Israeli think tank: Over half of reservists have lost faith in IDF chief Herzi Halevi

58% of reservists have lost confidence in IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, according to a survey published on Thursday by the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy.

The survey was carried out by Dr. Menachem Lazar of Lazar Surveys and was commissioned by retired IDF colonel Gabi Siboni and former Strategic Affairs Ministry deputy director general Professor Kobi Michael of Misgav.

Survey results are based on collecting responses from 574 reservists and have a 5.08% margin of error.

Reservists surveyed were between the ages of 21 and 78, with an average age of 38 and average of 174 days of service during the current war.

The high average age could indicate a somewhat atypical sample of reservists, given that most are younger than 38, but the high number of days of service indicates a familiarity with the real state of things within the military.

The 58% statistic can be broken down into 36% of reservists having very low confidence in Halevi, and 22% having somewhat low confidence.

Another 22% said they were neutral on supporting Halevi, while 12% had somewhat high confidence and 8% had very high confidence.

Many believe Halevi should resign as soon as possible

49% said that Halevi should resign at the earliest possible moment, implying that many believe he should have already resigned. A number of senior reservists have been calling for Halevi to resign since around June, when it seemed that the operation in Rafah would succeed, and there were no further large-scale operations in Gaza which a new chief would immediately have to handle.

However, 28% said he should only resign when the war is fully over – something which has no clear end date.Another 12% said he should not resign until he has issued all of the IDF’s probes on the October 7 failure. Although these probes were originally expected to be published in June, and then in August, The Jerusalem Post understands that there is no definite date for publishing them.

A further 8% said that he might not need to resign at all, and that if he did, it would only be based on the results of a state inquiry – something which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has steadfastly opposed from even starting.

The survey also indicated that the reservists had very low confidence in the IDF high command’s management of the war in general, with 80% being not supportive; 43% of this figure were extremely upset while 37% were somewhat upset.

Only 14% were somewhat supportive and 4% very supportive. In contrast, 70% of those surveyed support their field commanders. Of this 70%, 31% had very high confidence and 39% had somewhat high confidence.

Another 23% were neutral regarding their field commanders, with 5% having somewhat low confidence, and 2% having very low confidence.

The survey also revealed a high percentage of reservists who believe that the military can succeed in destroying Hamas’s military and political control over Gaza, and in driving Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon to restore security for the northern residents.

However, the reservists were not asked what would replace Hamas or whether that replacement would be able to prevent a later return by Hamas. They were also not asked about the impact of a potential general war with Hezbollah, on the home front. Estimations suggest that without adding extensive additional safe rooms and bomb shelters nationwide, thousands of more Israelis could be killed by Hezbollah rockets.

There is an unresolved debate between defense and political officials about how to best handle these various issues holistically. In addition, there is often a gulf between mandatory and career officers on some of these issues vs reservists.

The Post has requested a response from the IDF, but has not yet received one.