Amir Rapaport's Weekly Insights: The Fallen Soldiers Campaign – and the Facts
Unbelievably, even concerning the social and sectorial affiliation of the fallen, an ugly fight has been taking place on social networks. Find the actual facts here, and also: Will there be a positive trend in the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox taking place in a few days?
Amir Rapaport
| 27/12/2023
Never has there been a greater disparity between the discourse that has been taking place on social networks and sometimes in mainstream media and the reality on the ground than, regarding the identity of the fighters in Gaza – meaning, their “affiliation.”
Once again, the claim arises repeatedly as if the majority of the casualties belong to a specific sector. At times, the accusations are baseless. Journalist Razi Barkai stated a few weeks ago that “there hasn't been a single funeral in Bnei Brak,” causing a storm.
This week was marked by what seems, at times, even like a campaign on social networks around the question, 'Why are there no fallen soldiers from Tel Aviv?'"
A post with a similar question suddenly appeared in a series of accounts associated with a specific political side on the political map, and one particularly provocative post was shared by the scriptwriter and “Twitter celebrity” Menny Assayag. In it, he claimed that “40% of the fallen are from the Religious Zionism sector, and 30% are from the Likud.”
On the same day, as Yinon Magal (an anchor on Channel 14, associated with Netanyahu) read the daily list of rhe fallen, one of the attendees in the audience shouted angrily, perhaps spontaneously or perhaps planned, “Why are there no fallen from Tel Aviv??”
Magal dismissed this, saying that there was one fallen from Tel Aviv. Assayag deleted the post. But in both cases, the notion that “there are no fallen soldiers from Tel Aviv” was ingrained. By the way, it is dales.
As fate would have it, the next morning we all woke up to another dreadful about the death in battle of two more reserve soldiers - Elisha Yehonatan Lober and Yosef Giteratz, of blessed memory. Lober was from Yitzhar, near Nablus, and Giteratz from Tel Aviv. The terrible news of their falling was delivered together. There are no camps in death.
I didn’t need this shocking illustration.
The geography of death
In the past year, I have written several times in this column that only those who truly do not understand the army can believe the claim that combat units serve only those from the periphery, while the ‘privileged” individuals get to technological units like 8200 or evade service altogether.
This is simply untrue. However, many believed in this, and still do.
After the terrible morning of October 7th, I asked our producer, Samadar Uziel, to check the communities from which the soldiers who fell in the initial attack and battles against the terrorists came.
It turned out that in that first wave, the highest number of fallen came from Jerusalem. Eight soldiers from Tel Aviv were killed, some of them Golani fighters. I thought that by publishing the data, the discussion on the topic would end.
In light of this week's campaign with the question 'Why are there no fallen from Tel Aviv?” I asked Smadar to update the data, as the overall number of IDF combatants killed in battle has already reached about 500. As terrible as it is, this is a statistically acceptable sample size.
Well, the “first place” still goes to Jerusalem, which still leads the chart with a staggering number of no less than 37 fallen soldiers. The second place is shared by Modi'in and Haifa with 14 each, followed by Rehovot with 12, Tel Aviv with 11, Ashdod, Ramat Gan, and Be'er Sheba with 9 each, and Ra'anana with 8, including two who joined this horrible list this week.
The list of the fallen includes all the towns and communities in Israel. It's unnecessary to mention the heavy toll paid by the Druze community. The IDF does not publish who among the fallen wears a kippah and who does not, but there is no doubt that the religious-national sector has been paying with blood.
There are also 29 fallen soldiers from 29 different kibbutzim – a figure that does not include those murdered in their homes in southern Israel on October 7th. Fifteen fell since the beginning of the ground operation. 49 of the fallen came from moshavim.
Is this date not enough to stop the disinformation on social media?
A great comradery
In the combat field, things look exactly like in the abovementioned statistics: the fighters in Gaza come from all corners of the land and all sectors. Moreover, in almost every unit, there are significant numbers of both religious and secular individuals, Jews and Druze.
When you're fighting alongside your friends, no one asks which "camp" you belong to or for whom you voted.
