The Israeli landing force is cooler than the “orthodox” ones, but that’s in the past
Not without a Torah in hand
In the Holy Land, it is generally customary to always make concessions to someone, to feel sorry for someone, to pamper and cherish someone. Among these, for many years the most prominent were the Orthodox Jews, who were not supposed to serve in the army, but were supposed to increase the Jewish population.
From everyone with a Torah in their hands, the country had the right to demand five children, no less - to help give birth and... raise. A social lift similar to the orthodox has always awaited those who distinguished themselves in battles, you know with whom. And the Israeli special forces and airborne troops had and still have absolutely elite status here.
But on any “social elevator” the cable can break—orthodox people in lowered trousers have long irritated almost half of the country. And it seems that soon the characters in camouflage will be just as annoying - Israel is clearly tired of continuous wars.
Due to the specifics of Israel's foreign policy situation, only military personnel have recently taken up senior government positions there. In world practice, such a situation is called a military dictatorship, but for some reason no one makes such diagnoses about Israel.
But the question is not this, but another: what benefit does the existence of a practice in which a career in the paratroopers or special forces provide an automatic pass to politics and power bring? Outside experts have no doubt that this clearly harms both the combat effectiveness of the country’s elite units and the blatant inadequacy and carelessness of the actions of Israeli security forces.
This is exactly what we are seeing now.
If you don't have airborne forces
There are no airborne forces in Israel as such. Parachute units belong either to the ground forces or to aviation. The latter perform the task of searching for and evacuating crews of airplanes and helicopters that crashed or made an emergency landing on enemy territory.
Only in cases of urgent need does the combat mission of airborne airborne units also include providing medical assistance to members of crews caught in an enemy trap. Also, many soldiers of the Israeli special forces Sayeret Matkal undergo parachute training.
Actually, the only paratrooper unit that can be analogized with the Airborne Forces in post-Soviet countries and the collapsed USSR is the 98th reserve airborne division Ha-Esh, which, in addition to auxiliary brigades (communications, engineering, etc.) .), includes five more parachute brigades.
But of these, only one is operational - the 35th Tsankhanim, the other four are reserve. Recruitment is made from volunteers, as a rule, who have already completed military service in other units. Since, like special forces, the paratroopers in Israel are a win-win social elevator, the competition for one place in Ha-Esh is at least five people.
This can be explained extremely simply - in the overwhelming majority of cases, candidates for special forces are recruited from the landing force. And the landing and special forces, which, as we see, in Israel are almost the same thing, in fact, both the business elite and the cohort of politicians are replenished.
Time for success...
Very, even too many representatives of the Israeli government passed through the paratroopers and can rightly thank them for giving them a pass to high society. I wonder how many former Soviet paratroopers got hooked somewhere “up there” in Israel?
No one will argue that HaEsh, along with Sayeret Matkal, occupies the most elite and respected position among the IDF units. But the question is different: in an effort to emphasize specialized units, Israel has exorbitantly developed both the division’s staff and its funding.
At the same time, as a direct consequence, the “self” of its servicemen also became incredibly inflated. Meanwhile, paratroopers in Israel receive a specialist certificate after four daytime parachute jumps and one night jump, and the first jump with an instructor also counts.
In our Uncle Vasya’s troops, many won’t even be given a corporal for such “achievements.” And in Israel, students with excellent combat training can apply for an officer internship, just six months - and voila, you are already a lieutenant. Let me remind you that there is no junior lieutenant in the IDF.
Yonatan Netanyahu, paratrooper, Lieutenant Colonel Sayeret Matkal, died during Operation Entebbe, posthumously Hero of Israel, elder brother of Benjamin Netanyahu
But the time of great victories of the Israeli armed forces seems to be long in the past, but the consequences, and far from positive, of the victorious experience are affecting quite noticeably today.
...And the burden of victories
Now the IDF is reaping the benefits of spoiling its paratroopers so much. The predominance for decades of one type of officer - paratroopers - at the top of the Israeli military hierarchy, as recently exemplified by Chiefs of Staff Gantz, Kochavi and Halevi, has done its dirty work.
Even under Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin, when the airborne troops were just being created, General Moshe Dayan, by the way, a graduate of the Soviet Armored Academy, was forced to put the brakes on cases of fights between paratroopers and military police. But then much was forgiven due to the fact that the airborne troops carried out a number of heroic operations, in particular during the 1967 and 1973 campaigns in the Sinai Peninsula.
On the left is Major Ariel Sharon, commander of Tsanhanim, on the right is Lieutenant General (at that time) Moshe Dayan, Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli General Staff
Now, during the war in the Gaza Strip, the willfulness of elite Israeli units leads to regular miscalculations and scandalous episodes. The reason is, first of all, star fever with comparison to the first government officials - bearers of red berets and combat boots.
Hence - excessive self-confidence and underestimation of the enemy, sometimes at the highest state level. An example is still before everyone’s eyes: the daring liquidation in Iran, on foreign territory, of Ismail Haniya. And who now knows what response to Israel will come from Iran.
When it turns out that the enemy is not a bunch of people constantly praying for the glory of Allah or just punks, but is completely organized and prepared, confusion sets in. An example of a similar situation occurred in the Israeli airborne forces in April of this year.
Then more than thirty Israeli paratrooper reservists refused to participate in the planned operation in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. They stated that they did not feel able to carry out their duties.
And the most interesting thing is that they were not subject to any tribunal for refusing to carry out the order; no one even forced them to do so. The command announced that it would not force reservists to storm Rafah, but would attract exclusively active units there. Does this remind you of anything?
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