Military reported to have purposely doubled and even tripled the actual number of recruited soldiers to meet required quotas; army claims discrepancy was a ‘mistake’
By MICHAEL BACHNER, TOI
Illustrative. Soldiers belonging to the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda unit. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
The Israel Defense Forces admitted Wednesday that it had published inflated numbers of ultra-Orthodox enlistment for years, after a report in Hebrew-language media claimed officers had purposely lied to cover up slumping recruitment tallies.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, officials in the army department responsible for tracking enlistment numbers in the Haredi community have been lying about how many of them join up, doubling and even tripling the tally, to make is seem like the military was meeting the quotas set by the law.
The faulty numbers were sent to the IDF chief of staff the defense minister, and any other relevant government bodies, and published in official reports.
The ultra-Orthodox community has historically enjoyed blanket exemptions from the army in favor of religious seminary studies, and many in the community shun military service, which is mandatory for other Jewish Israelis.
However, since the law allowing the exemption was struck down in 2012, the government began setting rising annual quotas of a few thousand for enlistment, amid an outcry from the general public over the community not sharing the burden of military service. Politicians have struggled to hash out new rules regarding enlistment numbers and punishments for draft dodgers, a main sticking point in failed coalition talks.
On Sunday, the Haaretz daily cited as-of-yet unreleased recruitment figures gathered by the IDF’s Manpower Directorate, reporting that ultra-Orthodox enlistment had declined precipitously in 2018, by 20 percent, compared with the previous year, in the first drop in more than a decade.
The figures reported by Haaretz showed 2,440 ultra-Orthodox soldiers inducted into the armed forces in 2018, a shortfall of 800 compared to the government’s recruitment goal for the year. In contrast, 3,070 ultra-Orthodox soldiers were recruited in 2017, according to figures now thought to have been faulty.
It is not known if the 2018 numbers were also cooked, but the year marked the first since 2007 that Haredi recruitment fell, amid intensive efforts by the army to boost enlistment, including the creation of a number of Haredi units in the IDF, such as the Netzah Yehuda (Nahal Haredi) combat battalion.
According to the Kan report, which did not cite a source, between the years 2011-2017 the IDF included in its tally of ultra-Orthodox soldiers recruits who were not Haredi, some of whom were not even religious.
In 2011, for example, the report said the military reported 1,200 recruits, while the actual number was 600. Since then, it has inflated the number to make it seem it was steadily growing.
In 2017, the actual number was 1,300 but the department in charge of Haredi enlistment reported 3,070.
“Recently, a mistake was discovered in the count of the ultra-Orthodox soldiers in recent years. Lessons have been learned regarding the criteria for the tally and regarding the determination of the body in charge of counting the Haredi soldiers in the IDF,” the army said in a statement carried by Kan.
The numbers were allegedly inflated to silence criticism that efforts to enlist ultra-Orthodox soldiers were failing.
At the end of last year, a new administrative division, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Telem Hazan, was formed by the military and took charge of reporting the number of ultra-Orthodox recruits. A careful tally yielded the number 1,650 — half of the previous year. Hazan was asked to “round up” the numbers to make them match the number for 2017.
It was not clear why the discrepancy in the numbers reported by Kan for 2018 — 1,650 — and cited by Haaretz — 2,440 — was so large.
The army said that “the data for the enlistment year of 2018 (which ended in June 2019) have not yet been finalized.”
The head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate, Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, told Kan public radio: “There isn’t a will to inflate the numbers, it stemmed from our interpretation of who is ultra-Orthodox. It is possible that people made mistakes, but there was no malice and definitely not forgery of numbers.”
Labor-Gesher party leader Amir Peretz told Kan that the revelation could skew policy decisions regarding recruitment numbers: “I really hope that when we held the discussions on ultra-Orthodox enlistment, the data we had in front of us was accurate. If we made decisions in the past based on false data or data that nobody knew how to quantify, this is severe. We cannot allow for a culture of lies to be part of the outlook of the Defense Ministry and the IDF.”
Israel’s current political deadlock can be traced back to political wrangling over the enlistment of yeshiva students. In May, less than two months after voters appeared to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a mandate to form a new government, coalition talks collapsed after Avigdor Liberman and his secular right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party refused to join the government.
The sticking point was a draft law obligating Haredi men to participate in Israel’s mandatory military draft. Ultra-Orthodox parties wanted to soften the text of the law. Liberman insisted he would not join the government unless the law was passed in its current form.
The Defense Ministry-drafted bill being debated would have set minimum yearly targets for ultra-Orthodox conscription that, if not met, would trigger financial sanctions on the yeshivas where the students study. At the same time, it would also formalize exemptions for the vast majority of yeshiva students.
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.