Here's another illustration: When I visited Gaza this week and went to the war room of the 460th Brigade (known as the “Bnei Or” Brigade, Hebrew for “children of light”), comprised of forces from Givati, the Armored Corps and the Engineering Corps all fighting to take control over villages in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, I could see that even the brigade’s command echelon is geographically diverse.
Colonel Dvir Adani, the brigade’s commander, currently resides in Kibbutz Sa'ar. Originally, he is from Nahariya. His deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Eitan Samuel, grew up in Jerusalem and studied at a Chabad institution as a young child before moving on to study at "Hartman.”
The combat director of the brigade, Yoav, hails from Kochav Yair and the an intelligence security officer. His deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Ilia, grew up in Elad and studied at institutions in Be'er Sheba before removing his kippah and choosing to enlist in the IDF. Today, he resides in Givat Shmuel.
In the brigade's ambulance APC, I could see once again the immense diversity. Aviad Koren, the driver, is a from Karnei Shomron. His colleagues from Givati include Tevel Avraham from Moshav Mivtaha in the Negev and Jonathan Arsef from Modi'in.
In the APC, there is also reservist Vadimire Ashurov from Holon and combat physician Dr. Stas Steingerg from Petah Tikva. Before the war, Dr. Steingerg was in the middle of his training as a trauma doctor at the Sheba Medical Center.
How can we maintain such comradery when, on social networks and in the media, it sometimes seems like we've returned to those mirky days of societal and political division?
Eitan Samuel reveals the secret to me: "We simply don't listen to the news and don't go on the internet. Since October 7th, all of us here together, one for another, and we have no idea what's happening on the home front. Maybe it's better this way."
The ultra-Orthodox recruitment
Towards the end, something about the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox individuals, of whom very few are currently involved in combat in Gaza.
In a few days, the periodic recruitment of young individuals from the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) sector to the IDF will take place. I spoke with Major Yossi Levi, who leads the Haredi recruitment efforts. Simultaneously, he serves as the deputy commander of a reserve battalion and is working towards completing a doctorate at the university. He is a graduate of the Meir Yeshiva.
Levi reminisced with me of the days when the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox for combat roles in specialized units began, initiated by Brigadier General Yehuda Duvdevani, who was then the head of the National Missions Branch at the Ministry of Defense. I was at Duvdevani's home with two founders of the "Netzach Yehuda" unit when the initiative was still confidential, and I first exposed the recruitment, then called the ”Haredi Nahal”, in 2000.
According to Levi, "The war is the greatest opportunity to integrate the ultra-Orthodox in meaningful roles in the IDF. We have seen a significant awakening reflected in the enlistment of Yanki Deri and well-known journalists from the sector. There was a real rush to the recruitment offices, and the IDF continues to recruit more and more ultra-Orthodox individuals. So far, around 500 have enlisted. While it is a relatively short service, I wouldn't underestimate the message it sends to the entire ultra-Orthodox community—that service in the IDF is now considered a blessing.
״I hope and believe that the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox in combat units will also increase following the current momentum. In the first stage, anyone who is not genuinely studying in yeshivas should enlist, and this way, the enlistment rate of the ultra-Orthodox will rise from the current 10 percent to at least 40 percent. We are still working until the last moment to increase the combat enlistment that will take place in a few days. I don't have the final numbers, but for the first time, 6-7 ultra-Orthodox individuals will enlist in the Golan and Nahal, in addition to the existing tracks in other combat units. The main enlistment is for the ultra-Orthodox battalion 'Netzach Yehuda' of the Kfir Brigade, which currently plays a very important role in the ongoing battle.
“Following Operation Protective Edge, we saw an increase in the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox with a delay of a few months. I believe that after the current war, the positive effect on the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox will be even greater. The extent of the event and its impact on the ultra-Orthodox society will likely show significant growth in their enlistment overall, but it might be more noticeable in the upcoming recruitment cycles and not the current one," Levi concluded.
