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Home Posts The Catch-22 of the Reserve Volunteers – and the IDF

The Catch-22 of the Reserve Volunteers – and the IDF
Ariel Heimann
31 July, 2023
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The images from the Knesset during the vote on the reasonability standard showed the Defense Minister running around in a desperate attempt to reach an agreement before the vote. This fervent effort – as well as the arrival of the head of the IDF Operations Division and the head of the Intelligence Directorate at the Knesset for talks with MKs and the Chief of Staff's request to meet with the Prime Minister even before the vote – is not related to new threats. Everyone is concerned about the fitness of the IDF following the protest of the reservists and the notification by many that they are terminating their volunteering.

The concern is certainly warranted. The reserve system, and following it the career and mandatory systems, are in great danger, and in my estimation the risk in the longer term is eminently greater than the significant risk that exists in the short term.

Those who have suspended their volunteering are the ones required for frequent reserve duty – some for the purpose of maintaining fitness (for example, pilots, but not only) and others for the purpose of maintaining the routine activity of the army or preparations for combat events. The IDF needs all of them, and their absence harms their personal fitness and reduces the performance of the military. If the current episode ends in the near future and the protesters return to their reserve routine, rehabilitation will be possible, and in my estimation, not take long. So far, the less bad news.

The bigger problem lies in the "soft" areas of the reserve service. When reservists are repeatedly asked why they report for reserve duty, and especially given that they comprise about 1 percent of all citizens of the State of Israel, then the law, ideals, and patriotism occupy a part of the reasons for service. Reservists report because they understand the importance of the task, because they have faith in the justice of the way, and above all because they belong to a warm, loving, and embracing family of their friends who carry out the tasks together, in teamwork. This family continues to be active even between the reserve periods. The group meets, raises the children together, travels, becomes a support group for finding jobs, and for solving financial and medical problems, and over time spouses also become part of the group. The "rules of the group " are such that everyone knows that if he doesn't show up, his friends will be forced to cover the shift for him. This is the reserves’ cohesion and solidarity. Without them there is no meaning to the unit and there is no meaning to reporting for duty. Studies have shown that soldiers go out to charge in the face of the enemy, when they know they might get hurt, because the friend next to them gets up to charge after the commander, who is one of their own. The current situation is literally tearing the reserve units apart. The competence of the reserve system consists, therefore, of the operational competence, but no less and sometimes even more, of values and emotional and social fitness.

The current rift is not limited to the reserve corps. While the reservists/citizens announce their suspended volunteering, among the career army the ranks will slowly empty, and in the mandatory service, the volunteering to the elite units (combat and not) will decrease. If the process continues, we will lose the greatest and most important strength of the IDF – the quality of the people.

The IDF emphasizes that its relative advantage lies in the quality of its fighters, its cohesion, and the solidarity of its units. These advantages are challenged today, and harming them undermines the foundations of the army and its ability to fulfill its missions – in the short term, and especially in the long term.

On the one hand, there are those who support the protest but oppose the suspension of volunteering out of concern for the fitness of the IDF. On the other hand, those who stop their volunteering understand the risk of harming the IDF very well. Neither I nor others have to educate them. They are torn within themselves and among their friends. If they stop their volunteering, the move will harm the IDF, but if they don't stop their volunteering, they will be acting against their conscience, and in their view, they will also hurt the chance of making a change in the process whereby the State of Israel is marching toward the abyss.

Topics: Societal Resilience and the Israeli Society, The Judicial Overhaul: Social Solidarity, The Judicial Overhaul: The Military Dimension, “The judicial revolution”
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      • Iran and the Shi'ite Axis
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      • Lebanon and Hezbollah
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