The opposition leader in Israel, Yair Lapid, accused the government on Thursday of steering the country towards a “security disaster” because of a shortage of combat soldiers.
“The IDF is stretched to the limit and beyond. The government is leaving the army wounded out on the battlefield,” Lapid said in a televised statement, echoing a warning delivered a day earlier by military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir to the security cabinet, according to Israeli media reports.
“The government is sending the army into a multi-front war without a strategy, without the necessary means, and with far too few soldiers,” Lapid said.
Media reports cited Zamir as stating to the security cabinet that “the IDF is close to failure.”
In a televised briefing Thursday regarding the troop shortage, military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin stated that “additional combat soldiers are required” across various fronts, particularly in Lebanon.
“On the Lebanese front, the forward defensive zone that we are creating requires additional IDF forces,” Defrin said, also mentioning increased needs in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and Syria.
Lapid noted that Zamir told the cabinet that he had reservists doing sixth and seventh rotations.
“These reservists are worn out and exhausted and can no longer meet our security challenges,” Lapid said.
“The army does not have enough soldiers for its missions.”
Lapid called for the enlistment of men from the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community, who since the creation of Israel in 1948 have been exempted from military service.
“The government must stop being cowardly, immediately halt all funding for Haredi draft dodgers, send the military police after deserters, and draft the Haredim without hesitation,” Lapid said.
