In unit after unit, the Israeli military is seeing attendance rates plummet. A small but growing group of veterans has openly expressed dissent and outrage, while thousands of other reservists are engaging in what has become known as “quiet refusal”—simply not showing up for duty. Attendance in the Israeli military has always been overwhelming. Now soldiers are arguing that it serves the country better—or at least serves their families better—if they don’t fight.

A combat commander in the reserves recently recalled that when the war in Gaza began, people “wanted to fight.” But as the conflict grinds on and the field of battle spreads, reservists are being called up for the fifth and sixth time. He said that marriages have fallen apart, and people have lost their jobs. During his last round of fighting, about 60 per cent of his unit showed up. This time, “we’re talking less than 50 per cent,” he told Ruth Margalit. “It’s really bad. Everyone is spent.”

Another reservist who has quietly ended his military service said he gradually lost faith in the cause. “I see the war goals becoming blurred, and the gap between what is happening on the ground and the slogans about returning the hostages and defeating Hamas,” he said. Uri Arad, a 73-year-old former combat navigator, views Israel’s decision to renege on the deal with Hamas and expand its military operations as an abandonment of the hostages. “The war has eroded Israeli morals, its standing in the world, and fractured Israeli society,” he said.

“Eighteen months into the conflict, Gaza lies in ruins. Israel is ostracized and isolated, reeling from a war that 53 per cent of the public says is motivated by Netanyahu’s personal imperatives,” Margalit writes. Read her report on the growing number of Israeli soldiers expressing dissent and outrage at the war in Gaza: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/Y9bN7t

🔴Ellinne