Meet the Israeli military reservists who are fighting to preserve democracy

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — Ofir Korazim, an Israeli air force pilot with 30 years of F-16 experience, hardly has the profile of a protester.

The community leader of a small village in central Israel, head of a parent-teacher association, and a military reservist who has done 50 to 60 days of reserve duty yearly, he was galvanized when an extremist cabinet minister named Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to “wipe out” a West Bank town.

During a long conversation in a Tel Aviv office, Korazim recalled his initial upset over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to end the Supreme Court’s independence. That unease turned to dismay when Netanyahu tried to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — for asking him to listen to the concerns of reservists over the judicial overhaul. It became pure anger over Smotrich’s illegal demand.

At that point, Korazim (who no longer flies but serves at headquarters) joined a growing movement of reserve pilots, navigators, intelligence and cyber units, and special forces who all say they won’t fight for an undemocratic government whose leaders disrespect the rule of law.

These reservists have become the strongest card in a grass roots movement protesting Netanyahu’s plan to eliminate checks and balances in the Israeli political system. Although they say they will fight should war break out, their stance could split Israel’s defense forces.

Despite the differences in our institutions, the Israeli military’s upheaval over threats to democracy bears watching by those concerned about democracy in the United States.

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In Israel, where most men and many women do military service, reservists play a critical role. Reserve pilots make up a large percentage of the active air force, reporting for training weekly, and they can be called up suddenly to participate in military action. Unlike in the United States, their units are mainly volunteers.

“The action of military reserve groups is the most threatening and frightening to the government,” retired Brig. Gen. Giora Inbar told me, “because reserve units are crucial to the strength of the army and the nation.” Although protests within the military are not unknown, the breadth and depth of this save democracy wave is unprecedented.

“We are ready to sacrifice our lives for our nation so long as it is a democracy with liberal values,” Inbar insisted, over coffee in his office, using language I heard expressed passionately by reservists: “Winning an election does not grant permission to destroy the principle of separation of powers, and demolish the Supreme Court.”

Netanyahu’s war on the court provoked an explosion of WhatsApp discussion groups among members of elite reserve units (and inspired umbrella groups such as Brothers and Sisters in Arms, which helps coordinate reservists’ petitions and marches).

These special units, I was told, maintain a culture of a “people’s army” based on the spirit of the Haganah, Israel’s pre-state fighting force that dispensed with normal military hierarchy. They retain the more liberal, secular values of Israel’s socialist European founders, which were embodied in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. This often puts them at odds with the ultra-religious and nationalist Israeli sectors that are driving the attack on the courts, as well as with the Israeli ground forces that police the West Bank.

Israeli government officials initially vilified the reservists as traitors and weaklings (although many of those same critics never served or were rejected by the military for radical views).

But cold, hard facts about the reservists’ protest forced Netanyahu to “pause” his judicial “reform” plans and reinstate Gallant. According to the Times of Israel, about 1,000 reserve pilots and navigators might resign if the Supreme Court “reforms” are passed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Other essential elite units have also submitted mass petitions.

Korazim said the day the first piece of legislation is passed to overhaul the Supreme Court is the day he will quit the reserves.

“This is my red line,” he said firmly, leaning forward with urgency. “Those of us giving so much of our lives [to the military] feel we have a contract to protect the democratic state of Israel. If that contract is broken,” he shrugged and paused. “The pilots confronted that reality much faster than many others.”

Yet, as I learned in conversations with several reservists from elite units, the fate of Israel’s judiciary is tied to even deeper fears of what Israel’s illiberal government might do.

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Almost all raised deep concerns that two ultranationalist and messianic settlers who have been given key cabinet posts — Itamar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich — will drag the army into unnecessary wars, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or beyond Israel’s borders. Both ministers seek annexation of the West Bank and have encouraged violent settlers to attack Palestinian towns.

Both men also urged and taunted Netanyahu to start the current military campaign in Gaza.

Of course, such violence has occurred under previous governments. But the reservists believe there will be no restraints whatsoever on unwise or illegal military actions if the Supreme Court loses its independence — and if Netanyahu remains politically dependent on extremists.

Yiftach Golov, a former special forces commando and reservist who helped organize Brothers and Sisters in Arms, also pointed out that elite Israeli units would be vulnerable to charges by the International Criminal Court if there were no more independent Israeli Supreme Court to consider military crimes.

If Israel remains a democracy, on the other hand, then reservists say they will carry out orders in Gaza or the West Bank even if they disagree with the objective. “But if you are going to press the button over Gaza,” pilot Korazim said, and halted tellingly. That is the point, he made clear, where the military’s social contract with a democratic government becomes essential, and a broken contract requires refusal.

The moment of truth will be reached when and if Netanyahu pushes through the laws on so-called judicial reforms.

“We feel this is a black flag waving,” said architect and reservist airborne rescue officer Erez Ella. He was referring to the Israeli army principle, confirmed by the Supreme Court, that a soldier has the right and duty to refuse “a manifestly illegal order, on which the black flag of illegality flies.”

“You have to resist if ordered to do something morally wrong,” Ella told me.

(Most of the reservists with whom I spoke recognized there could be no Israeli democracy if Israel retains permanent control over several million West Bank and Gazan Palestinians who lack civil and sovereign rights. But they insisted that issue had to be postponed until the immediate threat to Israel’s democratic institutions was resolved.)

Amongst many reservists, there is also a deep resentment that Netanyahu’s ultraorthodox religious allies want him to pass legislation permanently exempting their men from military service, something already rejected by the Supreme Court. Elite reservists see themselves carrying more of the burden as growing numbers of religious youth carry less.

Women’s rights in the military are also at issue. Noa Cafri, a reserve flight navigator, and a woman in a predominantly male field, feared that the 1996 Supreme Court decision allowing women to fly might be overturned at the behest of extreme religious parties if the court’s powers are slashed.

Israel’s internal military-political struggle reminds me of recent moments in U.S. politics when former president Donald Trump’s inner circle proposed a military coup and tried to drag the Pentagon into an attempted takeover. So far, the Pentagon has resisted being used for illegal domestic political purposes. But should Trump be reelected, U.S. military brass may also confront a serious choice about when to reject illegal orders.

That makes it even more interesting to watch whether Israeli military reservists can repel Netanyahu’s attempted judicial coup. The battle to save Israeli democracy may ultimately depend on their continued refusal to operate under a “black flag.”