Publications

Introduction: During the summer of 2007, public opinion in Israel was inflamed over figures released by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), according to which 25 percent of potential Jewish male draftees do not take part in military service, while the numbers among women are even higher (about 40 percent). Furthermore, if one adds those men who do not complete their service, the figure climbs to more than 40 percent.  These figures were at odds with the public and the military command's expectations that the efforts to rehabilitate the army following the weakness it had displayed in the Second Lebanon War (in the summer of 2006) would increase the motivation for recruitment.   Most attention was directed to two numbers: those related to the Haredim (the ultra-Orthodox), whose rate of exemption rose from about 2.5 percent during the 1970s to 11 percent in 2007 (as a percentage of the total cohort), and those exempted for 'psychological incompatibility', which rose from 3-4 percent in the 1980s to 5 percent in 2007. While the Haredim's exemption is considered to be a 'political problem' because it is part of a deal constructed between the government and the Haredi political parties, the psychological exemption has been attributed to what is publicly portrayed as the 'motivation crisis' in military recruitment (the numbers for those exempted for poor health and low levels of education have remained stable over time). As the IDF has been considered 'the people's army', a crucial institution both for the defense of the state and the self-image of the nation, and a Gordian knot established between citizenship and soldiering in Israeli society, a significant drop in the level of recruitment signaled a crisis. A public campaign was launched criticizing entertainers and other celebrity role models who did not complete their military service. To what extent do these figures really testify to the emergence of a military-societal crisis in general and a motivational crisis in recruitment in particular? This article tackles that question.