Respect for the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is widespread across the Jewish world, and many Gentiles also share these feelings. Unfortunately, the IDF and its political bosses in the Ministry of Defense do not seem to value the ordinary Israeli soldier so highly. 
The humble army captain has to survive on just $2,000 per month.
The lack of success in freeing Gilad Shalit, Ron Arad and other captive soldiers has been well publicized, and can legitimately be exposed to serious criticism. But I want to focus on the more mundane issues of how the IDF treats its regular soldiers - information that has received little exposure.
What's fit for a soldier
The salaries paid to professional soldiers are far beneath the value any honest assessment would place on their contribution to the country's security. While the IDF website does not provide information about the salaries of IDF career soldiers, the Haaretz website carries an article that presents a disturbing picture of low pay and huge discrepancies between the highest ranks and those lower down the army hierarchy. While the salaries of the generals have almost doubled over 14 years to a very respectable (by Israeli standards) $12,000 per month, the humble army captain has to survive on just $2,000 per month. I could not find any information about the salary of lower ranks, but obviously they receive significantly less than the captains.
The wages paid to junior officers and the ranks clearly have no correspondence with the responsibility of the job and the training required. If wages were determined according to bravery under fire, and the competence of senior army officers' decisions was taken into account when determining their pay, then this radical wage imbalance might go in the opposite direction.
My research into the salaries of professional Israeli soldiers provided sufficient indication of how Israel undervalues the contribution of some of its most dedicated citizens; however, a recent conversation with an army rabbi reinforced this dismal picture.
I have known Shlomo Mizrahi (name changed to protect his privacy) for almost twenty years. After a career in education, he entered the army rabbinate and served with distinction for seven years. When we met on previous occasions, I enjoyed hearing Shlomo's descriptions of his devoted work in the chaplaincy - how he was helping soldiers connect with their Jewish identity and understand the relationship between Eretz Yisrael and the Jewish People.
I was looking forward to hearing more of his stories at our last meeting, but instead Shlomo told me that he had been dismissed along with another ten army rabbis. He explained with a sad heart that the dismissals were no reflection on failures to fulfill their obligations, nor due to any statements that had aroused the anger of the left-wing media. After eight years of service, an army rabbi gets the rights to a pension and other benefits; so the IDF routinely dispenses with their services before these rights are acquired.
An army or a melting pot?
It seems to me that many of the problems with the way that soldiers are treated have their roots in the history of the IDF in the beginnings of Israeli statehood. The socialist leadership of the state of Israel had a vision of the army going far beyond a professional fighting force to serving as a tool for integrating new immigrants into Israeli society and molding them into model progressive, secular, socialist "new Jews". The need to enlist as many people as possible and initiate them into a new Israeli culture was very reminiscent of the policy followed by Stalin's Red Army - arguably a model for the IDF in the eyes of some of Israel's socialist political elite.
Sixty years later, Israeli society has radically changed. Today, different communities are encouraged to take a pride in their ethnic Jewish identify - Yemenite, Moroccan, Ethiopian and the host of other groups that make up the Israeli ethnic fabric. Yet the IDF is caught in an ideological time warp. Instead of recognizing the social changes in Israeli society and the fact that technical expertise counts for more in today's battles than the numbers of soldiers you can put into the field, the IDF is forced to continue recruiting primarily through conscription.
Secular youngsters in Tel Aviv increasingly view their army service as a waste of 
The IDF is forced to continue recruiting primarily through conscription.
time that takes them away from their career objectives, or they allow their left-wing leanings to view the IDF in the role of oppressors of the poor Palestinians. They are comfortable enough with their convictions and sense of priorities to set up websites to discourage people from enlisting. At the same time, there are also very religious people who refuse to accept a career in the IDF as an acceptable path for a young man who has not got the skills or inclination for full-time Torah study.
The IDF and the political echelons in the defense establishment seem oblivious to the changed social and military situations. How long can they continue to refuse to see the potential in remodeling the IDF as a professional army that rewards its soldiers in proportion to the risks they take and the obligations they bear? Why all the fuss about government plans to subcontract to civilians some of the office work IDF conscripts perform?
Our enemies are well armed and dedicated. In the same way an athlete needs to lose excess weight and be dedicated to their sport to win the competition, the IDF needs to shed the reluctant conscripts and become a full-time professional force to fight the wars of 2009; and it must detach itself from any remnants of its role in the Israeli socialist struggle of the 1940s and '50s.