Air Force. In recent weeks, supporters of the legal legislation have spread that the media is lying. There are not hundreds of pilots, and there is no widespread protest. It's all an invention of power groups. Spokespeople were sent to the studios, who passionately claimed that there were "a maximum of two or three pilots who would not come." This week it became clear who was telling the truth, and who was living in the film. Unfortunately, we all live in it.
For better or worse, pilots are the Archimedean point. It didn't start today. They were like that during the Six Days and Yom Kippur, and they have been like that ever since. There is no one for whom Israel's security rests on their shoulders as refined as the aircrews. There is also (almost) no one else who contributes so many reserve days a year, every year, for many years, even long after they stop flying.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his mouthpieces recognized the problem from the very beginning. That's why they went for the pilots' heads. They cursed them, fired them, deprived them of pensions, expelled them from the country. Everything has already been said, in the familiar gutter language. The speakers, for the most part, were ridiculed: some did not serve in the army at all, some specialized in damage. The idea was to push the pilots into a corner. Scare them. He failed.
IDF Chief of Staff: "Anyone who calls for non-appearance harms the IDF" // Photo: Knesset Spokesperson's Office
The IDF and the Air Force, on the other hand, took a different approach. They decided to hug. Ignore petitions claiming that citizens are allowed to protest, and choose to act only against those who do not actually show up for the mission we are called to do. Until this week, that hadn't happened. From this week we are in a different movie. It is not clear what would have happened had the IDF acted decisively several months ago, as Netanyahu demanded. The reasonable assessment is that it would not have been a deterrent, on the contrary: the fracture would have come sooner.
Anyone who thinks the IDF has a solution to the crisis is mistaken. Anyone who thinks he has Spire pilots is mistaken. Anyone who thinks that the Air Force's "operational system" is not important is mistaken. Anyone who thinks that there aren't hundreds of pilots considering retiring today if the legislation moves forward is mistaken. Anyone who thinks Netanyahu was right that the government is more important than a few female pilots in the air force is mistaken and misleading.
The blame can be placed on the pilots. That's the easy solution. Let them fly, so they don't ask questions. So that's it, no. The government has lost blind faith in its intentions. It cannot claim that its intentions are democratic, and do everything the opposite. She can't claim one thing in English and do another in Hebrew. It cannot claim that the legislation will end on the grounds of reasonableness, and immediately rush to the composition of the committee for the selection of judges. It can't damage everything that is sacred – security, the economy, the internal fabric – and say it's okay. It cannot use its legal mandate to instantly break what has been laboriously built here for 75 years.
Volunteer. The government repeatedly waves at the sacred cow called the IDF. They don't hurt him. Do not stop serving. We don't stop volunteering for the reserves. In principle, she is right: security is above all, and security is not played. If those who serve do not come, there will be no army. And if there is no army, there will be no state.
But to hear this from a government that is about to exempt yeshiva students from service by law is already chutzpah. If the IDF is so holy, if the state is so holy, let them be honored and serve. Enough with the babble that the IDF doesn't need them: it needs. Not all of them, the best of them. The rest should be honored and go to serve the community. Nothing prevents them from assisting hospitals, MDA, the fire department, the police. And not from the Arabs – another public that if it gives the state a little more, maybe it will also connect to it a little more.
Israel is the only country in the world where those who serve and contribute should apologize to those who don't. This correlation is correct, in varying percentages, in the labor market and in tax payments. This was fine as long as the state was Jewish and democratic. The public, which bore most of the burden, was also willing to do things that angered it, in the name of social cohesion. But once the government has deliberately shattered cohesion, its expectation that the donkey will continue its journey and burden is exaggerated and brazen.
Those who intend not to report for reserve duty (pilots, intelligence and special operations personnel, etc.) protest the use of the word refusal. We are not refuseniks, they say, we simply will not volunteer. Technically they're right; In Israel 2023, everyone who does reserve duty is a volunteer. Still, it's semantics. The result is the same, and the escape from the explicit word – refusal – is done because of its negative stigma.
This crisis is not the business of the reservists alone. They are just the promo. It will permeate all army units, even regular ones, and then affect recruitment. Contrary to the narrative they try to portray, the combat units are completely diverse. They have many peripheral people who wear kippahs, but also many northerners and Ashkenazim. The strong cities lead the way in volunteering for combat service, and lead the recruitment rates for officers. Modiin is a good example. If Yariv Levin, a native of the city, does not wake up, he will soon discover that the youth in his city are starting to ask questions and vote with their feet.
It's a slippery slope, which at the end could threaten the model of the People's Army. Some would say that this is welcome: Israel should switch to a professional army. This is a claim that is relatively easy to refute. Every army in the world that switched from a conscription model to a professional model has gone down a level. The IDF's advantage is first and foremost in the quality of its personnel; The ability to recruit all of them (i.e. half), and select the best ones from them for the most necessary places. If this model is broken, the good guys might go to school or work. The IDF will go down a level. Security will be compromised. It won't happen tomorrow morning, but that process has already begun, courtesy of the government.
Communication. Shlomo Krei is yet another testament, and not the most sophisticated, to the government's intention to harm democracy. The reform he published this week in the media market is anything but competition: it is predatory measures designed to allow the government to determine content and control what is broadcast and what is reported.
Karai doesn't understand anything about communication. He came to destroy, was stopped, and woke up again now. Had he understood, he would have known that his role as a regulator is to deal mainly with infrastructure, lowering prices – with everything except what is broadcast
Karai doesn't understand anything about communication. He will not understand even if they explain to him in gematria. He went into the office to demolish, was stopped six months ago, and has woken up again now. Had he understood, he would have known that his role as a regulator is to deal mainly with communications infrastructure. Bandwidth, Internet, 5G, carriers, national and international cables, price reductions. In everything, except what is broadcast. He is forbidden to touch this twice: once because content is not interfered with in a democratic country, and the second time because it is hopeless in the age of social networks.
Full disclosure: I broadcast on Channel 12, which may be harmed by Karai's reform. Each clause in it is intended to harm certain parties, and to benefit another. It's so transparent, you don't even have to hint at who's the loser and who's the winner. Karai does not hide his desire to take revenge, and on the other hand to reward. It is not the public that cares, but control.
Even if the government is believed to have no intention of dismantling democracy, combining all its measures yields exactly this result. Legislation, regulation, dismissal of outstanding managers in favor of our well-being, trampling on every value. You have to be blind not to see the big picture, and worry.
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