Collapse From Within: What Are the Repercussions of the Massive Resignations That Shook the Israeli Army?

Recently, a Hebrew newspaper revealed a crisis within the state security services after registering record numbers of hundreds of officers and individuals resigning from the police and army in “Israel,” which prompted the leaders of the security system to warn of the dangers of what is happening to the future of security within the country.

According to the newspaper, for a long time, the leaders of the Israeli army chose to hide behind the scenes of the manpower crisis from the face of the crises afflicting their institution and avoided talking about it publicly to avoid a possible confrontation with the Ministry of Finance, unlike the police, which constantly announces the existence of a serious manpower crisis in its ranks.

The army and police establishment are among 7 bodies called the security institution in “Israel,” along with the Ministry of Defense, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, the Border Guard, and the Ministry of Internal Security.

 

Military Crisis

In a report on February 2, 2023, the Hebrew Israel Hayom newspaper highlighted the resignation of hundreds of officers in various army formations over the past year due to the low level of salaries and wages they receive, which prompted them to leave the military establishment and go to work in the private sector.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, at least 613 officers with the rank of major left the Israeli army in 2022 only, an increase of about 70% since 2020.

“457 officers with the rank of major left in 2021, 355 officers with the rank of major in 2020, 306 officers with the rank of major in 2019, and 289 officers with the rank of major in 2018,” it added.

“Also in the past year, at least 12 officers with the rank of lieutenant colonel decided to leave the army, even though they are on a safe permanent service path,” according to the newspaper.

The newspaper also indicated that more than two thousand officers with the rank of major and hundreds of other ranks have resigned from serving in the Israeli army over the past five years, noting that the number is constantly increasing and that the military leadership in “Israel” is trying to conceal the crisis and prevent it from being circulated in the media so that it does not come out to the public opinion.

This comes against the background of the General Staff’s disregard of the IDF’s demands to increase their wages in line with the salary scale within the same institution.

The newspaper also mentioned that the Israeli army leaders tried to obstruct and delay the publication of this report, apparently out of a desire to avoid a confrontation with the Ministry of Finance in this regard, which in turn will open an investigation on suspicions of corruption, and also to avoid a public conversation that would lead to a broader range of resignations.

Hebrew: [Officers of the rank of Major who left voluntarily], Israel Hayom

The newspaper quoted an officer with the rank of major in its dialogue with him: “Why will the individuals remain inside the army? The feeling is that no one cares about you. If you walk around in uniform on the weekend or at night, they look at you as if you stole something. The salaries are shameful. The future is not guaranteed. They only reduce pensions, while outside the army, you have all kinds of opportunities and proposals.”

The newspaper pointed out that there are quite a few internet groups that publish messages that the army is looking for officers with the rank of captain and major for various jobs.

“The payroll of young officers who are required to work around the clock worries every citizen in Israel,” according to the newspaper.

According to IDF data, approximately 64% of permanent officers receive salaries of less than $4,000, while the permanent young officers, who work 24/7 and are also required to work on weekends, earn about $2,000 a month.

In addition to the issue of unequal salary, the Hebrew newspaper said that there are other reasons for the resignation of permanent officers, including the inability to live a reasonable family life during the period of service in the ranks of the army.

“Another explanation for the officers’ departure lies in the fact that the Israeli army moved from a pension model within a budget to a cumulative pension, in which retired permanent service personnel receive retirement funds every month,” according to the same newspaper.

“It is true that officers benefit from fewer benefits during their discharge, but an officer at any age can retire from the army and take with him the accumulated pension until that moment,” it added.

 

Difficult Situations

Social media in “Israel” swept a wave of anger in the wake of the revelations launched by the Hebrew newspaper, which talks about a large wave of resignations among the Israeli army officers due to the difficult conditions they live in.

Quite a few officers made it clear that the privileged people within the army did not want to stay in a system where the salary was disgraceful and the workload unreasonable.

One commentator attacked the Israeli military leaders, saying: “There is no money to increase the salaries of permanent personnel of the lower ranks, but there is more than enough funding for events such as farewell parties for unit commanders.”

