"Israeli" Army faces recruitment trouble because of botched war

Source: AFP, 15-12-2007
OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: "Israel" is facing an army recruitment problem with fewer and fewer people signing up as career officers following the loss of prestige suffered in the Lebanon war, a newspaper reported on Friday. Disaffection with careers in the military - less well paid than jobs in the private sector - are beginning to affect non-fighting units with interest still high in the top-end, elite commando units, the Maariv daily said.
The number of school leavers volunteering for a career in the army in such units has fallen by more than half in recent years, the newspaper said.
Army personnel managed to recruit only eight candidates for 10 posts in logistics and six candidates for 10 jobs in transmissions, said Maariv, quoting military statistics. Internal memos attribute the declining interest to the higher salaries offered in the private sector and recent staff cutbacks in the army.
This year, more than a quarter of young "Israelis" dodged military service, which is compulsory for Jewish youth in "Israel", according to army statistics.
Members of the ultra-Orthodox religious community, who can study religion rather than join the army, account for 11 percent of the "draft dodgers."
Seven percent were blamed on health problems, five percent on those who have problems with the law and four percent living abroad.
Published in November, the statistics said 35 percent of conscription-age women escape their two-year military service for religious reasons.