Sample of new card
Photo: IDF's Spokesperson's Unit
IDF got it wrong
New initiative aimed at fighting draft-dodging silly and discriminatory
To the honorable IDF authorities: A moment before the petition to the High Court of Justice, and several months before you are presented with a detailed verdict that will teach you about discrimination and why you must not adopt it, it would be worthwhile for you to drop the idea to rank IDF soldiers using multicolored “honorable discharge” cards. Do it now. Immediately. Before they further erode your image, which is tainted anyway, and before discharged soldiers will demand that you restore their lost dignity, and rightfully so.
Gold to combat soldiers, silver to combat-supporters, and bronze to all the rest: As if they did not all fulfill their legal duty. As if your vision for an ultra-militaristic society reflected through your colorful cards includes people who are worth much more than others.
The Initiative
Roi Mandel
Military launches project 'honorable discharge' to fight draft-dodgers; plans to award soldiers color-coded cards indicating nature of service. 'The main idea is that IDF service is one's ticket into Israeli society,' says head of personnel bureau
And how will you estimate their value? Most women who serve in the IDF are not combat soldiers. This is a matter of a system-wide decision, regardless of whether it is right or wrong (we won’t argue about this now) – but you must admit that women do not have an equal opportunity to win gold, and you, the defense establishment’s trustees, prevented this opportunity from them. The same is true for people with glasses: Those who have a low military profile because of vision impairment will usually not become combat soldiers. The same is true for those born dyslectic, or those who became ill and disabled yet still fought for their right to be recruited and served the three whole years – at the end, they will find themselves at the bottom of the ridiculous ranking system you created.
Others who will not be entitled to your gold card will be soldiers wounded in a needless war in the middle of their service. The same is true for bereaved soldiers who lost a brother or a father in war and therefore do not serve in a combat unit. The same is also true for soldiers who were forced out of combat service as a result of a training accident or disease. And also poor soldiers who during their army service received a permit to work elsewhere to support their families, even though they may have really wanted to run on dunes for three years.
Multicolored folly
Do soldiers deserve benefits just because they are law-abiding citizens and chose to fulfill the military service duty outlined by law? We should address this issue, as it is somewhat odd. After all, citizens in a normal country usually do not enjoy benefits for paying their taxes honestly, or for responsible driving, or for sending their children to school. Let’s assume that we all feel indebted to those young people who spend three years wearing khakis: The right way to offer them benefits would be to do so during their army service. You can start, for example, by fortifying the Zikim base near Gaza, which has been repeatedly targeted by rockets – you should do that long before you think about offering colorful ID cards.Let’s also assume that you seek to promote ties between civil society and its soldiers. You explained that you expect business owners to take into consideration the color of a soldier’s card. In your vision, when three former IDF soldiers sit together at a coffee shop, the one who did combat service will pay less for his cappuccino? Why? Based on which moral, civilian, or social principle?
So please, take off your berets. Scratch your head a bit more. Be honest, just with yourselves, not with the media so you are not embarrassed, and quickly abandon this new colorful folly. Before the High Court of Justice does it for you.
