gur
ieng

= Interest in army
service is declining
among young recruits.

LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

A P/CANTIAIWI I V1I N

These young
highly motivated
men had no
fighting force. This
trouble joining
reasoning — that
the Israeli army. Israeli youth were
But what does
losing their heart
the future hold?

n early August, Defense Minister Yitzhak
Mordechai paid a visit to the Tel Hashomer
army induction center outside of Tel Aviv. He
wanted to see how the new recruits were far-
ing.
Some 100 of them sat in a room as
Mordechai, surrounded by reporters and cam-
eramen, asked for a show of hands from those
who wanted to go into combat units.
Three went up.
One recruit told the defense minister,
"Most of my friends want to be in units in the
rear."
`The rear? Why the rear?" Mr. Mordechai
demanded.
"We don't have the strength," the recruit
replied.
"At this age you don't have the strength?
No strength to serve your country for three
years? What's the matter, do you have per-
sonal problems?"
'We don't want to go through all the

strain, we don't have the strength," the re-
cruit said.
This embarrassing visit let the cat out of
the bag: The problem of declining motivation
among 18-year-old army recruits became an
admitted problem in Israeli society.
In recent years, it has become accepted
that older reserve soldiers were at best drag-
ging themselves to annual duty, and fre-
quently ducking it. That such a problem
existed among 18-year-olds was only hint-
ed at, and the army had always denied it. But
the coverage of Mordechai's visit made it bla-
tantly clear that even among Israeli youth,
army service was losing its shine.
"They talk about it without a bit of em-
barrassment or shame," remarked one senior
army officer accompanying the defense min-
ister.
In his pep talk to the boys, Mr. Mordechai
explained that Israel had not yet reached the
era of peace, and that it still required a strong,

for the army be-
cause they be-
lieved that peace was already upon
them, and that preparing for war
was no longer necessary — was
a popular explanation for this new,
troubling phenomenon.
But at Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Cen-
ter mall, a group of 16- and 17-
year-olds gave different
explanations.
"Young people walk around
with their cellular phones, their
McDonald's and their Cokes and
they only care about themselves,"
one boy said.
"Kids today have complete free-
dom. Their parents can't control
them — the youth have become
stronger, more independent. No-
body wants to stop what he's do-
ing and have some army officer
start pushing him around, telling
him what to do," said another.
One girl said that if she were al-
lowed into a combat unit, she
would readily volunteer. "It's im-
portant; we have to defend the
country," she said. She hopes to
serve in the intelligence unit, one
of the most demanding for women
recruits.
"My parents are completely be-
hind me," she said, noting that her
father served in the Yom Kippur
and Lebanon wars.
One of the boys in the group,
however, said, "I'm going to dodge
the draft just like [rock star] Aviv Geffen. I
don't believe in war, and besides, rm not suit-
ed for the army personally." The boy said his
father, who fought in the Six-Day War, sup-
ports his decision. "He knows I'm too delicate
for the army."
The teens talked about the individualistic,
materialistic influences coming into Israel from
America, the music, the media that constant-
ly prime them for high living, for following
their desires. This is not the sort of thinking
that whets one's appetite for basic training.
"We've been brainwashed," said the girl
headed for the intelligence unit.
The youngsters said the problem of de-
clining military motivation was common to
all youth except the national religious — the
children of West Bank settlers and members
of the B'nei Akiva youth group, many of
whom combine army service with yeshiva

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