Chief of Staff Zamir warns IDF will collapse due to lack of manpower

Israel Defence Forces(IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly warned the “IDF is going to collapse in on itself” during a security cabinet meeting this week, as the army deals with mounting operational demands and a growing manpower shortage. “I am raising 10 red flags in front of you,” Zamir told ministers, according a Channel 12 news report on Thursday. “Right now, the IDF needs a conscription law, a reserve duty law, and a law to extend mandatory service,” he was quoted as saying. “Before long, the IDF will not be ready for its routine missions and the reserve system will not last.” Even in peacetime, Israel would still need more soldiers – not fewer – on the border in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank, the report said. If the government does not add more soldiers, then there will be places with big gaps, they added.
Ministers were also shown footage of settler violence incidents during the meeting, according to Channel 12. Attacks by extremist settlers have spiked during the ongoing war with Iran. This week, the Israel Defense Forces diverted an infantry battalion that was intended to be deployed to Lebanon to the West Bank amid a spate of attacks by settlers against Palestinians. The military says even more troops may be needed to combat the attacks.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid blamed the government for “sending the army into a multi-front war without a strategy, without sufficient resources, and with too few soldiers.” “This time, the government will not be able to say, ‘I didn’t know.’ This is the chief of staff they appointed, and they will not be able to politicize him and shift the blame onto him,” Lapid added, saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to say, “I am not responsible.” Lapid called on the government to do much more to draft ultra-Orthodox men, who have long enjoyed sweeping exemptions from military service that the government previously sough to enshrine into law. He added that the government “must fight Jewish terrorism with every available means.”