The Israeli army chooses not to feed its own soldiers

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Soldiers in the Israeli army complained of "inedible" food being served to them. A testimony by a female soldier accused the army of serving "pre-cooked food and not enough food to eat." 

"It is unacceptable that soldiers do not receive nourishing and healthy food and sufficient quantities and that they should have to spend their salaries or their parents’ money on buying food", a soldier's parent stated. 

“The food was really terrible, but the real problem was the small portions", said Eran, who completed his compulsory service in the Nahal Brigade two years ago.

He said it was particularly bad on the bases where they did basic training and advanced training. Such soldiers had no way of supplementing their meals so they’d go hungry or fill up on slices of bread and condiments from the snack table, he complained.

"The problems I encountered were almost always on bases without a big budget. I saw systemic negligence, low standards, and just a lack of care. Wherever these problems arose, there were almost always sanitation issues, too. We’d find dead rodents in the kitchen area when they started emitting a smell," Eran said. 

Poor quality, small quantity 

Soldiers grew up complaining about canned meat; hearing legends about vegetables dipped in baking soda, spreading the word which could sully up the image of the entire army, more than it already is. 

“The food is just terrible on too many bases. There are animals in the kitchens and dining rooms. The food is oily; meat isn’t fully cooked,” said Tzahi Dabush, an advisor to MK Nir Barkat, who has been following the issue closely. Dabush is a messenger for many soldiers who complain to him about food, along with other issues related to the conditions of their service. “It is unacceptable that soldiers do not receive nourishing and healthy food and sufficient quantities and that they should have to spend their salaries or their parents’ money on buying food,” he stressed.

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Low cost, no quality 

Brig. Gen. (res) Agai Yehezkel, a former head of the Planning Division in the Logistics Corps, says that the crux of the problem is the financial issue.

“Catering at large bases is a challenge,” he says. “The army wants the best price, while someone wants to make a profit. This is where trade-offs start.”

“The lowest offer is the winner,” says Yigal Kravitz, CEO of Mevushelet, one of "Israel’s" largest institutional caterers with a 35% share of the army’s privatized catering market, adding that "quality costs money." 

Moldy salads, E. Coli

Lab samples were taken from four large bases where thousands of soldiers serve. Channel 12’s investigation findings showed bacteria in the food and dangerous sanitation conditions at the bases.

Two weeks ago, Dabush posted on his Twitter account photos of inedible hamburgers served to Givati Brigade members. Soldiers from the base said they couldn’t eat the hamburgers, so they ate rice for a week. “We felt like no one nobody cared,” one said.

The question here is, how can an army spend billions on planes, submarines, and pension payments, but can't feed the soldiers of its army? Out of a 70 billion shekel budget, only 750 million shekels are spent on food, leaving the rest to manpower and infrastructure. 

However, one should not be surprised, because forces that can kill Palestinians with cold blood every day shouldn't have a problem starving their own soldiers.