ICEJ, 11 July 2013

The IDF released a plan on Wednesday including large budget cuts over the next five years.

The plan, if approved, would include firing thousands of career soldiers and reorganizing, de-activating or downsizing several air force squadrons, armored and artillery units, and naval deployments.

In related news, it was announced Wednesday that the Defense Ministry will inaugurate its first haredi pre-military academy this August, in the Jordan Valley.

Graduates of the academy will be assigned to combat units in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the IDF’s Nahal Haredi formation.

"We are right now in the middle of a gradual and historic process in which the number of young haredi men enlisting in the IDF is continually increasing," declared Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

"We are doing this not by brandishing a sword, but gradually, with tolerance, while having recruited leading haredi figures in the ultra-Orthodox community to help us in this important social process, which will contribute to the IDF and Israeli society."

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