The IDF Is Broken - Reservists Refuse to Keep Fighting in Gaza

In Jewish tradition, there's a principle: if a person has done something multiple times, it’s presumed he will do it again. Netanyahu has not truly fought a war since the spring of 2024, and it appears he still isn’t interested in actually fighting, only in applying just enough military pressure to push Hamas toward compromise.

He continues to drag out the crisis, the hostages, Hamas, the war - all as tools in the endless game of extending his political rule and delaying the formation of a state commission of inquiry.

It’s no wonder that many soldiers today refuse to enlist. They understand this is no longer about national defense, but about political maneuvering. And I say this as someone on the ideological right.

Many religious Israelis, even settlers, now see that this war has nothing to do with conquest or victory. Its purpose is to prolong a political term, without real territorial or military achievement. As with the wars of 2023 and 2024, Israel will likely withdraw in the end. The whole world is witnessing a prime minister who is significantly weaker than the U.S. president. While the president openly calls for mass expulsions of Arabs, Netanyahu blocks such measures. Neither the right nor the left believes him anymore.

But the greater danger is what he’s doing to the army itself: eroding the trust of soldiers who once believed that when the IDF calls them it’s for the sake of winning. He has broken the sacred covenant between the principle of enlistment and the principle of victory.

This is a dangerous precedent. It is now clear that the Israeli government is using its soldiers as pawns, not for military success, but for political preservation. In doing so, Netanyahu has completed a trend already hinted at in the IDF’s evolving ethical code, a trend toward post-victory doctrine.

And if there is no will to win, no intention to achieve decisive victory, then risking the lives of soldiers becomes meaningless. And so does enlistment itself.