The Officers of the IDF

January 16, 2025

by: Dr. Bill Adams, BFP Writer

My first encounter with an officer of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was in 1985 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, home of the US Army Field Artillery. Assigned there for the Officers Advanced Course, I was privileged to sponsor one of the allied nation officers in attendance: Captain Nir Granot from Tel Aviv.

My wife and I befriended Nir to help him feel at home for his six months in America. In theory, Nir would learn from my professional military training along with the rigorous program of study at the artillery school. In reality, Nir taught all of us from his combat experience as an artilleryman in the 1982 First Lebanon War. Only later did I understand that this is the norm in US–Israel relations: We supply the resources; they supply the experience.

Backbone of the IDF

From the rebirth of the modern State of Israel in 1948, the imbalance of power of the Arab nations over Israel prompted the need for frontline officers who could overcome their country’s disadvantages through innovation, leadership and spiritual strength. Mostly untrained junior officers had to seize the qualitative edge to overcome their enemies’ quantitative superiority. Immediate attention was given to developing a junior officer cadre as the backbone of the IDF.

The US military model under which I was trained relies on the enlisted, non-commissioned officers (NCO) to be the backbone, while the educated, commissioned officers serve as the brain. In contrast, the IDF calls on its junior officers to be both. In his three-year service obligation straight out of high school, the junior officer trains as a soldier, proves himself as an NCO, attends officer school and is, most likely, tempered by combat as a defender of Israel. When concluding mandatory service, he faces a major decision: Exit to the reserves and civilian life or continue in the active force as a professional officer.

Leading from the Front

In my officer training, I learned to keep some distance from the front line of action. The idea is to make the “point man” a lower ranking soldier who will become a casualty before you do. Admittedly callous and utilitarian, but in the hard reality of warfare, it makes sense to keep the officer alive longer so he can command his unit and direct its response to enemy action.

Not so in the IDF, which is committed to the principle of leading from the front. Have you noticed that when the IDF releases its daily death reports from fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria there is a disproportionate number of officers among the casualties? These are the junior officers who are the tip of the spear, the ones who charge first into the line of fire, and by their example, say to their men, “Follow me!”

The People’s Army

Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, was also its first minister of defense. He fashioned a “peoples’ army,” not a professional one, as a melting pot and education system for the vast number of new immigrants the nation was absorbing. He envisioned the nascent state’s fighting force to also be where diverse social classes met, thus creating national unity, raising the education level and strengthening Jewish values. A completely unique institution, Ben Gurion’s vision has proven to be inspired.

But an institution is not brick and mortar—it is people. And who were the people who would accomplish the dual mission of security and society-building? Naturally, the junior officers. Since 1948, young men and women barely in their 20s have borne the brunt of critical security tasks while molding the populace into a unified citizenry, one citizen-soldier to another.

So Proud of their Officers

On an Israel battlefield tour I hosted, our tour guide, Charlie, a veteran of the First Lebanon War, announced that his son Shahar was training to be an officer. Israelis are tremendously proud of their officers. When we collected our loose change to tip Charlie, we asked that he let us share in honoring Shahar by taking him out to dinner. The proud papa was thrilled! Later, he wrote to say he had simply given all the money to Shahar. Though not our intent, we beheld a biblical teaching in practice, IDF-style.

Jesus (Yeshua) taught that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). How very Jewish of Him! The rabbis inculcated that truth so deeply that today it is a national cultural value. That’s why Charlie didn’t include himself in the gift but gave it all to his son. And what did Shahar do with the money? He answered that question in this amazing message: “I feel a sense of mission in what I do and my service in the IDF, so the gift will enable me and my fellow officers to purchase equipment to be prepared. Thanks to you, I guess we’re not alone.”

Purchase equipment…? How much money did we give Charlie for that intended dinner? We’ll never know because we never counted. But the outcome points to a multiplication miracle God accomplished to make sure this young IDF officer-in-training got the message from Christians that he and his soldiers do not stand alone in their sacrificial defense of beloved Israel.

Hard Enough, Soft Enough

I once attended a briefing from an IDF officer to a group of Bridges for Peace leaders on the impact of the Syrian civil war on Israel. He explained how thousands of Syrians were crossing the border to receive medical care in the Jewish state. When question time came, I had to ask, “Sir, the border is a hardened security barrier. How are wounded Syrians able to cross it? In classic Israeli fashion, the commander responded, “Well, I can tell you this. That border is hard enough to repel a Syrian invasion but soft enough to let in a wounded Syrian.”

And that, in a nutshell, is Israel. As exemplified by its young commanders, Israel has to be tough enough to repel an invasion while remaining compassionate enough to heal the hurting. Defenders of the nation, builders of the society, and keepers of the peace, the junior officer corps forms the backbone of the nation God has regathered—for the sake of His name and so the nations will know that He is the Lord (Ezek. 36:22–23).

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