A recent meeting between the IDF Chief of Staff and several yeshiva heads has sharpened an already heated dispute over the army’s character. The article says the encounter exposed a troubling view, in the author’s telling, that social and ideological considerations are being placed above defeating the enemy and securing victory. It argues that the meeting sent the public a clear message that the struggle over the IDF’s identity must now intensify.
The piece accuses the military leadership of sidelining the views and values of soldiers and commanders, and of bowing to the High Court of Justice and to what it calls radical feminist agendas. It says the army is trying to justify forced changes through an alleged manpower shortage, but claims those changes are producing the opposite result by eroding trust with Religious Zionist soldiers, who bear a large share of the fighting burden.
At the same time, the article says this leadership is burning bridges with the ultra-Orthodox public, which it says is eliminating any real chance of integrating and drafting future manpower from that sector. Beyond what it describes as an ethical failure, the author calls this an operational failure, arguing that imposed mixing in maneuver units harms combat readiness, continuity, cohesion, command unity, and the effective use of training, time, and logistics.
The article further claims that reports from the field show systematic daily violations of halacha and the IDF’s joint service order, citing what it describes as thousands of testimonies. It criticizes IDF Spokesperson’s Office messaging as a “washing” of reality and says the army is focusing on creating a false image of success instead of achieving a decisive military victory. The piece concludes that the public and the soldiers deserve an army focused on defeating the enemy and preserving the values and operational readiness of its fighters, ending with the line: “A progressive army loses, a Jewish army wins.”
