For the many IDF reservists who have spent more than 200 days in uniform since October 7, 2023, the week-and-a-half since Israel struck at Iran’s nuclear and military assets has highlighted a dissonance that has existed for two decades. Credit and glory for the Israeli army’s successes go largely to the elite members of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), army intelligence, and the Mossad, while the tens of thousands of fighters in the ground forces who contribute mightily to their country’s defenses, show extraordinary dedication, and sacrifice to an unparalleled degree remain as unsung as they are heroic. This is not to take anything away from Israel’s operations in Iran, which are somewhere between spectacular and miraculous. But anyone wanting to get a full picture of what has enabled Israel to carry out and sustain its attacks on Iran needs to look at the role of the reservists—a subject I addressed in a comprehensive essay in Mosaic published earlier this month.
As a starting point, it is necessary to recognize that Israeli reservists—army veterans who completed their full service and then entered civilian life as students, members of the work force, spouses, and parents—provided the bulk of the combat troops largely responsible for Israel’s successes during a multi-front war that has been going on for more than twenty months. Reserve brigades and reservists holding key positions in regular, conscript units played a crucial role in every stage of degrading Hamas in Gaza, especially in the critical, early months of the war when their numbers, experience, and maturity were absolutely vital—and when the number being killing and injured was at its peak.
It was reservists who did the lion’s share of defending the northern border against Hizballah until the IDF was ready to shift its resources to decapitate and defang that terror organization. They likewise played a crucial role in the ground operation against Hizballah that destroyed military assets built up over two decades and helped force it into a humiliating ceasefire. The sidelining of Hizballah, a key ally of the Assad regime in Syria, was the principal factor that rendered the Alawite-dominated government vulnerable to a rapid takeover by a coalition of groups with Sunni jihadist roots (and in many cases, commitments). Iran had long relied on Hizballah not only to terrorize the citizens and soldiers of the Jewish state, but also to serve as the principal deterrent against an Israeli attack on Iran, based on the threat that this Shiite militia would in such a scenario fire a large portion of its arsenal of 200,000 missiles and rockets at army bases and, especially, population centers throughout the Jewish state. The removal of the threat of parallel attacks by Hizballah and Hamas, other partners in the “Axis of Resistance,” coupled with creating the conditions to enable Israeli pilots to fly safely over Syrian airspace en route to and from Iran, made Iran even more vulnerable to Israeli attack. Thus the combat reservists paved the way for the recent Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.
Moreover, these same reservists have been playing a crucial role in defending the Jewish state against the threats emanating from Iran and its satellites since Israel’s devastating surprise attack of June 13. Precisely because Israel has gained control over Iranian airspace and enjoys escalation dominance in the direct conflict between the two regional powers, Iran’s strategy, alongside firing waves of missiles and drones at Israeli population centers, has been to turn up the heat on Israel from close range—through infiltration from Jordan, enlisting Hizballah in renewed hostilities, and encouraging Hamas to accelerate its terror operations in the West Bank. These efforts have been thwarted largely by a massive call-up of Israeli reservists to reinforce Israeli defenses in these areas, coupled with redeploying to these anticipated hot spots many of the reservists who had been serving in Gaza and other areas that are temporarily less of a priority.
While the dimensions of the call-up have been kept under wraps, as have the precise identity of the units and the locations to which they were sent, one indication of its scope comes from the student body of Shalem College, where I teach and serve on the leadership team. Before Israel’s attack on Iran, more than a quarter of our students were in uniform and serving in a combat zone. In the last ten days, another 10 percent of our student body has answered affirmatively to call-up notices. I have likewise heard from a number of close friends whose children have reported for duty with virtually no advanced notice. Tellingly, reserve units specializing in search and rescue and in rapid evacuation of the wounded have been shifted to locations inside Israel to help deal with the mass-casualty events that have become a near-daily occurrence. Knowing it could count on its reservists to prevent Iran from delivering painful blows and to mute the effect of those that did land was a key factor that gave the Israeli leadership the confidence to make its bold decision to attack the Islamic Republic.
It is worth stressing that turnout rates among reservists called up have been, based on initial evidence, remarkably high. In my Mosaic essay earlier this month, I addressed the misleading claim frequently made in the media that reservists were showing up for duty in ever-declining numbers—60 percent and falling, according to some journalists—and that the reserve army was “on the brink of collapse.” In the current round, the numbers are quite robust, almost certainly over 80 percent—in part because it is clear to almost every Israeli that the conflict with Iran is existential, but also because Israel’s combat reservists have a level of dedication and resilience that those who predict their imminent implosion are unable to fathom.
