To fight an army needs motivation. What can you expect from an army that is conditioned to ignore the human rights of its citizens while protecting the rights of the enemy trying to murder the citizens?

has become another one of israels country clubs...only for those deemed "worthy" enough to serve...only saints and the righteous are allowed to serve nowadays...except if you are rich or one of the halperons sons..then all is ok...the IDF is and has become another example of rot in our society here

25 years of leftwing policies promoted by Labor / Meretz and eventually adopted and carried out by Sharon / Olmert / Kadima has resulted in the moral erosion of the country. These are the same people who claimed that if we give up South Lebanon and Gaza that we can take of matters from the air. So much for that fantasy. And in regard to the IDF, when men get promoted due to their personal ties and not due to their excellency, of course we are going to end up with an army that doesn't know how to provide supplies for our forces or direct anything properly. Unfortunately, too much of the rest of the country in the civilian sector is run the same way.

when the war broke out, those of us not in Israel too wished for a swift and decisive victory. what we saw was, Reserves on cnn/fox smiling for the camera, talking on cellphones as they joked on their way to battle. it just seemed there minds were not into it. now there were plenty of brave and hard working soldiers whose stories have not gotten out, and there are many heros, but the media at least only showed the lack of seriousness. why did the soldiers even have cell phones with them? how can one fight if every night one speaks to relatives, family or loved ones? was this really true that they had them???? war is serious business, i dont have to tell israelis that.... the leadership of them too, have to realize its not a blame game, but an opportunity to learn and fix......

The situation in which the army finds itself reflects the feelings of depression which pervade society, in general. When there is no ideology, no purpose other than existence itself, then the time has come when ancient ideology can enter to rescue society from further failure. That ideology comes from our ancient sources which have been deemed as outdated and innapplicable. The ancient armies of Israel did not seem to have a morale problem when they had the first battle with Amalek when entering the desert. Was there a national morale problem when Joshua led the army against Jericho? We have a lot to learn from our ancient sources. Let's use them properly. Denial will not help.

GUYS ! ACCEPT IT. YOUR SOLDIERS DONT BELIEVE TODAYS ISRAEL. WAR CRIMES NO HUMAN RIGHTS. EVERYTHING HAS NO SOUL. MACHINE HEARTS WOODEN HEARTS MORALE MORALE :) LOW MORALE, LOW INSANE :) YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED BUT MORALE ! BECAUSE YOU ARE NO INSANE :(

The IDF is evidently infected with the same mental affliction that stifles so many sectors of our society: bureaucratic values. The main goal of bureaucrats is career advancement. The main objectives of the organization are side-tracked. Worse, career advancement means not rocking the boat, not causing waves, being politically correct. Never taking responsibility is a major characteristic of the bureaucratic mentality. And this rot, when left unchecked, gradually moves down the ranks. Performance suffers as a consequence. Anyone who lives here has had experiences with the Israeli bureaucracy. Many of our public monopolies & even private corporations are the same, banks being a prime example. Now we find that the IDF has gone the same way. The Israeli syle of bureaucracy is a bizarre combination of Eastern European socialist organization with some of the worse features of Middle-Eastern immobilism.

Terry...your post exactly describes the correct IDF situation. I have added a comment ( Unsure if it will be published or not ) about the fact that IDF officers spend far too much time " Planning their future" with private venture.....and as a result do not seem to be " directly concerned" with the fact that IDF Has lowered its efficiency level in the last 10 years for a lot of reasons .....including - but not limited to- those you have described. We can be as inefficient as any " ennemy armies" ...

A professional army. That`s what Israel needs. Physically and mentally a civilian can not instantly become a fighter, not in our days. 60 years later ,Israel should weigh the possibility of a "Professional Army' replacing this outdated meluimnik system. With all the difficulties concerning the dismantlement of such a well oiled system, the future belongs to professionals. Let`s dare, let`s replace, step by step, those civilians and form the nucleus of a modern army, an army of professionals.

you are right ,war is a seriouse thing and in second lebanon war hizballa saw it serously // it is the first time that the arab muneged the war serously // believe me this is the differance that the idf did not know it //

after the 67 war dayan was wandering in the east jerusalem seeing the houses ,the lights .the life and he said to himselfe what occured in 48 will never be again now // i think it is written in his book ... it means the israili soldiers were changed and the arabs were changed and the world were changed here in winograd report evaluate the israili army and the israili policy only it is correct as it is their job // but for reeducation for a change it must be looked to the other education life and to the world how to be changed /so the matter is more complex than reeducation and profesional working

Decades of budget cuts leaving them unprepaired for a real war .. there wasnt even bullet proof vests for reservists, training had been cut right down, at the same time as complaining about draft dodging the IDF has been making efforts to replace extra man power with extra technology. The politicians are to involved in what equipment the IDF wants a tank but the politicans want a more glamerous F16 then its the jet the money will be spent on not the tank. The IDF itself has been turned into a glorified police force rather than an army. We give guns to the enemy in the name of peace the enemy then shoot at our soilders with those guns, we have ceacefires and we give the enemy more guns in the name of peace. For to long the politicians have been treating the legendry peace process dream as the solution to Israels security and more has been invested in that dream.

you need to have a lot of people like france(60milions) or united states(290millions) for have a profesional army if the army is not compulsary it's will be very hard to draft what tsahal need

this entire country needs re-education - especially the knesset members. we have some real characters sitting there. they do not even know how to read/write or speak.

They are used to the IDF's lying and cheating, bullying and especially its cowardice in any confrontation with the settlers. Lebanon 2 was the direct result of the army's conduct in the occupied territories, allowing itself to be humiliated by the settlers without even a struggle on the West Bank.

Israel needs an officer training school along the lines of the American West point & Brtitish Sandhurst. The IDF doesnt travel around the world fighting other peoples wars to gain experience and it has had no major was to gain experience from in a long time so there is not enough experience at the top. There should also be more training for reserves and full time soilders need more training in fighting conventional wars and not so much emphasis on fighting terror. There is no rule which says who the next enemy will be or what tactics they will use so the IDF needs to be well trained and well equiped to fight wars on any front. If the IDF is going to be the force it once was and not a second rate force on the ground then things need to change from the top down in all areas.

Thanks to oslo the IDF became the local border police and oslo was the thing that was going to keep Israel safe from attack. Since oslo the left have dominated Israeli politics and society because the public have been sold a dream and they keep getting sold the same dream in different packages. The IDF are not needed because we have our dream so instead of investing money in the IDF lets instead invest in a high profile politicly popular idea and keep selling the oslo package then everybody on the left wins and the public fall for it.

I believe it was this current Defence Minister, who when he was Chief of Satff spoke of a "small and smart" army (Tzava Katan ve'Chakam).. Apparently, he went overboard on the "small" piece, by cutting too much, and underdelivered on the "smart" piece.

befor the ww11 the aim of the army is to attack so the strongest will win .. after the ww11 the main aim is to defends so it apears from the weak people some militants and they can stand infront of a strong army if the second want to attack // sad that the idf is in the point of attacking while he must be to defend and this is becouse of the speciality of israil in the world it is a nation want to defends itselfe on a land many of the naobers think or believe that it is not their land

the government needs re-education - soon and quickly. what a disgrace to the jews around the world. what a report.............