Israelis skipping army duty as fatigue of never-ending war worsens

A soldier by day, a father by night. Ari Krauss, a reservist in the Israeli military's elite Golani Brigade, would explode underground tunnels in broad daylight. After the sun set, Ari would try to find the network to FaceTime his infant daughter. Ari and other reservists enlisted in the war would turn to the hill in search for a stable network each night. The dual lives of Israeli reservists and their combat fatigue has been documented by The Washington Post.

But their lives had looked drastically different just a year ago. The memory looks distant now.

Ari used to work for a company, and it was before the October 7 war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group, Hamas started, reported The Washington Post.

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, around 1,200 Israelis were killed. The war has lasted for more than a year now. After incessant rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) conducted a massive offensive in Lebanon in mid-September. This added another chapter to the Israel-Hamas war. Amid this came two drone and missile attacks from Iran.

There could be some relief on the Lebanese front as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved "in principle" a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, a source told CNN.

During the war, Ari's brigade wrote to his boss that he would be serving in the army.

'DISAPPEARING FOR WEEKS OR MONTHS, NO END'

“Once upon a time, I had my high-tech career and my family life, and I had to strike the balance,” said Ari, who spent four months battling with Hamas terrorists.

“Now I have to enter into that equation the fact that I am disappearing for weeks, or months, no end.”

This act of disappearing is not just the story of Ari Krauss but also of the 80,000 Israeli reservists who had to leave their jobs and loved ones to fight for Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.

This is because there is more need for soldiers to continue the war but many who have been conscripted are not showing up.

350,000 ENLISTED OUT OF 10 MILLION ISRAELI POPULATION

Several people do not show up to fight as they have been traumatised by the war. They are seeking individual and group therapy, reported Le Monde. Even horses are employed for therapeutic healing.

They fear for their lives and are traumatised after several months of fighting. The army's enlistment numbers have decreased by 15% since the war began when different sections had opted to fight for their nation.

When a war is not ongoing, Israel retains a small army. It enlists reservists for a war-like situation which is mostly short-lived.

In the first few months of the war, over 350,000 Israelis were asked to serve in the country with a population of less than 10 million. Now, more than a year later, reservists prepare videos where they say goodbye to their children and leave bank passwords for their spouses.

This happened to Chava Landau Zenilman, whose husband died fighting the Hamas terrorists, recalled the fear after the attacks.

"“We were imagining the terrorists coming into their house, to kill the kids in their beds,” she said.

Her husband had served before too. This time he had to serve.

"These dilemmas are our reality from before, but this war is extreme,” she said. She barely ate or slept when he was in Gaza, she said, and tried to keep herself from imagining “the knock on the door". When it came, she was heartbroken, but said she had no regrets: “He was fighting for our kids."

Israel's military draft requires most Jewish men to serve for three years and Jewish women for two. Even members belonging to the Bedouin and Druze communities have to serve in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).

The Supreme Court even ruled that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students would have to enlist. This shook Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition.

After his defence minister signed it this month, Netanyahu fired him.

All this against the backdrop of a shortage of troops. The ones serving are already at the verge of a burnout.

BURNOUT AFTER AN UNEXPECTEDLY LONG WAR

“I feel like the government is making me ask my wife for a weekend with the boys in Vegas, but actually it’s to go for weeks into Lebanon to defend the country,” said a reservist who had been fighting for over five months.

The man said that he would speak on the condition of anonymity. He added that the 12-man unit has now been reduced to five as seven refused to serve.

“We never imagined a war that would be going so deep and going for so long,” he said. “And also, that there’s no one to replace us.”

This is after partners have threatened divorce as many women are now also burning out as single parents and are reducing their work hours to take care of their children.

The number of people not showing up is large now.

Before the war, only 3,200 workers had not shown up for work each month for reservist duty, according to a study by the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem.

Between October and December 2023, the average figure of reservists not showing up was around 130,000 per month, with most workers not showing up at all.

ECONOMIC DIP BUT FIGHT FOR THE COUNTRY

Israel is suffering on other fronts too.

Its economic growth has fallen to 2% and is also expected to go down to 1.5% in 2024, said Benjamin Bental, chair of the economics policy program at the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel.

Even small businesses and start-ups have lost money. Many companies are thinking of shifting to a different location.

“There’s burnout,” said Shmulik Moskowitz, a business consultant.

He spent more than eight months in the war and has lost clients and business in the process.

But “being involved was more important than being at home,” he added.

“We are the country,” said Moskowitz. “If we don’t show up, there’s no country.”

Many Israelis want to end the war quickly. They want to defeat Hamas, release more than 100 hostages and return 60,000 Israeli soldiers.

The war continues. Many, like Dor Zimel, a major in the reserves, went to Lebanon. He proposed to his girlfriend with a diamond ring he received from a jeweler whose son was killed in the Hamas attack.

However, Zimel died.

But his father continued the war.

“Otherwise, what was it for?” he asked.

The war has been fought for many reasons and on many fronts. But now, fatigue is catching up with the Israeli soldiers and if the war doesn't end soon, even fewer soldiers might show up.