The IDF: Reducing Its Numbers and Standards To Meet Budget Cuts

UPDATES

9:00 am Israel time, Sunday, July 19 2015

**The insanity continues and worsens:

Israel’s infamous COGAT unit announced today that the number of “humanitarian trucks” entering Gaza will increase this week from 600 to 1000 a day. The increase is being made possible by a new scanner for truck contents donated by the Dutch government.

This development comes in the context of report this weekend that 90% of all Hamas’ new tunnels are being constructed with “humanitarian goods” in “humanitarian trucks” that Israel is permitting into Gaza. Now they will be able to make more tunnels more quickly.

The bottom line is that the Dutch are not only interested in funding Palestinian terrorism through funding of anti-Israel NGOs in Israel but also in arming Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and the IDF COGAT unit is no better than the Dutch.

**The vitriol gushes forth from Washington:

President Obama and John Kerry are spending the weekend giving interviews on talk shows in the United States that blast all those (aka Israel) who disagree with the Iranian Appeasement Agreement.

For his part, Obama declared yesterday that anyone who disagrees with the appeasement is “dishonest”, while Kerry offered this gem:

“There is no alternative offered by the opponents. They ask ‘Why not increase the pressure of the sanctions?’ I’ll tell you why, because the sanctions did not stop Iran. This has been proven. The Agreement is better than fantasy.”

The dishonesty and fantasy belong to Obama and Kerry. If you remember, dear reader, when PM Netanyahu made his speech before the U.S. Congress on March 3 of this year, both Obama and Kerry accused him of offering no alternative. In fact, he did. He said repeatedly during that speech that the sanctions should be increased. Now, Obama and Kerry want to say that Netanyahu’s arguments are dishonest–and that his idea of increasing the sanctions would not have worked.

Balderdash. The sanctions crippled the Iranian economy. Increasing them would have crippled it even more. 

TODAY’S BLOG:

Background information about the Israel Defense Forces

Active soldiers: 170,000

Reserve soldiers: 450,000

Reaching draft age annually: about 100,000.  However, 12% are exempted for health, physical, criminal, or residential (living outside Israel) reasons, and another large group opt for national service instead of military service.

Service period: Men 36 months, Women 24 months

Determination of where soldiers are assigned:

Each new soldier takes the Tsav Rishon, a test that evaluates many different factors including psychological readiness to serve. Part of the Tsav Rishon is a “Medical Questionnaire” filled out partly by the new soldier, and partly by his or her doctor. Based on the Tsav Rishon, every prospective soldier receives a “Final Physical Profile”.

Here are the basic IDF Physical Profile Numbers (courtesy of the IDF):

“Combatant”

• 97: Perfectly healthy and fit for field combat units, in the elite units in the corps as well as in the combat battalions. In cases of very mild problems (such as the need for glasses), a note is added that does not lower the profile, but dismisses the soldier from volunteering to be a part of the elite units. Since 2005, soldiers can be accepted for the flight training course with glasses (up to 1 diopter).
• 82: A slight problem (for example: color blindness). Unfit for elite combat units but fit for infantry and the combat battalions.
• 77: A special profile for people who suffer from allergic rhinitis and excessive perspiration. Fit to serve in roles that require a 04 level of combat training (for example, certain positions in the engineering corps)
• 72: A moderate problem (knee or back problems, mild asthma, allergies or a high level of myopia (above 7 diopters). Unfit for infantry service, but eligible for several combat units like the Armored Corps, Artillery, Air Defense, Field Intelligence, and the Caracal Battalion.

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“Non-combatant”

• 64: A serious problem (asthma, low BMI, high blood pressure). Unfit for combat.
• 45: A very serious problem (severe asthma, severe orthopedic problems, severe mental status). Unfit for combat service and many military courses.
• 35: A special profile for people with diabetes, the hearing impaired and people with epilepsy. Able to serve in various roles with certain limitations due to their medical condition.
• 30: Volunteers who received a profile of 21 and nonetheless asked to serve.
• 24: Temporarily unfit for service (severe sensitivity to bee stings, temporary low BMI, anemia). The soldier gets a temporary exemption and gets monitored every few months with the possibility of raising his profile.
• 21: Totally unfit for military service for health reasons (physical or mental).

Following these tests which give the physical profile number, new soldiers fill out a “Personal Preference Questionnaire” to indicate the positions they are interested in. Then, all the factors are taken into account, and a soldier is assigned to a unit.

——————–

This is a momentous week for the Israel Defense Forces.

Because of severe budget cuts, dramatic changes are taking place: starting on Friday, male recruits will be only required to serve 32 months instead of 36.  What is more, training for combat soldiers is being reduced from 8 months to five or six months (depending on the unit); the dangerous idea is for the soldiers to spend less time in training and more time in “operations” (aka “combat”).

While a four month reduction in service time may seem insignificant, it will leave the IDF 6000 soldiers short of those needed to take care of basic functions.

Here are the projected shortfalls that will be felt in the IDF by the year 2019:

–there will be 2500 fewer combat soldiers

–there will be a substantial reduction in combat-support units such as artillery, tanks, homefront security, tanks, and medical rescue. More than this there will be a 22% drop in drivers, 20% drop in officers, 12% drop in cyber personnel, 10% drop in technical field personnel, 8% drop in administrative personnel, and 7% drop in “special skills” soldiers.

Importantly, to offset the projected drop in combat and combat-support soldiers, the IDF is proposing to change the “Physical Profile” levels. The change for combat related positions has not been announced, but for combat-support units, the IDF proposes to lower the physical profile from 72 to 64.  

In essence, the IDF is reducing the standards (psychologically, intellectually, and physically) for IDF soldiers.

Other proposals are to reduce the number of recruits into aviation courses and Air Force Intelligence and to reduce the soldier basic training time even further than mentioned above. None of these proposals are good ones.

The dangerous point is that with the massive reductions that have already taken place in Israel’s reserve forces, there are fewer and fewer soldiers to defend Israel against ever increasing threats on every border. Lowering IDF standards does not make anyone in the country feel safer.