IOF losing steam amid ongoing antigovernmental protests: Haaretz

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli Media
28 Feb 2023 20:24

Values like Zionism and serving the State no longer seem to work as appealing mechanisms to prevent service-members from leaving their duties.

Israeli occupation soldiers search a Palestinian's car after a shooting operation took place on a main highway near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian town of Areeha, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023 (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A report published by Haaretz on Tuesday revealed that the Israeli occupation forces were starting to "disintegrate" in the face of growing opposition against the new Israeli government.

The term "disintegrate" is particularly referring to the fact that growing segments of the Israeli population are refusing to serve in the armed forces.

The report, written by Israeli analyst Yossi Melman, states that the fear of internal disintegration within the IOF had surpassed the alleged "Iran threat" and a Palestinian uprising.

Melman states that the protests which have been waged against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new extremist government, including the controversial reforms he has been carrying out, had caused a major disruption within the IOF's standard functioning.

They also complicate the Manpower Directorate to attend to the IOF's staffing needs in the short and long run.

They are likewise eroding the army's morale and their "motivation", as well as what Melman calls "the ethos" of "the people's army."

The report identifies two particular reasons for all of this: first, Netanyahu's legal overhaul; second, a provision that would exempt ultra-Orthodox from military service on a de jure basis.

Growing concerns became clearly obvious when IOF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi said at a graduation ceremony for combat officers that "soldiers are subject to the law and the army’s orders and act in accordance with the [IOF's] spirit and values,” he said. “We will be attentive to soldiers’ feelings about the dispute, not in order to take sides, but to leave it outside and maintain a single [IOF] that’s united around its complex missions."

The report further states that an increasing amount of service members are deciding not to renew their contracts with the army.

Values like Zionism and serving the State no longer seem to work as appealing mechanisms.

The "fully right-wing" government’s policies are to blame for creating such divisions within Israeli society, the report says.

Several reports have indicated that reservist pilots and navigators are refusing to show up for drills and operational duty.

Moreover, about 200 of "Israel's" most elite reservists threatened in a written letter that they would stop exercising their duties if the judiciary reforms come to pass.

“In the past few days, some 250 officers from the Military Intelligence’s Special Operations Division have signed a public letter stating that ‘they would stop showing up for duty’ should the government proceed with its autocratic judicial overhaul.”https://t.co/NUUrJCaPG8
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) February 28, 2023

An additional 500 former Shin Ben agents petitioned against the Prime Minister's judicial overhaul, outraged by their former leader's sudden change of political views towards the far-right.

These two are Israeli "refuseniks" refuse to serve in the IDF and have served time, this is a pic on their release The names are public but Twitter2 rules hamper the truth I will say this the one on the left, with Baphomet is either ignorant of what he wears or is not of Yehudim pic.twitter.com/eD1zHCoy2h
— Animal Farm 1945 (@Elegance4life) February 12, 2023

Retired Mossad employees are also reportedly launching a similar petition, whilst Mossad Director David Barnea gave permission for employees who rank below the level of the department head to take part in anti-government protests.

Ahead of a very likely Palestinian insurgency following the recent killing sprees carried out by the IOF, the report states that refusal to serve in the army could very much weaken the IOD and threaten it with a possible collapse.