The battle for the Israeli army's soul

The secular identity and image of the Israeli Army (IDF) is undergoing radical changes in favour of a religion-infused ideology that could threaten not only its relation with the Israeli establishment, but even undermine the outcome of a potential peace process. Yet the State seems severely unprepared to meet the challenge.

Consider, for example, the following few events which occurred over the course of the past month:

The IDF army chief Rabbi quoted a near-millennial religious commentary to conclude that soldiers who show mercy to the enemy will be ‘damned’; orthodox soldiers in active duty displayed banners calling for disobeying orders, during a military oath taking ceremony and encouraged by right-wing rabbis who praised insubordination as a ‘virtue’; and a secret meeting between extremist settler rabbis took place in Jerusalem to discuss means of undermining, via religious arguments, potential military orders to evacuate settlements.

Add to it offers of financial support to soldiers advocating refusal to carry orders, and it becomes clear that the Israeli army, bastion of secularism and defender of the Hebrew state, is at the heart of a powerful struggle between the State’s institutions and the religious-nationalist/settler establishment, which threatens its core foundations and its ability to perform its duties.


Military service is originally compulsory for all Jewish adolescent men and women. Everyone has a child, a niece, a cousin or a friend in active duty. Furthermore, adults remain in active reserve often for decades after they’ve accomplished their service, maintaining their link to the uniform and their army buddies. In effect, the army serves as the national melting pot for Israel. Relationships cast among brothers in arms last a lifetime, and translate into networking opportunities that shape careers.

But in addition to being fully intertwined in the fabric of the society, the IDF is perhaps the final rampart of secularism is a country increasingly coloured by the secular-liberal vs. the religious-nationalist social conflict.

The sources of the conflict between secular and religious in the Israel army are to be found within the foundations of the State. In 1948, (secular) first president of David Ben Gurion granted the small 400-strong ultra-orthodox community exemption from the military service, in favour of religious studies. (The relevance of this regulation today is heavily debated.)

But a conflict was only partially avoided. Young religious scholars who nevertheless wanted to serve in the army found refuge in Hesder yeshivas, special religious schools which cooperate with the army to integrate military service with their Torah curriculum. Yet the number, and influence of hesder yeshivas has steadily grown, to the point of explicitly instructing soldiers to disobey orders pertaining to the interests of the national-religious movement, primarily the evacuation of settlements, exposing themselves to severe accusations of racism and "undermining Israeli sovereignty" by liberal observers.


Worse, the threat to the ‘secularism of arms’ is not just to be found in extremist schools, but from within the army's powerful rabbinate, whose role has evolved in the past few years far beyond catering to the spiritual needs of religious soldiers and ensuring food served is kosher.

Army chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Avichai Rontzki - who’s responsible for the above-mentioned quote on ‘damning’ the troops that will show mercy - is an outspoken advocate for a militant faith-based version of military morality: he has been recruiting hundreds of Rabbis to the rank of officers to be integrated to combat units, disseminating religious propaganda under the guise of "using motivations and understandings gleaned from the Bible and the heritage of Israel to enhance the army's ability to achieve victory”, openly hinting at ‘a holy war’ to soldiers via the distribution of booklets and articles among soldiers.

So much that a senior IDF officer accused him of "of religious brainwashing and, indirectly, also political [brainwashing]".

A resident of an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank, his 2006 appointment was described by the Peace Now movement as “a stinging insult to the rule of law”. He is the head of a Hesder yeshiva in Itamar - one of the West Bank's most extremist settlements.


It is increasingly apparent that the State has little to no idea how to respond to this threat - and time is not on its side. Soldiers are warning that "if we fail to clearly draw the line right now, in a few years we shall find ourselves shifting... to holy wars".
While army chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi stressed that "soldiers answer to one authority only, and that is their commanding officers", the insubordination incidents are nevertheless viewed by analysts as precursors to a mutiny, and described as "just a small taste of what the army and the state can expect if anyone dares to evacuate settlements in a serious fashion."

So far, only half-hearted threats have been made by the Israeli government against those advocating insubordination, with Minister of Defense Ehud Barak shelving threats in favour of reaching “an understanding that would make such steps unnecessary”.

If the army is not to become a toy in the hands of religious-nationalist Rabbis and the pro-settler movement, prompt and more aggressive action will be demanded from the part of the Israeli government, to avoid tipping over into a situation where its authority over its armed forces is challenged by a nucleic religious authority whose long-term goals may not match those of the State or the primarily secular majority.

(note: photos not mine. Caricature is from Haaretz).