The newspaper quoted an officer who is still in his military service: “I am 30 years old, I spent nine years in permanent service, in addition to being married and the father of three children, serving in the intelligence service and earning two thousand dollars a month, most of my friends have resigned.”

In contrast, another person wrote: “What I got in six years of permanent service in the army, I earned in just 14 months by working abroad.”

In this regard, the Israel Hayom newspaper stated that the temporary solutions that the Israeli army leaders found in order to keep people in their ranks did not succeed in meeting the requirements.

Last year, tens of millions of gifts were distributed to thousands of officers, with the aim of signing them for an additional permanent term, as well as increasing educational activities in military units in order to enhance their sense of importance and identification with the institution, but these solutions did not succeed in stopping the wave of resignations, according to the newspaper.

This crisis comes in light of talk about the decline in the rate of recruitment in the Israeli army; the Israel Hayom newspaper revealed that, given the current recruitment figures, by the year 2050, the recruitment rate will not exceed 48% of Jewish youth, at the age of 18, although the current recruitment figures indicate a reluctance of about 38% of Jews to join the army.

In turn, the political analyst Ismail Maslamani explained in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “concern is hanging over the Israeli military establishment in light of the wave of mass resignations among the army and police officers, in conjunction with the increase in the percentage of those who refuse to perform compulsory conscription.”

“The widening circle of officers who have resigned and who refuse to perform service in the army will create gaps that cannot be bridged or compensated between the operating forces over the next few years,” he added.

The analyst noted that “these phenomena have serious repercussions on the future of security in Israel in general, which is basically suffering from a crisis of confidence between it and the Israeli street.”

Mr. Maslamani also emphasized that since the announcement of the right-wing coalition’s victory in the recent Knesset elections, Israelis have become concerned about sending their children to join the army and police, especially in light of the presence of Ben Gvir and Smotrich at the helm of the security and military establishment in “Israel.”

 

Police Crisis

Not far from the army establishment, the police force is suffering from a complex crisis in light of the record number of people who left and resigned from the police force from January 2022 until mid-December 2022.

A report by the Israel Hayom newspaper on December 15, 2022, showed that 2,000 police officers and security men had left the service over the past year, most of them resigning, while some were retired or dismissed by an administrative decision.

According to the newspaper, this number is considered a jump of about 66% compared to the year 2021, when about 1,200 officers and security personnel left the police force, and twice the number recorded in 2020, which recorded the departure of about a thousand policemen.

Regarding the significance of these numbers, the newspaper stated that the average number of those who left the police force during the years 2018 and 2019 did not exceed 400 policemen; that is, the numbers of departures during 2022 exceeded 4 times what the situation was just 3 years ago.

In turn, the head of the Israeli Police Recruitment Office said that the officers who submitted their resignations are professionals, and their number reached 750 officers out of 2,000 officers, and they are of high ranks who have undergone training courses.

Among those who have resigned are officers who have served more than 4 years, and therefore the police leadership will find it difficult to compensate these professional officers, which means that the Israeli police force has become less professional, and this has serious repercussions.

Israeli circles talk about several reasons behind the resignations, including that the salary is not commensurate with the effort, in addition to the fact that the police force has become less professional.

The average monthly wage for a new policeman in the first years of his service is $2,700, while private sector wages are about $4,400.

According to the Inspector General of Police, Yaakov Shabtai, the current security conditions require the recruitment of 5,000 new policemen, and this goal may seem unattainable in light of the current situation, which witnesses the reluctance of citizens to join the police force.

In one of the special deliberations of the Internal Security Committee in the Knesset, in the middle of last year, the committee’s report, which was submitted by the Inspector General, said that the gap that the police force suffers from is very large.

The report stated that job vacancies in the police service reached 1,720 positions, including 566 in police patrols, 322 police in investigations, 198 secret police, 133 police in traffic units, and 500 police in the border guards.

According to the same report, this situation led to the closure of 18 police stations and the failure to deal with 12,880 complaints inside “Israel.”