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factfinding2017-07-27 08:07 am
Israeli politics, the IDF, and similar stuff
So I'm doing my research and trying to figure out a scenario to make my character PM as the game needs...The problem is, I don't read or speak Hebrew at all (neither does anybody else who plays!), and the English translations of key materials (IE, the English translation of the Basic Law on the Government) seem to literally be missing a few lines with no indication as to what should be there or how important it is. (We are talking the English translation on the Knesset website. I cried in frustration when I figured this fact out, because ugh.)
This is going to be a bit scattershot of a post (I didn't want to put multiple posts up when it all seemed to boil down to a related set of issues). I've done my fair share of Googling and Wikipedia hunting, but there are questions those don't answer.
Questions on Israeli Government:
1. It's said in the British system that the Monarch has the powers "to encourage, to warn, and to be consulted" (and that they shouldn't really want any others). Israeli politics are at least partly based off of the Westminster System, so...Does that also apply to the President of Israel? Does he get updated on state affairs, does he get consulted by the PM?
2. Just how much power do Knesset committees have to conduct oversight of the government? Both theoretically and in real terms. It sounds like they have normal oversight powers, but maybe that's me drawing on experience with the US Congress or the UK Parliament that doesn't apply...
Questions on the IDF (numbering continues to make answering easier) - please note for reference, my current draft has this character born December 1977 and drafted somewhere around 1995-96, and I know the law has changed since:
3. Someone please explain to me the proliferation of Sayeret units. I realize they're mostly recon units in theory, but they're also special forces...So I'm eventually confused (aside from a few units) as to who does what. I made my character a Sayeret Matkal vet because, well, it seemed like an obvious choice for "Special forces vet", but now I'm realizing that that could be cliche...but I can't figure out what the other units do, so I'm confused.
4. Officers are drawn from conscripts and have a four month training course. Sayerets have an...18 month? training pipeline. Do officers do officer training and then unit training, or...? How does that all work? How are Sayeret *officers* recruited and trained? Not looking for deep details, just how long from "I got drafted today" to "I'm a fully qualified officer and out leading troops starting tomorrow" or something.
5. Are officers held to a conscript's 3 year term of service? Is it longer? (I presume it is, but how much longer?)
6. Presuming a guy just wants to serve his conscript term as an officer and then get out and start civilian life, given what I mention above, how long is he in for, what age is he getting out at, and what rank is he getting out at? What rank does said officer transition from "an officer" to "an officer who's going to make the IDF a career"?
8. Reserve service: OK, when does a guy with that background (Sayeret unit, officer) stop being liable for reserve service; how frequently is he called up for said service, how long are the callups in non-emergency situations, and (because the internet doesn't give me too great a clue) what the heck do they do (besides, I presume, training of various sorts)?
9. Just what are the benefits post-service associated with service as a conscript, or what were they in the 1996-2000ish timeframe? Do they vary between officers and enlisted conscripts? (I looked this particular question up about 20 different ways on Google. I found plenty of mentions in English of benefits during service, or that benefits post-service exist, but no mention of what the post-service benefits (or in-service benefits) actually are or would have been at the time.)
Yes, I make my characters unusually detailed. No, that is not standard for the game it's for. It's how I learned to draw up characters and scenarios, regardless of the roleplay or the setting; it's worked so far, and in this game it enabled me to (last time) play a character otherwise completely unfamiliar to me with a good degree of clue and "I actually don't appear to suck at RPing this character".
Thanks in advance for anybody willing to help me not be dumb. :)
(Edited to remove questions that non-sleepy me found answers to in stuff I'd already looked at...)
no subject
But regarding the IDF questions:
3. Just keep the character Sayeret Matkal. If you don't speak Hebrew and are new the whole topic figuring out what each unit does will take too long and Sayeret Matkal, while a little cliche, is a real unit and people do serve there, so. I'd just stick with that.
4. In the 2000s officers had a 6 month training course, I don't think it was 4 months in the 90s. But yes, officer training is, broadly: 3 months of general officer school for all officers together from across the military, and then a unit/corps specific course, which on average lasts another 3 months (hence 6 overall) but in reality varies greatly from unit to unit. It's not unthinkable for it to be longer for special forces, and to last quite a long time.
In terms of timing, for ground forces it's extremely rare to start officer training later than about 9 months into your mandatory service (the military invests in your training as an officer, and they want get you for "free" for as long as possible while you still owe them time).
I don't know specifically how long Sayeret Matkal officer training lasts, but consider that part of the training is probably shadowing someone. So like, there's quite a long time graduating officially and working on your own (unlike in the US system for example, where shadowing is almost unheard of). If you just want a reasonable timeframe, I'd say being a fully independent officer in Matkal 2 years after enlisting is a very safe timeframe to use.
5. They are, but when they're accepted into officer training they also have to sign a contract for additional time (like a regular employment contract where they agree to work for the military for X years). The standard minimum is 2 years (so they'd be in the military 5 years overall) but there are exceptions. Units get a lot of freedom, relatively, in deciding how long they want their officers to sign for. When the contract is up it's like any employment contract - you could choose to continue it or to leave, the military could choose to offer you an extension, or not.
6. If you're accepted into officer school, you have to sign for more time. It guarantees you do more than your mandatory term of service. (this is broadly speaking of course, there are always exceptions, etc.)
Starting your IDF career is the day you become an officer, as that's when your contract with the military is final and you know you'll be staying for more time than is mandatory. (I mean, for officers, for NCOs it's a different story.) there's no real distinction between lower and higher officer ranks, though obviously the higher you go the fewer people stay/are offered an extension.
If you enlist at 18 and only do 2 extra years, you'd get out around age 23, which is not unusual for officers who only wanted to serve a few extra years. Usually people who get out at 23 make it through about 2 officer ranks (you can look up the rank charts for the IDF, I don't remember the names in English), depending on how young they were when they started officer school.
7. You probably mean the rating system for bootcamp/combat training. The standard term is rifleman, because the primary thing you get out of bootcamp that you don't get out of other training programs is weapons training.
Today is goes from 00 to 09, I think in the 90s it might have gone from 02 to 09. The higher the number and longer and more extensive the bootcamp, with 02 being the most common "qualified for a desk job but still allowed to carry a rifle" level. Special forces usually go from 05 to 09, with 09 being for a very, very select group of units (not sure if Matkal is 07 or 09), because it's so long.
8. reserve duty is VERY varied, and ranges from never being called ever, to being called up for months out of the year, depending on a lot of factors (mostly what the staffing situation is in a particular unit). You'd need to ask someone who actually does reserve duty for Matkal to know that, including what they use their reservists for (again, it could be anything).
Generally, you get called up more when you're younger, and less the older you get. Your eligibility stops at 40, though some get a final notice of "thanks, bye!" at 30. Again it depends on how a unit wants to manage its reservist resources. Broadly, reserve duty can be anything from a day to a month, or sometimes even longer (if there's a war or some kind of operation).
9. Financially, you get a certain amount of money from the military that you can use for higher education, starting a business, etc. You're considered more trustworthy for loans. You also get tax credits for a while. Socially, it's way too long to explain in a comment, but you're more likely to be considered for jobs, especially early on, and generally not feel socially left out, if you've been to the military. All of that goes double for being an officer.
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