IDF: Reservist Protests Have Hurt Israel’s Military Readiness

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted Tuesday that thousands of military reservists who have refused to show up for duty in protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms have hurt the ability of the county to defend itself.

The Times of Israel reported:

“You asked about [military] fitness — the IDF is ready for war, but there is limited harm in some areas,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a Channel 12 interview, highlighting the Israeli Air Force as one branch that has been particularly harmed by reservists refusing to show up for volunteer duty.

Hagari pointed to the IAF’s flight school, where some reservist pilots opposed to the overhaul volunteer as instructors: “People who leave everything, once a week, and go to train the young pilots. A significant number are deciding not to come.”

…

For several weeks, as the government advanced the first major bill of its judicial overhaul, a tide that rose to more than 10,000 reservists who frequently show up for duty on a voluntary basis said they would no longer do so. The reservists have warned they will not be able to serve in an undemocratic Israel, which some charge the country will become if the government implements its overhaul.

The judicial reforms aim to increase the power of the democratically-elected legislature relative to the unelected judiciary, but opponents refer to them as “undemocratic,” even though Netanyahu’s coalition was elected on promises to make the changes.

As Breitbart News has noted, many of the reforms parallel existing practice in the U.S. — though the proposed threshold to override a Supreme Court decision is far lower — a simple majority of the legislature, rather than a constitutional amendment.

Israel passed the first reform last month. It bars the judiciary from overturning government policies on the basis of what judges decide is “reasonable,” rather than on the basis of the law. The change was made despite left-wing protests across the country.

Israel currently faces a variety of urgent external threats: terror rockets from Gaza; wildcat terror attacks in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank); the rise of a potential nuclear Iran; and invasion threats from Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.

A recent poll showed that a majority of Israelis believe their country is in a state of emergency, though that view was only prevalent on the left. Israelis on all sides showed little willingness to dismiss reservists who refused to show up for duty.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.