Check out Amir Rapaport's weekly column, to be published this coming Sunday
Contact Amir at @AmirRapaport1
Unbelievably, even concerning the social and sectorial affiliation of the fallen, an ugly fight has been taking place on social networks. Find the actual facts here, and also: Will there be a positive trend in the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox taking place in a few days?
Never has there been a greater disparity between the discourse that has been taking place on social networks and sometimes in mainstream media and the reality on the ground than, regarding the identity of the fighters in Gaza – meaning, their “affiliation.”
Once again, the claim arises repeatedly as if the majority of the casualties belong to a specific sector. At times, the accusations are baseless. Journalist Razi Barkai stated a few weeks ago that “there hasn't been a single funeral in Bnei Brak,” causing a storm.
This week was marked by what seems, at times, even like a campaign on social networks around the question, 'Why are there no fallen soldiers from Tel Aviv?'"
A post with a similar question suddenly appeared in a series of accounts associated with a specific political side on the political map, and one particularly provocative post was shared by the scriptwriter and “Twitter celebrity” Menny Assayag. In it, he claimed that “40% of the fallen are from the Religious Zionism sector, and 30% are from the Likud.”
On the same day, as Yinon Magal (an anchor on Channel 14, associated with Netanyahu) read the daily list of rhe fallen, one of the attendees in the audience shouted angrily, perhaps spontaneously or perhaps planned, “Why are there no fallen from Tel Aviv??”
Magal dismissed this, saying that there was one fallen from Tel Aviv. Assayag deleted the post. But in both cases, the notion that “there are no fallen soldiers from Tel Aviv” was ingrained. By the way, it is dales.
As fate would have it, the next morning we all woke up to another dreadful about the death in battle of two more reserve soldiers - Elisha Yehonatan Lober and Yosef Giteratz, of blessed memory. Lober was from Yitzhar, near Nablus, and Giteratz from Tel Aviv. The terrible news of their falling was delivered together. There are no camps in death.
I didn’t need this shocking illustration.
The geography of death
In the past year, I have written several times in this column that only those who truly do not understand the army can believe the claim that combat units serve only those from the periphery, while the ‘privileged” individuals get to technological units like 8200 or evade service altogether.
This is simply untrue. However, many believed in this, and still do.
After the terrible morning of October 7th, I asked our producer, Samadar Uziel, to check the communities from which the soldiers who fell in the initial attack and battles against the terrorists came.
It turned out that in that first wave, the highest number of fallen came from Jerusalem. Eight soldiers from Tel Aviv were killed, some of them Golani fighters. I thought that by publishing the data, the discussion on the topic would end.
In light of this week's campaign with the question 'Why are there no fallen from Tel Aviv?” I asked Smadar to update the data, as the overall number of IDF combatants killed in battle has already reached about 500. As terrible as it is, this is a statistically acceptable sample size.
Well, the “first place” still goes to Jerusalem, which still leads the chart with a staggering number of no less than 37 fallen soldiers. The second place is shared by Modi'in and Haifa with 14 each, followed by Rehovot with 12, Tel Aviv with 11, Ashdod, Ramat Gan, and Be'er Sheba with 9 each, and Ra'anana with 8, including two who joined this horrible list this week.
The list of the fallen includes all the towns and communities in Israel. It's unnecessary to mention the heavy toll paid by the Druze community. The IDF does not publish who among the fallen wears a kippah and who does not, but there is no doubt that the religious-national sector has been paying with blood.
There are also 29 fallen soldiers from 29 different kibbutzim – a figure that does not include those murdered in their homes in southern Israel on October 7th. Fifteen fell since the beginning of the ground operation. 49 of the fallen came from moshavim.
Is this date not enough to stop the disinformation on social media?
A great comradery
In the combat field, things look exactly like in the abovementioned statistics: the fighters in Gaza come from all corners of the land and all sectors. Moreover, in almost every unit, there are significant numbers of both religious and secular individuals, Jews and Druze.
When you're fighting alongside your friends, no one asks which "camp" you belong to or for whom you voted.
