The primary mission of the incoming chief of staff, Major General Eyal Zamir, is security-related. He must ensure that the IDF protects the State of Israel and its residents from its enemies. However, this is not his only mission.
In order to ensure the continued existence of the IDF as the people’s army — that is, an army built on universal conscription, reflecting Israel’s diverse population — he must confront three challenges pertaining to the relationship between Israeli society and the IDF that lie before him: the conscription of haredim (the ultra-Orthodox), maintaining the IDF’s moral backbone, and restoring trust in the military leadership.
Haredi draft
The first challenge facing the incoming chief of staff is the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription. Israeli lawmakers have allowed nearly all young haredi men to avoid military service through repeated deferrals granted to those with a designation making “Torah study their profession.”
Until October 7, the central framing of the issue was moral and economic: the violation of equality in the burden of military service and the significant impact on the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into the labor market.
Since the war began, however, it has become evident that the problem is even broader — the IDF is facing a manpower crisis. Without expanding the service base to include haredi men, the IDF relies on two pillars: reserve soldiers, many of whom have served hundreds of days since the war’s outbreak, and conscripts from the secular, traditional, and religious-Zionist sectors, who enlist in very high numbers and for whom the IDF seeks to extend their mandatory service to three years.
It is far from certain that these two pillars of the people’s army — reserve soldiers and non-Haredi conscripts — will continue to bear the growing burden of service while the ultra-Orthodox remain exempt. With regard to the conscription of haredim, the primary responsibility lies with the Knesset, while the chief of staff's job will be to present a professional stance on the IDF’s needs.
In this context, the IDF, under the leadership of the incoming chief of staff, will also have to find the right way to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into its ranks — a way that respects the values of their community while strictly maintaining the IDF’s unity, preventing its fragmentation into multiple armies with separate professional and ethical cultures, and avoiding a chain of command influenced by external rabbinical authorities.
Ethical code of the IDF
The second challenge facing Zamir in the realm of civil-military relations is the ethical challenge. A series of surveys conducted in recent years reveal that significant segments of the Israeli Jewish public support the use of force in ways that contradict IDF policy and even the “Spirit of the IDF” — the ethical code of the Israel Defense Forces.
For example, in a survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, more than 63% of Jewish respondents agreed with the statement that “a neutralized terrorist should be killed even if they no longer pose a threat” — a position that stands in direct opposition to the law, IDF orders, and its core values.
In the same survey, 60% of Jewish respondents believed that adherence to the principle of “purity of arms” prevents the IDF from fulfilling its missions. This gap between societal values and IDF values is particularly significant in Israel, where mandatory conscription draws recruits from all sectors of society, and reserve duty is widespread. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the new chief of staff to preserve and enforce the values of the IDF.
Public Trust in IDF's senior command
The third challenge is public trust in the IDF’s senior command. Repeated surveys indicate that even after the failures of October 7, the IDF as a whole continues to maintain a high level of public trust among the Jewish population. However, when it comes to the senior command, trust levels decline, particularly among supporters of the political right in Israel.
In October 2024, while 86% of the Jewish public expressed confidence in the IDF, only about 66% expressed trust in the senior command. Among voters for the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, trust in the senior command dropped to below 50%. In another survey conducted in November 2024, only 44% of right-wing supporters responded that “the value system of the IDF’s senior command aligns with their personal values.”
At the root of all three challenges described lies a socio-political issue. Yet, all of them now wait at the doorstep of the incoming chief of staff. He must promote the proper integration of the ultra-Orthodox into the IDF, uphold its values, and restore public trust in the senior military leadership.
If he fails to address these challenges, the very model of the IDF as a national people’s army will be at risk. However, if he succeeds, his ability to tackle the security challenges ahead will be significantly strengthened. As we welcome Major General Zamir to his new role as the 24th chief of staff of the State of Israel, we wish him great success in the many complex tasks before him. His success is the success of us all.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.