Israel needs a professional army
Op-ed: Operation Protective Edge shows the need for a smart army comprising experienced soldiers equipped with the best, most modern weaponry.
The saying goes that you must never change a winning horse midrace. The question is whether the IDF in its current formulation is still a winning horse.
The IDF's horror scenario about the price of occupying the Gaza Strip teaches us that Chief of Staff Benny Gantz himself doesn't believe in the IDF, nor in the ground troops' ability to decide the outcome of the battle.
Therefore, there is no option but to conclude that something within the IDF is simply not working, and the time has come to truly examine whether the IDF in its current structure is capable of dealing successfully with the threats facing the State of Israel.
Israel's citizens are paying a very high price for the defense budget, and they deserve better results against future challenges. Operation Protective Edge was one of the most unsuccessful wars of attrition waged by the State of Israel. The costs of the operation soared, reaching heights of billions of shekels.
Some 30 soldiers – nearly half of those who fell - died due to operational errors. Seven were killed in an armored personnel vehicle that was sent unprotected into the heart of the fighting; two more died in the rescue attempt, nine were killed by mortar shells at assembly points that were - once again - both unprotected and situated too close to the enemy; five were killed in an incident at a guard tower near Kibbutz Nahal Oz when the soldiers stationed there had only been in the army for eight months; and another eight were killed by anti-tank fire at unprotected IDF jeeps by terrorists who had infiltrated into Israel from tunnels near the border fence.
We must also remember that the many operational mishaps carry a strategic price as well. If within two weeks of the start of the ground operation, the IDF had lost 20 soldiers and not 60, the option of occupying the Strip could have been on the table, if only as a threat. Hamas, therefore, would have felt greater pressure to ease its demands in negotiations, and perhaps even agree to a complete demilitarization of Gaza in return for opening the crossings.
Unfortunately, the central demand on the IDF over the past few years has been to place an equal share of the burden on all citizens and enlist haredi men. An army which has to draft everyone will make it only as good as the average of everyone – in other words, a mediocre army.
Moreover, an army which has to draft so many people will also have to invent roles for everyone, and recruit professional soldiers to supervise those drafted to fill these unnecessary roles. Such an army will be expensive and wasteful. Since 2010, about 65 percent of the IDF budget - some NIS 27 billion or $7.5 billion - has been allocated to manpower.
But that's not all. Compulsory enlistment also leads to the enlistment of problematic soldiers with low motivation, who cost the army a lot of money. Some 18,000 soldiers are placed in military jail every year. In other words, the IDF is investing major resources in jailing its own soldiers.
Our demand from the IDF as citizens must change. We must demand an army that can win, and can defeat the enemy on the battlefield with maximum efficiency and minimum cost. Compulsory enlistment is turning the IDF into an amateurish, expensive and unprofessional army, and we are paying the price for that both in terms of budget and security.
The wars of the future will not be won by masses of soldiers and tanks like they were 50 years ago, but by better technology and weapons.
The challenges Israel is facing and will face in the future call for a smart army, made up of experienced soldiers who have undergone long training and equipped with the best, most modern weapons. Israel needs a volunteer-professional army.
Yaron Lerman is the chairman of the Movement for a Volunteer Army and co-founder of the New Liberal Party.
