Winning wars, losing hearts: IDF enters battlefield of public opinion

[Jefferson23]

Last edited Sat Jan 4, 2014, 05:17 PM - Edit history (1)

In recent years, the economic media have marked the army as a major target for attack for a long period of excess fat and waste; it has only recently begun to cope with the self-inflicted damage.

By Amos Harel | Jan. 4, 2014 | 3:00 AM |

On Monday, after receiving the Sokolow Prize for lifetime achievement, Guy Rolnik, founding editor of TheMarker website and financial daily and deputy publisher of the Haaretz Group, published a lengthy, polemical article in TheMarker, in which he enumerated the reasons for the ills of the Israeli economy. According to Rolnik, the primary cause of these problems, which affect millions: the defense establishment. The banks and their fees are only in second place.

The Israel Defense Forces is described in the article as “the army of the Lilliputians.” The country’s leaders, who are supposed to see to the public good, are portrayed by Rolnik as being connected at the navel to the vested interests of powerful pressure groups, headed by the security and defense branches. Therefore, instead of fixing the distorted structure of the national economy, they prefer to talk about preparing for a security threat that is deliberately inflated so that they can go on relentlessly upgrading.

Rolnik has inveighed for years against the privileges attained by those close to the faucets of power, enjoying the fruits of everything from unacceptable commercial transactions to inordinately large pensions. But his conclusion this week sounds even more blunt: Not only does the defense establishment constitute the greatest burden on the economy, but there is not one iota of substantive justification for this state of affairs. In contrast to the past, Rolnik makes no distinction now between combat troops in the field and the officers at defense headquarters in Tel Aviv: The implication is that everyone is guilty. He also plays down the significance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his view, the country’s leaders are in the main using a diversionary tactic, which allows them to evade confronting pressing social challenges.

A few days earlier, in an interview in TheMarker, Prof. Oren Barak, who teaches political science and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, put forward a similar thesis about a covert “security network” whose members run the country and ratchet up the defense budget for their own purposes.

in full: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/.premium-1.566839

[King_David]

1. Link doesn't work, it's from Haaretz ?

[Jefferson23]

2. Sorry about that, it is fixed now.

[Jefferson23]

3. more:

In recent years, the economic media have marked the army as a major target for attack. It has to be admitted that the IDF has a lot of this hostility coming to it, thanks to years of excess fat and waste; it has only recently begun to cope with the self-inflicted damage from this period. Another reason for the hostility lies in the fact that the army has had the upper hand vis-a-vis the Finance Ministry in most of the bureaucratic battles fought over the budget. The latest example came just two weeks ago, when the Knesset Finance Committee approved the government’s decision to restore to the defense budget 2.79 billion shekels (more than $804 million), to be taken from income tax surpluses – thereby erasing most of the cut of 3 billion shekels imposed on that budget half a year ago.

The army is barely present as a participant in public discourse over the country’s budgetary priorities, a topic that grew more critical following the summer of social protest in 2011. IDF officers emerge to explain the army’s viewpoint only at particularly problematic junctures, on the eve of decisions by the government and the security cabinet, and what the top brass says is usually perceived as an little more than threats and scare tactics. Not long ago, a senior General Staff officer met with two economic columnists from Haaretz. The meeting ended with a complete lack of agreement, “like two hands that don’t succeed in meeting even to have one hand clapping,” according to one participant.

This media discussion is a worrisome phenomenon from the army’s point of view. The occupation of the West Bank does not really interest most of the public, notwithstanding the efforts of some Haaretz op-ed writers. Once the separation barrier was in place and the suicide attacks stopped, Nablus was no longer an hour from Tel Aviv, but, rather, on the dark side of the moon.

But complaints about excessive salaries, service conditions and early (and noncontributory) pensions in the IDF are something else again. Everyone knows the neighbor in their apartment building, be he a physician, economist or engineer, who serves in the career army in a largely civilian function, but nevertheless is planning to start a second career around the age of 45, after retiring from the IDF with a full pension. With the majority of the middle class feeling hemmed in by certain problems – the high cost of living, the housing bubble, a decline in the quality of service in health and education – they tend to vent their anger on those who are perceived as enjoying unfair privileges. It’s true that public opinion surveys continue to find consistent and stable support for the IDF. Indeed, the army has been the country’s most popular body over the years, and the nation believes in the chief of staff, the soldiers – and Roni Daniel too (the gung-ho Channel 2 defense analyst). In the long term, though, the General Staff knows it has a problem.

[bemildred]

7. Sounds like our military. nt

[Jefferson23]

8. Yea, they seem to have the same twist:

... being connected at the navel to the vested interests of powerful pressure groups, headed by the security and defense branches. Therefore, instead of fixing the distorted structure of the national economy, they prefer to talk about preparing for a security threat that is deliberately inflated so that they can go on relentlessly upgrading.

[bemildred]

9. Well, I could go on about that subject.

And there are differences too. But just reading it I was struck by how often it sounded familiar.

But we've always been corrupt, our military procurement has always been a cash cow for connected "enterpreneurs". In Israel that was once not so. A gift from the Neocons.

[azurnoir]

4. Thanks interesting article

I remember a few years ago when one of our Israeli posters stated that IDF was the greatest social unifier Israel has, that statement made me despair at any prospect for peace in the future, because if the greatest social unifier in a country any country is the military, then the social consciousness is one of constant war

now this seems to be changing, which is hopeful that said I wonder I've read that the US funds between 20 amd 25% of Israel's military budget-would any of what is enumerated in the OP be possible without us?

[Jefferson23]

5. It would be well worth finding out, imo.

As to the posters that believes the IDF is the greatest social unifier Israel has...wow.

[Israeli]

6. who ever it was that stated that ....

was correct azurnoir ....it is and always has been .

Whether it always will be only time will tell ...

And yes ..the social consciousness is one of constant war ...that is our reality .
Have you any idea how many wars I have lived thru in my 63 years .

dont get your hopes up ...its not changing .

" the General Staff knows it has a problem. " and it also knows that in the battlefield of public opinion the general public , with very few exceptions , will stand united in support of our security services .