Here's another illustration: When I visited Gaza this week and went to the war room of the 460th Brigade (known as the “Bnei Or” Brigade, Hebrew for “children of light”), comprised of forces from Givati, the Armored Corps and the Engineering Corps all fighting to take control over villages in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, I could see that even the brigade’s command echelon is geographically diverse.
Colonel Dvir Adani, the brigade’s commander, currently resides in Kibbutz Sa'ar. Originally, he is from Nahariya. His deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Eitan Samuel, grew up in Jerusalem and studied at a Chabad institution as a young child before moving on to study at "Hartman.”
The combat director of the brigade, Yoav, hails from Kochav Yair and the an intelligence security officer. His deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Ilia, grew up in Elad and studied at institutions in Be'er Sheba before removing his kippah and choosing to enlist in the IDF. Today, he resides in Givat Shmuel.
In the brigade's ambulance APC, I could see once again the immense diversity. Aviad Koren, the driver, is a from Karnei Shomron. His colleagues from Givati include Tevel Avraham from Moshav Mivtaha in the Negev and Jonathan Arsef from Modi'in.
In the APC, there is also reservist Vadimire Ashurov from Holon and combat physician Dr. Stas Steingerg from Petah Tikva. Before the war, Dr. Steingerg was in the middle of his training as a trauma doctor at the Sheba Medical Center.
How can we maintain such comradery when, on social networks and in the media, it sometimes seems like we've returned to those mirky days of societal and political division?
Eitan Samuel reveals the secret to me: "We simply don't listen to the news and don't go on the internet. Since October 7th, all of us here together, one for another, and we have no idea what's happening on the home front. Maybe it's better this way."
The ultra-Orthodox recruitment
Towards the end, something about the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox individuals, of whom very few are currently involved in combat in Gaza.
In a few days, the periodic recruitment of young individuals from the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) sector to the IDF will take place. I spoke with Major Yossi Levi, who leads the Haredi recruitment efforts. Simultaneously, he serves as the deputy commander of a reserve battalion and is working towards completing a doctorate at the university. He is a graduate of the Meir Yeshiva.
Levi reminisced with me of the days when the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox for combat roles in specialized units began, initiated by Brigadier General Yehuda Duvdevani, who was then the head of the National Missions Branch at the Ministry of Defense. I was at Duvdevani's home with two founders of the "Netzach Yehuda" unit when the initiative was still confidential, and I first exposed the recruitment, then called the ”Haredi Nahal”, in 2000.
According to Levi, "The war is the greatest opportunity to integrate the ultra-Orthodox in meaningful roles in the IDF. We have seen a significant awakening reflected in the enlistment of Yanki Deri and well-known journalists from the sector. There was a real rush to the recruitment offices, and the IDF continues to recruit more and more ultra-Orthodox individuals. So far, around 500 have enlisted. While it is a relatively short service, I wouldn't underestimate the message it sends to the entire ultra-Orthodox community—that service in the IDF is now considered a blessing.
״I hope and believe that the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox in combat units will also increase following the current momentum. In the first stage, anyone who is not genuinely studying in yeshivas should enlist, and this way, the enlistment rate of the ultra-Orthodox will rise from the current 10 percent to at least 40 percent. We are still working until the last moment to increase the combat enlistment that will take place in a few days. I don't have the final numbers, but for the first time, 6-7 ultra-Orthodox individuals will enlist in the Golan and Nahal, in addition to the existing tracks in other combat units. The main enlistment is for the ultra-Orthodox battalion 'Netzach Yehuda' of the Kfir Brigade, which currently plays a very important role in the ongoing battle.
“Following Operation Protective Edge, we saw an increase in the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox with a delay of a few months. I believe that after the current war, the positive effect on the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox will be even greater. The extent of the event and its impact on the ultra-Orthodox society will likely show significant growth in their enlistment overall, but it might be more noticeable in the upcoming recruitment cycles and not the current one," Levi concluded.
Check out Amir Rapaport's weekly column, to be published this coming Sunday
Contact Amir at @AmirRapaport1
