Almost ten months after the outbreak of the October 7 war, the IDF is trying to control the so-called “donation chaos,” referring to donations obtained by soldiers in the various ground units. Over this period, many thousands of individuals in Israel and abroad have been fundraising and purchasing whatever IDF soldiers were missing when they showed up for the fight against Hamas and Hezbollah. In reality, the more Israel-loving Jews and Gentiles donated, the worse the IDF was looking, exposed as it was for its failure to provide its soldiers with a substantial part of their needs.
Now the Commander of the ground forces, Major General Tamir Yadai, has issued an order to be implemented this week, for each reserve brigade, and subsequently also the regular service units, to provide a mapping and photographic record of all the equipment donated by civilian entities since October 7.
According to reports, Yadai attacked the very phenomenon of Jewish donors doing what they could to compensate for the military’s shortcomings: “The findings are very worrying and disturbing. There is no transparency, there is no control over what exists and what doesn’t, and things border on the criminal – and even put the forces at risk.”
In other words, not only is the major general not grateful for the donations, some of which are very expensive, but he even suggests they may be criminal.
i24 News reported that Yadai is promoting severe punitive measures for soldiers who will receive equipment from donors, which may be investigated by the military police. This warning was presented to the soldiers, and it appears that members of the paratroopers’ brigade have already received warnings that they would be prosecuted should they accept donated items.
There are tens of thousands of items that were donated without military supervision or regulation, including drones, night vision, binoculars, tactical helmets, protection devices, adapters for weapons such as peripheral cameras for tanks and armored troops carriers, and Kevlar vests. Each one of these items costs between $500 and $10,000.
An IDF spokesperson stated: “Throughout the war, the IDF has repeatedly emphasized that the provision of military combat equipment is organized in an orderly and professional procedure, which includes all the necessary tests – both in the context of the quality of the equipment and its suitability for its purpose and in ensuring the required safety standard – and this is coming from the IDF which supplied their reservists with 30-year-old sub-par equipment on October 8th.
Officers have privately told JewishPress.com that they know of many donations that entered via the official channels and were apparently placed in storehouses and have never made it to the field. Another officer said that while he doesn’t want to take equipment donations he has no choice. Via donations he gets the specific equipment his units need within days, while the equipment he orders through the IDF still hasn’t arrived months later.
Some donors and soldiers have complained that stickers of the anarchist group “Achim LNeshek” (Brothers-in-Arms) were placed on donations that went through the army, even though the group had no connection at all with the donors and organizers of those donations.
“Also, the use of non-standard equipment, which is implemented in units that are not within the standard framework for implementing equipment – may create a significant risk of operational effectiveness and/or safety risk. The tests performed on the equipment are intended to verify the equipment’s integrity.
“Equipment that does not meet the IDF standard will be prohibited from being used. Since the use of equipment that does not meet the IDF standard endangers the lives of the soldiers in the field.”
The army also said (unofficially) that criminal phenomena are expanding, including thefts of equipment donated by reservists who finish their service, trading, and a black market for the sale of donated equipment, as well as dubious parties who collect donations “in the name of the IDF” and then sell them on the open market.
Having units catalog and report their equipment is a good idea. It would allow the IDF to determine each units actual capabilities and needs, ensure minimal standards are met, as well as reduce the black market sales.
But instead of blocking all equipment donations from generous donors, an official a list of approved equipment and global manufacturers and suppliers, along with minimum required standards for distribution to IDF soldiers would be a much more intelligent and productive decision, and bypass the dysfunctional IDF bureaucracy.
