The Golani Brigade welcomed new recruits on Sunday as the Israel Defense Forces launched the March 2015 draft -- one of two major rounds of inductions the army holds each year. The current draft saw a slightly larger number of new recruits who wanted to join combat units compared to March 2014 -- 75% compared to 74.4% last year. According to figures from the IDF, this year's draft has also seen a sharp rise of some 30% in the number of women seeking combat roles. The army also reported that 90% of new recruits assigned to field units had been placed in one of their top three choices for service roles. IDF Personnel Directorate head Maj. Gen. Hagai Topolansky said this week that "the model of a people's army will remain a cornerstone of the IDF structure, along with the intention of expanding compulsory service to all sectors [of society] and providing individualized solutions for special populations. "Throughout the years, the IDF has been built up as a strong, quality army, an army that wins and deters, that rests on some of the most sophisticated abilities and weaponry in the world, but the secret of our real power has always been the people and the fighting spirit. "We are working and will continue to work to provide completely equal opportunities to all those who serve, to expand the integration of women into meaningful service roles and increase the number of combat roles open to women. "The men and women alike who serve in combat roles will continue to be the spearhead and receive preferential conditions, always acknowledging that they cannot perform their jobs without the full array of combat support. The IDF is a complex war machine in which every man and woman has a job to do, and they are all important," Topolansky said.