The conflict with Iran has also highlighted, yet again, the extraordinary sacrifice willingly undertaken by the combat reservists, who effectively are volunteers since there are no sanctions on those who choose not to report for duty. To convey the continued price the conflict with Iran is exacting from them, I’ll focus on a few of the dozen student warriors from Shalem whom I interviewed for the original essay, and with whom I have been in touch in recent days.
V., a freshman at Shalem, rose during six years of regular service to be a company commander in the IDF’s search-and-rescue unit. (For reasons of privacy, I will use a single initial in citing Shalem students.) Since October 7, she has been in the reserves for more than 270 days, included almost the entirety of her first semester. She returned to campus during the period of final exams and papers, and with extraordinary effort managed to complete the essential work in all her courses. She had hoped to dedicate the entire second semester to her studies and was en route to doing so when, as the IAF commenced its attacks on Iran, she and her entire company were called up for immediate service. Although they had finished their previous round only two months earlier and were supposed to be on an extended break, an astounding 98 percent of her soldiers reported for duty, in addition to reservists who asked to join as m’supahim, volunteers temporarily assigned to a unit other than the one to which they belong. As a result, the company is at 110 percent of its full complement. V. notes that these figures are typical of the IDF’s reserve search-and-rescue units, whose members are imbued with the conviction that they spent years preparing for precisely such a crisis.
V. and her comrades have been working long hours under extraordinary stress, and have helped evacuate survivors, as well as the bodies of those who did not survive, from areas struck by missiles in the coastal cities of Bat Yam, Bnei Brak, and Tel Aviv. They have had to deal with an unthinkable level of chaos, made worse by a morbid odor stemming from corpses, burnt buildings, and sewage from exploded pipes. V. has been sleeping three hours a night, and the mandatory call-up notice she and her comrades received has no end date. At this point, it seems likely she will miss the last four weeks of the semester, and much if not all of finals period. While disappointed that her freshman year is not what she had anticipated, V. is approaching her responsibilities with the sense of mission that characterizes people genuinely engaged in holy work.
N., a senior, is a platoon commander of a reserve infantry unit based on Israel’s border with Lebanon. Since October 7, he has spent more than 320 days in uniform. When Israel attacked Iran, he had just begun a four-day break from another long stint of service, which he had planned to spend in Jerusalem with his fiancée. Several hours after his leave had started, he was en route to rejoin his unit near Lebanon. N. tells me that his lost weekend and the difficulties of being separated from his bride-to-be for most of the time since their engagement pale in comparison to the challenges faced by a married soldier under his command, who has three children, including a month-old infant born by C-section. This soldier’s wife is under doctor’s orders not to carry the other (heavier) children and their apartment lacks a safe room, so each time incoming missiles or drones trigger a siren in their area, typically in the middle of the night, his wife scoops up her baby while two neighbors race into her apartment to carry the older ones to their building’s bomb shelter. The soldier-husband recently went home on break, saw firsthand what his family was going through, and felt a strong pull to remain with them to help his wife through this difficult time. Nonetheless, he reported for duty at the end of his time off, with a heavy heart and a firm sense of resolve.
Another Shalem senior, U., has done more than 400 days as a reservist in an elite mobility unit that transports soldiers in and out of war zones and helps protect them during dangerous missions. Since getting married this past fall, he and his newlywed wife have been apart far more than together, and he has missed the bulk of his last four semesters at Shalem College. On the heels of Israel and Iran’s daily attacks on one another, his unit has been especially busy, as it shifted out of Gaza in order to use its unique set of skills in other areas facing significant threats. U.’s unit has received an order extending its service by another month, but when I contacted him requesting an update, his first words were “everything is fantastic by us.”
While the resilience, dedication, and sacrifice of Israel’s reservists is extraordinary in and of itself, it is even more impressive when understood in its broader context. The combat reservists doing multiple tours of duty since October 7 constitute only 1 percent of the country’s population, but they reflect the commitment and resilience not only of their family members—who are likewise sacrificing a great deal due to their lengthy service—but of the larger Israeli society from which they have emerged. Although Israelis have a reputation for enjoying the good life and are highly sensitive to casualties among thier soldiers, when the going gets tough the citizens of the Jewish state are willing to pay a steep price to defend themselves against brutal enemies and protect their hard-earned freedom and sovereignty. When their leaders opted to attack Iran, knowing this would inevitably lead to substantial casualties among civilians for a protracted period, they knew they could count on the steadfastness of a population that produced such remarkable civilian-soldiers. Though the heroism of these extraordinary citizen soldiers remains largely unsung, they are heroes nonetheless and reflect a country in which the mainstream of society shares their stellar character and resolve.
