**JRDelirious **- I’m not *in *the IDF; I’m just a reservist.
OK, this is going to be a bit long and maybe a bit pompous.
The IDF has both career officers and NCOs, certainly, although no “career grunts”. I don’t know how many there are compared to other militaries, but I believe that their numbers are slightly lower than average.
Officers mostly do the same things they do everywhere, but career NCOs are almost only in “professional” positions - mechanics, armorers, electricians, programmers, cooks etc. With the exception of a few specialized positions (such as trackers), there are virtually no career NCOs in combat positions. That means that the military stereotype of the “grizzled infantry sergeant” simply doesn’t exist in the IDF.
Certain positions are indeed “professional only” - some of those mentioned above, as well as pilots and several others. While some of them involve a fast track to officership, they don’t *enlist *as officers. For instance, a pilot will start flight school as a private and graduate two years later as a 2nd lieutenant; however, if he or she drops out (as 19 out of 20 do), they’ll continue their service in some other part of the military at whatever enlisted rank they had reached by the time they were ejected. It’s the same with other “designated officer” tracks, including ROTC programs (who undergo military training during school vacations): the commission is a possibility, but never a certainty.
Note that all “designated officer” tracks, with the exception of pilots and certain naval officers, are always for non-combat positions (although most non-combat officers are also brought up from the ranks). Combat officers are always promoted from the ranks of combat NCOs.
Why is this? There are several reasons I can think of. One of them is historical. The way I see it, the way modern militaries are put together is a result of their societies’ military traditions, and their class systems. In the past, commoners fought in the rank and file, while gentlemen, who were expected to have some training in arms (remember that up until the 19th century, European gentlemen were expected to carry a sword at all times), led them. This basic format evolved into modern Western (and Western-derived) military traditions, where high school graduates - the lower classes - serve as enlisted and NCOs, while college graduates - the middle and upper classes - serve as officers.
The Jews who established Israel had no discernible class structure and certainly no military traditions. Moreso than any other nation on Earth, they had to build military traditions basically from scratch. As Israeli society is relatively egalitarian, and - as mentioned - as the IDF was built on the basis of underground militias, it was natural to lay the military down on relatively classless lines. Thus, every soldier starts at the same spot.
There are, of course, theoretical and ideological reasons the Israeli military does things the way it does.
First of all, it believes that the only way to know if someone is officer material is by seeing how they do as grunts and NCOs - the cream, as you will, will rise to the top. In a way, one may see the entire IDF enlisted ranks as one massive officer screening system.
Second, officers have to know what their men are going through and how they are thinking. A leader has to be able to put himself in his peoples’ shoes.
Third… consider the IDF’s attitude towards the role of the officer. It believes that an officer is first and foremost a leader, and as a leader he must lead from the front and lead by example. To do this, he has to be not only as good as his men in everything, he has to be *better *- smarter, tougher, more professional. How better to make sure that your officers are the best damn soldiers in their units (and in my experience, they almost always are), than to take the best soldiers and make them officers? Soldiers, like other primates, instinctively follow the most competent warrior present - it’s basic tribal behavior. Officers, especially junior officers, are expected to fulfill that role. That’s why the IDF doesn’t put much truck in saluting and other empty rituals: officers are expected to earn respect, not have it forced on them, and if they can’t do that, then maybe they shouldn’t be officers.
While the backbones of most military forces are their NCO corps, in the IDF, it’s the junior officers.