The IDF will not crack down on the current campaign of public letters calling for elite reservist officers to refuse to respond to call-ups in protest against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, only when those officers are actual no-shows, the Jerusalem Post has learned.
The IDF’s view is that it wants to keep itself out of politics, and in that sense, it does not want to get involved in responding to public letter campaigns.
Rather, only when a specific commander issues a summons to a specific reservist combat pilot, member of Unit 8200 intelligence, elite combat unit member or medical officer, and the reservist gives an unsatisfactory response about showing up, will there be a penalty.
Even in such an instance, the IDF will give the specific local commander wide discretion about what kind of discipline to bring to bear on the reservist.
Are reservists replaceable in the eyes of the IDF?
The degree of discipline might be influenced by how replaceable or not the reservist is, how long the reservist says their protest may last and the broader dynamics of what impact disciplining the reservist will have on the rest of the relevant unit.
At the same time, any IDF officer who is identified as actively trying to encourage others to refuse their callups could be separately disciplined and more severely.
Meanwhile, the Post has also learned that the IDF is extremely concerned by the uptick in violence by West Bank Jewish residents against both Palestinians and against the IDF, part of an increasing trend in revenge or frustration attacks following Palestinian terror attacks.
The IDF understands that when a Jew openly desecrates a Quran, as occurred in the Palestinian village of Urif, and perpetrates other violent acts, the harm can be both to the immediate Palestinians affected as well as to Israel’s international relations.
Generally, the IDF thinks it can get the Jewish West Bank violence under control, but it admits that when many dozens or 200 Jews work in a coordinated fashion to attack Palestinians or IDF units, its resources may be limited from completely containing the situation.
IDF officials are also worried about the state of some of their commanders who have been personally attacked, being that these commanders’ presence on “the front” of containing any violent protest by Jews is crucial for handling complex sensitivities.