Liberman’s demands are quite realistic and were driven by the IDF. The IDF could not currently use all of the Haredim of draft age for various reasons. So if about 3000 or so currently were to avail themselves of the draft that could be beneficial to the state. It would also help the Haredim and the state if the remainder were not legally required to go to Yeshiva’s and go to either work or study in the Universities .
Thank you for your thoughtful comments.
Please note though, often quoted figures for “Arabs” are misguided. There is a pervasive tendency to inflate Arab presence all over the world. Or to call the Middle East the ‘Arab World’ (ignoring Persians, Berbers or Turks), the rename the Persian Gulf as Shatt-El-Arab. In this vein, far from 22% of Israel’s citizens are Arab. Concealed in the overall are Druze, Circassians Samarians and others. Some of these are splinter groups. But not all. About 200’000 of non-Jewish citizens for example are local Christian. Muslims, the most virulent anti-Israeli component, and one that orientates heavily on their compatriots in surrounding countries, make up perhaps 17% of Israel’s population. Another entirely different group are Christian orthodox Soviet émigrés. Grey figures are estimated of up to 300’000 members for this group. Their offspring provide highly motivated, fully assimilated Israel army conscripts.
Therefore I do tend to view 85% of the citizens as eligible for the draft in Israel. Though the orthodox may require some extra constructive build up time in their physical education, they enjoy exactly the same genetic profile of the population at large. And at the young age of 18, they can become fit and able soldiers just like anyone else.
To come back to the subject of the draft. IDF’s Manpower Directorate, Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, and Labor-Gesher party leader Amir Peretz (actually a former defense minister), do not have to feign such surprise at the cooked up numbers.
They all certainly know, just as media darling Bennichka Gantz knows together with Don Quixote Liberman and Sancho Panza Lapid, and even hard rightist Bibi and of course, the entire coterie of religious party leaders, they were all in on the dirty secret.
And Liberman’s draft bill incidentally and unfortunately is not a serious threat to the orthodox. It will not bring about a fair participation in the Army.
Actually the Liberman demand is an insurance policy. Should Liberman’s ‘demands’ be met, the orthodox will still get away with only about 3’000 conscripts annually. Most of which are non-orthodox others, that are reclassified and not orthodox at all.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I meant to respond to your post yesterday, and say that it was very high grade. Now with Hugo, as well (welcome back Hugo) as your response to him, there are 3 top quality posts now, and each shows the solid research which must have gone into them.
I would agree with Adam, that the Arabs could have about 30% of call-up males, and would say that probably 15% -or more- of the Haredi call-ups would be unfit, either physically, or mentally. They suffer a compendium of inherited genetic defects, due to the massive, regular in-breeding, especially in Russia and the Eastern European states. Very common for 1st cousins for marry, and many of the results remain..
Anyway , what I wanted to say, I said at the beginning of this post, .
@ Hugo Schmidt-Fischer: Hugo, Arabs are 22% of the population, not 15%. And since they are on average much younger than than the Jewish population, they number of military age is probably in the 25% to 30% range. Could be even higher.
Contrary to what everyone believes, the haredi counter-proposal for a haredi draft would actually mean more, not less, haredim drafted than the Leiberman bill.
What the haredi leaders object to about the eiberman bill is that 1) it would require the heads of haredi community to select which men from their yeshivas would serve, and b) assign each yeshiva a quota to supply the army with draftees. The haredim rightly point out, these decisions should be left to the IDF. The haredi parties propose that the IDF be free to call up any haredi man of military age that they want for a physical, and if found physically and mentally fit to serve, he must serve. The eligible recruit would have the right to apply for an exemption, but the IDF would not be obliged to grant it. The haredi proposal reires that the IDF only exempt permanently from a call-up about 100-150 young men whom the senipor rabbinic officials certify are essential to teach new generations of yeshiva students.
Of course, the haredi leaders know that in practice the IDF will probably not conscript a great many haredi youths in any one year since 1) meeting their demands for ultra-kosher food certified as such by the leaders of every haredi sect/community, complete segregation from contact with female soldiers, etc., are expensive and a hassle for the IDF, and 2) many haredi young men are physically and even mentally and educationally unfit for duty, and the examining physicians at their physicals will determine this, and 3), the IDF has lowered considerably its annual quota of inductees from all population sectors in recent years. Current IDF military strategy, rightly or wrongly, relies more on high-tech weaponry than “boots on the ground” to protect the country. As a result, haredi leaders anticipate that making nearly all haredi men of military age draft-eligable will result only in a modest and gradual increase in haredi enlistments. Still, their counter-proposal seems more reasonable and fair to me than Leiberman’s proposal.
For better understanding of this topic, here is a brief summary of my comments on this Website from May 28/29, 2019.
In 2018 there were about 185’000 ‘live births’ in Israel. In a typical year, that could yield about 92’500 boys, as eligible Army conscripts.
