population and the Druze community 1.8% - and only they are subject to the conscription obligation.
In relation to them, the enlistment rate for men reaches 69%, and for women 55%.
When the ultra-Orthodox are removed from the equation, the enlistment rate of men born in 2001 reaches 85%, which is certainly a worthy achievement.
Haredim in the recruiting office.
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When the ultra-Orthodox are removed from the equation, the recruitment rate of men born in 2001 reaches 85%, which is certainly a worthy achievement, photo: Koko
Expecting equality for all citizens, one can certainly ask why not everyone - both ultra-Orthodox and Arabs - will be mobilized.
But for the fundamental necessity of the army's identity as the people's army, the decisive question is not how many recruits - but by virtue of what motives.
What makes the army the people's army is the very readiness for recruitment, which does not arise only from the necessity of obeying the law, but also from the consciousness of national duty which continues to be considered a high value.
Soldiers, not policemen
Regarding the splitting of the IDF into two armies, the data tell a different story. The prestigious technological array is extremely small, and receives no more than 4% of all conscripts, of which only 15% have a combat profile. High R's - serve as warriors.
In the socio-economic segmentation of the seventh to tenth deciles, 62% of the men serve in the land arm, and in these data - the talk of two armies is completely absurd.
Soldiers in Judea and Samaria.
Most of their tasks are completely military, photo: IDF spokesman
However, behind this image is hidden another, hidden image, which presents the main activity of the IDF throughout the Yosh as focused on "policing tasks".
In this issue, the great achievement of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who significantly reduced the use of the IDF in missions of this nature among the Palestinian population, tends to be omitted from the discussion.
As part of the Oslo process, as early as May 1994, all IDF forces withdrew from all concentrations of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. All matters of policing and administration were then transferred to the responsibility of the PA.
In January 1996, all Palestinians in Yosh in Area A and Area B were transferred to PA control.
The IDF only remains in Area C, and most of its missions are completely military.
Also, according to the combat theory accepted in the world's leading armies, fighting against subversion in a civilian environment was never a task for the police.
British paratroopers in Belfast, for example, did not ask why they were being deployed on policing missions.
By properly exploiting the operational friction in the streets of Belfast, the British built the military force that achieved the impressive victory in the Falklands campaign.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, US military forces also operated in the occupied territories, in missions that here in Israel leftists insist on presenting as policing missions that are not suitable for military units. British General Rupert Smith described the new war, taking place in a civilian human environment, as a phenomenon "that reflects the fact that there is no longer a battlefield An isolated place where the armies fight, and a war does not necessarily take place between armies... This is the reality where the citizens in the streets, in the houses and in the fields - all the people and everywhere are the battlefield." Well, not only is the IDF far from expressing two armies, its missions in the Not really "police missions".
The US army in Iraq. They are also working against the civilian population, photo: AFP
Mercenaries in uniform will not be enough
Images are not a natural phenomenon.
Someone creates them, and in most cases he creates them in the service of interest.
And so, the two images of the IDF serve two groups that do not overlap. One seeks to change the conscription obligation and convert the system from compulsory conscription to paid volunteerism - what is commonly called a "professional army", like the US army - and the other seeks what its people call "the end of the occupation ".
For this, she needs a rallying public protest like "four mothers".
Through the images, both groups seek to mislead the minds of the combat soldier and his parents that he is abused three times: first, in fact, his duty to enlist when many others do not enlist;
secondly, in that he serves in the ground forces while the "privileged members of the upper class" serve in elite technological units;
And finally - by assigning him to policing tasks.
Here the three images come together for a combined effort to provoke a public protest to withdraw from Yosh areas.
A soldier in a technological position.
The prestigious technological array is extremely small, and accommodates no more than 4% of all recruits, photo: IDF spokesperson
For those who wish to turn the IDF into a mercenary army, it must be said that the response to large-scale security threats is a broad mass, which also includes a large reserve army. The State of Israel, in which only those who choose a military career as a profession will enlist, will not have the ability to field more than two brigades, and it is not clear which Quality will show up for service. Today, even the US Army is unable to meet its recruitment goals and fill its ranks.
In front of those who seek to bring about "the end of the occupation", we must present the necessity of continuing the Israeli hold on Area C. In view of the characteristics of the new war, the IDF simply will not be able to fulfill its tasks in defending the State of Israel by withdrawing to the borders of '67.
The leadership of the IDF deserves appreciation for its efforts to effectively exploit the recruitment potential, and to grant maximum equality of opportunity to all recruits. The criticism that has taken over the discourse is not only easy to factually refute, but is also disconnected from the operational needs of the army. Meanwhile, the IDF continues to be an army that inspires confidence A united and cohesive people.
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