IDF launches new 'Gamah' unit to overhaul officer recruitment, retention, redeployment - interview

There are changes on the way for Israel to institute a better apparatus for managing IDF career officers' needs, including creating a new unit called "Gamah," led by IDF Lt.-Col. Anat, whom The Jerusalem Post has interviewed. 

"We need to recruit people in a way which matches their later additional education to serving in a career track role. The recruiting office must deal with this issue," said Anat.

The new program started around the beginning of 2026.

Until it started, "If someone didn't continue to a career position in the area of the military where they started, there was no way to look around at what is happening with everyone," she stated.

Anat continued, "There has never been a unit in the recruitment division for career service positions," because it had been less difficult to recruit and maintain career officers in the military, noting, "We need an entity which has a broader strategic outlook for developing talent for the IDF."

Soldiers can continue military careers on new tracks

She asked rhetorically, "How can more of the Israeli population be developed into being useful as career officers, and how can someone who has reached a ceiling in the career track program of their original area continue to advance by moving into a different area?"

"Many non-officers or officers who reached a ceiling can continue on a career track in the military if they transfer over to the IDF's law, logistics, human resources arms, or other such desk jobs," she explained.

For example, "sometimes a really smart commander gets wounded, but can switch over to a desk job career track if we retrain them for cyber or intelligence, and other times the career service unit will help officers get their disability benefits."

Optimistically, she said, "There is a large pool of reservists and civilian persons [who have been out of service for years] who can be brought back into the fold. In fact, more reservists now want to go into career track positions than ever," since October 7, 2023.

Besides desk jobs, "There are also more opportunities than ever to return or start a new career track in combat or in the combat support arena," she emphasized.

Also, "some reservists know parts of their military area far better than anyone else, and sometimes they can move on from being combat officers to trainers."

According to Anat, "It used to be that most people who were offered a career track wanted to accept and continue for 10-20 years, if not for 25 years. But the State of Israel has changed, and Israeli society and individuals' [commercial wealth] expectations have changed."

'Career service officers are the backbone of the IDF'

Next, she stated, "The career service officers are the backbone of the entire IDF in every area from commanders of combat fighters to intelligence, to computers, and in so many other areas."

Expressing concern, she said, "Serving in a career track position was always hard. It is not similar to any other job. And the intense hours of the last three years of war have worn down and harmed the career service track group."

"There is also an issue that career service track pensions are not as large as they once were," she noted.

But according to Anat, "This unit is also designed to better advocate and help career service officers' families, including in terms of helping find flexible jobs for spouses or after a certain amount of service, as well as to sponsor greater educational opportunities for more officers."

"Going into career track IDF positions will never compete with top hi-tech salaries, but it has advantages in terms of a commitment to keep the job for a defined number of years and in terms of making a positive difference for the country in a way that no civilian job can match."

While there "was a small group of three to four officers who dealt with this even before the [October 7] war, but IDF Human Resources Commander Maj.-Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa realized that there needed to be a full unit for thinking out of the box about how to keep and draw in talented people."

Anat said that the new unit has three branches and 30 professionals who understand many different parts of the military as well as the mentality of private sector civilians considering a return to the army.

Many officers have come to her and said, "I did everything relevant for me in my department. I do not want to continue there. Transfer me or I leave."

"The stories are varied and endless. We need to maximize the best of mandatory service, reservists, and transferred career track officers for the IDF," concluded Anat.