Assuming about 15% Arabs, (of which maybe two thirds are Muslim), and let’s say another 5% of the yearly cohort are physically unfit.
That still should leave about 70’000 men and 70’000 well able for recruitment.
Because at least 15% are orthodox, therefore they should contribute at least 10’000 male soldiers. Every year. They don’t however.
According to the research unit of the Israeli Knesset, (and not Kan, Haaretz or some other phantasy news outlet cited above), in 2016 the number of fresh orthodox recruits into the Israeli army amounted to 850.
Also in 2016, 571 orthodox ‘volunteers’ opted to serve in the ‘National Service’ channel instead. Ostensibly, to perform chores nobody would pay for, if they had to.
Importantly though, it is a well-known and documented fact that many, many ‘volunteers’, if not most, never show up for the National Service. Instead, they split their allowances with their overseers as a bribe, and go after normal activities in their civilian pursuits.
In summer 2018, the Knesset found 1’371 orthodox in the civil National Service and 7’250 in the regular army. As the army service lasts about 3 years, it is safe to assume that a paltry figure of about 2’500 orthodox soldiers were enlisted annually – only. But this number too is cooked up and highly doubtful.
It is known that the so-called called orthodox recruits are actually regular national religious soldiers, the ones with color Kippahs, who would enlist anyhow. Every year, a few hundred non-orthodox but religious soldiers, such as hilltop youth or other members of the ‘Bloc of Faithful’ nationalist movements, are misclassified in order to augment the ‘orthodox lists’ and keep the government coalition happy, and the electorate quiet, and dumb.
Thus for 2013 to 2016 the army reported that orthodox conscription was up 47% and everyone is happy.
Liberman, sadly, is also conjuring a fraud. He is fighting to enforce the cop-out bill drafted a few years back, that was never adopted. That bill does not address the fact that the ‘orthodox’ classification is bogus.
And even if Liberman’s bill were adopted, it would only add 3’384 men next year. Far below the 10’000 required to reflect the fair share of orthodox males for the army.
Liberman knows all of this full well. He is blackmailing the coalition for a high price, and he set the bar conveniently low, so that the orthodox are able acquiesce and can eventually ‘cave in’ to his demands. He is just posturing, and readying the day when he will rejoin a coalition (right or left) and claim a glorious victory. It’s just a sham.
And all of you can keep on dreaming.
I believe the Kan and Haaretz reports distorted the facts. Haaretz said that the discrepancy was caused by young men who had “left the haredi community” and enlisted in regular (not exclusively haredi) units of the army, where they mingled with non-haredi soldiers. My gut feeling is that these young men, or most of them, had not left the haredi community community, but only disobeyed the “orders” of their rosh yeshivot to enlist in the exclusively haredi units. That would not necessarily make it impossible for them to return to their haredi communities after completing their service, although they will face criticism if they do.
Haredi soldiers have many reasons why they might prefer to serve in regular units of the IDF, even if the extremely strict rules of kashrut and complete segregation of the sexes is not imposed in these units (all the food served in the IDF does have a kosher hechsher, but the haredi units insist that the food be certified kosher by the chief rabbis of about 36 different haedi sects! Even some young haredim may consider this overkill). The regular units may give these “dissident” haredi young men more opportunities to acquire skills that will enable them to obtain good jobs when they return to civilian life. And yes, some of them would like to have some opportunity to meet young women during their military service. Young men in their teens or twenties who are single and not gay are unlikely to be happy if they have to go for four years without any opportunity to meet and make friends with women of their own age–even if their rabbis oppose this.
Counting these ‘dissident” young men from haredi families as haredim was therefore not necessarily deliberately dishonest on the part of the IDF.
In addition, there is the question of whether young men from the Lubavitcher community were counted by the army as haredim. While the Lubovitcher’s do follow a haredi lifestyle in civilian life, they apparently don’t oppose those of their young men who volunteer to serve in “regular” IDF units where most of their fellow soldiers are non-haredim. There are several reasons why the Lubavitcher-Chabad organization takes a more tolerant view of military service by their young men than the other haredi sects. Over the years, the Lubovitchers have gradually become supportive of the State of Israel and its efforts to defend itself against its enemies than the other haredi sects. Their politics has gradually become closer to the national-religious cammp than the other haredi groups. Also, since their relationships with the other haredi communities are strained, they may prefer that their young men who volunteer for service serve in the regular “mixed” units than in all-haredi units.
It is perfectly possible that Lubovitch-Chabadniks serving in regular units may account for most of the discrepancy between the figures reported by the IDF and the claims of Kan and Haaretz.
Also, remember that all of the main Israel TV and radio stations are anti-haredi, and Haaretz is both anti-haredi and anti-Israel . They are not the most reliable sources of information about the haredim or the IDF–especially when they cite “anonymous” sources.