Israel’s war-weary reservists look for an end to fighting

Reserves and conscripts are the lifeblood of the IDF. Brigadier General Ariel Heimann – also a reservist and a former chief reserve officer – says Israel is too small a country to have a large, expensive, professional, regular army. Without reservists, he says, the IDF wouldn’t be able to fight or survive.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the IDF has 170,000 active duty personnel, including conscripts, and 465,000 reserves.

Brig Gen Heimann admits the IDF’s reliance on reserves will become more challenging the longer the war goes on. He likened the IDF to a spring – if it’s stretched too far it’ll break. At the moment he says it’s coping.

But in a sign of the strain the IDF wants to extend mandatory service for male conscripts from 32 to 36 months.

The fact that the burden of service is not being shared by all, has also fuelled a sense of resentment. One group has been exempt from military service for decades – thousands of Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews. They believe the lives of their young men should be dedicated to religious studies not military service.

The issue has already divided Israel’s coalition government. But, following the intervention of the attorney general, call up papers are being sent to 7,000 Haredi Jewish men. They’ve responded with angry protests. But Brig Gen Heimann, like the ousted former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, says they have a “moral duty to serve”.