The 'grunts' in Israel's army shouldn't be going hungry | Opinion

Hundreds of thousands of conscripts in the regular army who served in combat units were raised on stories that extolled the wonderful food served in the kitchens of the air force, navy and intelligence corps. An investigative report published in MarkerWeek in Hebrew on Friday found that this is no accident. In many cases, the amount spent on every meal at these bases is significantly higher than what is spent on food served to the grunts. The report revealed that many soldiers get stuck with low-quality and even insufficient food.

Both the soldiers and the public have gotten used to accepting this situation as natural, but it shouldn’t be like this. The Israel Defense Forces are the people’s army, and the state instituted mandatory conscription. Therefore, there’s no justification for people who didn’t manage to get into particular units to be given food that’s lower quality or leaves them hungry.

The problems with the IDF’s food service are just one of the many symptoms of the fundamental distortion from which military service suffers these days. In recent years, the IDF has become a hybrid institution. It’s partially privatized, but it still relies on the mandatory conscription law.