Q&A: “Honoring the Fallen, but Examining the Data”
“Honoring the Fallen, but Examining the Data”
Question
Tamir Dortal presented the higher rate of fallen soldiers among the religious public compared to the secular public as a fact that requires special appreciation and recognition for this precious community.
First and foremost — I feel deep gratitude toward all IDF soldiers, from every sector and viewpoint, who give their lives for the security of the State of Israel.
At the same time, it is proper to examine the data critically and suggest possible explanations for the statistical gaps:
1. Different age composition between the populations — religious society is significantly younger than secular society because of higher birth rates. As a result, the proportion of people of draft age within the overall religious population is higher, while secular society is older and therefore “contains” fewer young people proportionally. This fact could automatically increase the number of religious fallen soldiers relative to their share in the general population.
2. The hesder track and its effect on operational competence — a significant part of the Religious Zionist public enlists through the hesder yeshiva track, in which the length of military service is much shorter (about 16–17 months only compared with 32 months of full service). Shortening the period of service may harm the level of professional skill and operational experience of some of the fighters, which could contribute, at least to some degree, to differences in risk.
From this, it is possible that the statistical gap does not necessarily reflect only greater devotion, but is due in part to demographic and structural factors.
At the same time — this does not detract in the slightest from the value of the sacrifice and heroism of each and every soldier who fell. Every one of them is holy to us, and our debt to them is not measured in numbers.
Answer
You can feel gratitude, or not feel gratitude, toward whomever you want, but on the factual level this is nonsense.
There is no difference in operational competence. The training track is identical, and what happens afterward (deployment on the line, this or that operational activity) does not really improve competence. Sometimes it worsens it.
The difference in the percentages of those enlisting in combat roles is also clear, and you can’t pin it on the raw numbers. We are talking about a percentage gap.
Note that we’re talking about the percentage of fallen soldiers, not the percentage of those enlisting in combat roles.
1. You’re saying that the difference between 16 months of service and 32 months of service does not affect professionalism. My logic tells me otherwise, but I’ll accept what you say.
2. I didn’t claim that the percentages of those enlisting in combat roles are lower; I didn’t even claim that the percentage of fallen soldiers in the religious sector is lower than or equal to the secular one. I only claimed that some of these percentages do not tell a story of devotion and heroism, but rather a technical fact of a younger population. Do you agree with that?