by Yonah Jeremy Bob
The IDF on Tuesday unveiled new pathways to increase haredi enlistment, aiming to prevent major troop shortages when 2,500 soldiers are released in January 2027.
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The IDF on Tuesday said that already in March, it needs to be able to summon a much larger number of soldiers, with an emphasis on haredim, in order to avoid an impending crisis in January 2027.
In January 2027, around 2,500 mandatory service combat soldiers will be released all at once, an unusual number to be released simultaneously and one that will put the military at risk of major holes in readiness without an immediate, correspondingly large influx of new soldiers.
While the IDF is working to increase the interest in combat among the wider population, and that interest has increased during the war, both among male and female recruits, it is likely to be insufficient without an additional source of recruits, with the haredi community still a massive, mostly untapped source.
Continuing its efforts to encourage haredim to join the army in larger numbers, the IDF released on Tuesday its new order formally setting down several different pathways to service in the IDF for haredim.
In some ways, the order does nothing new, given that in recent years, a plethora of new programs like Hashmonaim, Magen, Tomer, Chetz, and others are already gotten off the ground and running.
For example, the Hashmonaim combat service for haredim involves essentially zero interaction with women, only serving with haredim, a special time for Jewish studies with those haredim, and soldiers in that developing brigade have already served in Gaza.
IDF signals readiness for larger haredi enlistment
In that sense, issuing the order is more of a public relations exercise by the IDF signaling that it is fully ready to absorb a much larger influx of haredim into the new pathways it created to facilitate a haredi lifestyle.
On a more formal note, the order makes clear to the haredi and general public exactly what they can expect from what it means and will mean for more haredim entering the military, and how the IDF has struck a balance between special haredi rights versus the rights of secular women and other sectors.
Despite the push by the IDF, the military recognizes that many issues are not in its control, but rather in the purview of the government and the Knesset.
Currently, the Knesset is working on a new law which will exempt many haredim from service and only increase haredi service very gradually and with a myriad of loopholes which could render it meaningless.
Accordingly, the IDF said that regardless of how much the volume of haredi recruits increases, it is in favor of the Knesset extending the service for mandatory soldiers from 30-32 months to 36 months.
In contrast, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, the political opposition, and some MKs within the government have opposed extending mandatory service unless and until a much larger portion of haredim are drafted into the military.
The vast majority of Israelis, including inside the government, lost patience during the war, and with around 2,000 Israelis killed, with the haredi community avoided IDF service, something which much of the population has been upset about for years.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed forward with the current partial exemption, limited recruitment bill to try to keep the haredi political parties in his government and to avoid early elections, given their opposition to a large-scale draft.
Recently, a senior IDF officer told the Knesset that there is already an increased rate of haredim drafting to the IDF, which, if it stays at the new, higher rate, could lead to over 3,000 haredi draftees in a year.
While this would be a relative increase, it would still fall far short of drafting 50% or more (which would be around 5,000-6,000 per year) as opposition parties have demanded as a baseline from which to gradually scale up.
Yonah Jeremy Bob
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-885464
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