If an alien from Mars were to land here and get his info solely from Ethan Bronner's article, he would get the impression that the IDF was mostly composed of "secular, liberal, educated kibbutniks" and now is in danger of a takeover by "religious right-wing nationalists". It's a perfect journalistic set-up, filled with a clear good (former)/bad (religious) dichotomy as well as all the right buzzwords (liberals and Western, nationalists and right-wing). Unfortunately for Ethan Bronner, things are a great deal more complicated.
Contemporary and past Jewish-Israeli society is not monolithic, but rather a society fragmented along a number of lines - ethnic (Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Russian) and religious (secular, traditional, religious, haredi) and political (right-left, liberal-socialist), some of which have hardened over time, other softened. Even the sub-groups mentioned have other sub-groups, so to speak of a monolithic "secular, Western" and, one assumes, leftist and peacenik majority is to make a statement that has little basis outside the journalistic bubble of Tel Aviv.
Kibbutzniks, past and present, were never more than a small minority of the Israeli population. They may have been over-represented in the combat units and among junior and senior officers, but to say that they "dominated" is a bit of a stretch. The rank and file was always more variegated and representative, and it included Ashkenazim and Mizrahim, urbanites and farmers.
More importantly, that segment of Israeli Jews that can be positively identified as veteran and "secular" (kibbutzniks included) has undergone a number of sea changes. These are amply documented by Professor Oz Almog in his famous two-volume Farewell to Srulik. Put bluntly, the ethos of the moral, self-sacrificing tiller of the land has long since been replaced by a self-centered, careeristic individualist. As Gideon Katz and Charles Liebman have demonstrated, secular Jewish society (again, kibbutzniks and former kibbutzniks included) is torn between those who still want to maintain a Jewish identity and contribute to society to those who mostly care about their own careers and welfare.
This means less and less are willing to spend time and volunteer for regular army service or officers' training when there are much more attractive options in civilian life. Even blatant draft-avoidance for careeristic purposes doesn't carry the stigma it once did, if the fawning media treatment of Israeli celebrities is any indication. If other segments of Israeli society are becoming over-represented in the IDF, it is because the former elites voluntarily left their station, not because of some conspiratorial coup d'etat.
Once again, I have referred only to that section of veteran Ashkenazim mentioned in the article, without discussing the fact that there are many secular Jews on the right of the spectrum (mostly Likud etc). This is also without discussing the very large Mizrahi and Russian contingents, who are deserving of treatment on their own.
So where does that leave the evil "religious nationalists"? More on that in the next post.
