To Serve or Not to Serve (That is the question)*

Felix Zadrovich, Danny Feigenbaum, Alon Avraham, Udi Pinhas and Rafi Tzlakishvilli, Grade 10, Amal Aleph Ramla High School.

One week after the tragic helicopter disaster, the 10th grade technological science class had an election and decided to select the topic of Army Service for their 10th grade sequence questionnaire. Everyone prepared questions at home, and in class the best seventeen were put in the survey.

The questionnaire was distributed and the finding were divided into four categories - boys born in Israel, boys born outside of Israel, girls born in Israel, and girls born outside of Israel.

After tabulating the statistics, some disappointing facts were discovered. 60% of the boys who were born in Israel do not want to serve in fighter units. Among the options for serving written in the questionnaire were intelligence office, electronics technician and even cook. These facts perhaps reveal something about the social situation and youth in general today. One student, who requested that his name not be printed said, "I feel that I will be serving for nobody. My efforts won't be appreciated."

When asked to respond to the fact that most of the students don't want to serve in fighter units, Mr. Israel Frankel, school principal, stated, "It is a big problem, because we live in a country where the media criticize the army and government policies and this influences the motivation of the youngsters. In addition, the drop in motivation has been blown out of proportion by the media." This was confirmed in the questionnaire as well. 30% of those asked responded that they want to be officers, and 55% said they would like to serve even if the army service were voluntary.

52% of the girls born outside of Israel stated that they do not want to serve in the army.

A Russian immigrant in the tenth grade who asked not to be identified, said, "I think that this is because in Russia the women do not serve in the army, and the girls (and their parents) have not fully adju\sted to their new Israeli reality."

According to Mr. Frankel, "The students study mostly technological subjects and they would like to use their knowledge in the army. This contributes to the strength of our army." This was all verified by the questionnnaire. 85% of the boys want to serve in the army and 20% of those want to serve in a technological unit.

When asked whether they felt there were equal opportunities for both men and women in the army, 50% of the boys and 30% of the girls said they they believed there were equal opportunities in the I.D.F.

In response to the question of whether there is a motivation problem in today's army, the principal said that he doesn't feel that it is as serious a problem as they portray in the media. He feels that if the media would change its attitude, motivation would rise.

Yigal, a student in the Technological Science class, agreed with Mr. Frankel, "The media is always showing us the negative side of the I.D.F."

To put things in their proper perspective, 94% of the boys born in Israel want to serve in the army. And when posed the question of whether they would be mentally and physically read to serve in the army, 85% of the entire 10th grade replied that they would be. This is indeed an encouraging fact.

* Article appeared in the school's student newspaper, The Amal Sun, May 1997, page 2.