Amos Harel, military correspondent and defense analyst for Haaretz, has noted that “Religious Zionists are about 12-15 percent of the population, about 20-25 percent of soldiers in combat units, but maybe 30-40 percent of the junior offices in combat units. From that we see that their motivation is high. They feel they have to defend their country.”
While no one advocates religious coercion of any type in the military or elsewhere, such recognized motivation on the part of religious soldiers should be enough to calm any fears among secular Israelis concerning the encroachment of religion in the military. Soldiers who strongly believe in their cause and have a corresponding upbringing to bolster those beliefs make better soldiers. And for a country besieged by enemies on all fronts, that makes for better protection.
Ironically, while the Knesset convened to hear concerns over religion in the military, a meeting on an altogether different theme was being held in the New York metropolitan area. Panim el Panim, an organization dedicated to bringing Jewish identity and religion to Israeli soldiers and students, brought IDF soldiers to New York schools, organizations, and shuls to talk about their experiences in the recent Gaza conflict and how those experiences impacted their Jewish identity.
I spoke with Maor Rabi, one of the IDF fighters who served as a captain and officer in the armored corps. Though he considers himself masorati (traditional) rather than Orthodox, he is a staunch believer in Judaism and Zionism and even encouraged his soldiers to learn the daf yomi and Gemara when he served as an officer.
For Rabi, there is no doubt that a strong identification with Judaism is a prime motivator for those serving in the IDF. “The majority of the officers and soldiers in special units are religious and they are 100 percent more motivated,” he told me. “There’s no debate about this. Their motivation is more solid and they’re more focused. I can see it in the reserves and other places, and it’s a blessed trend.”
His candid observation is just further corroboration of the common sense notion that believing in a cause, especially a religious one, empowers the person defending it. Taken to one extreme it explains the fanaticism of Muslim fighters and to the other extreme the dangerously passive attitude of too many Western countries.
The rancorous pre-election party maneuverings in Israel have superseded the bickering over the Jewish State Law, religion in the army, and other issues that inexplicably draw condemnation rather than confirmation. What should not be argued about is the primacy of defending the Jewish homeland as the biblical inheritance that God gave the Jewish people.
It is this belief that guided Jewish victories in ancient and contemporary struggles and that hopefully will do so in the future. It is this belief that will ensure Jewish viability so that a spirited call to arms today will not become an obscure headline in a yellowed newspaper a hundred years from now.