So I asked my son, who is in a Nachal Charedi combat unit on a base of nearly 2000 soldiers.
He affirmed the truth of this. He said you hardly ever see anyone wearing a regular army undershirt; nearly everyone sports the olive green nylon undershirts with the tzitzits attached.
Furthermore, he approached his secular commander about this, seeing the secular guy wearing tzitzit too.
"No one in the army nowadays is truly secular," the young seemingly secular commander said. "Unless you're at least somewhat religious, you simply won't enlist."
He makes a good point. And his reason for the increased religiosity in the army is an interesting one.
This past year showed the lowest enlistment of eligible citizens ever in Medinat Yisrael. I keep hearing numbers that put it on either side of half (47% or 52%).
The numbers have been falling for a while, propelled by a growing Leftist upper class which prefers a neat, clean secular life in the digital age to battle trenches and army tents — a class of young people who either avoid army service altogether or do their best to find the cushiest roles within the IDF (like in the air force as jobniks) to pay their socially expected military "debt" to society.
And frightening, life-threatening combat situations? Those are much scarier when you don't believe in God.
So, particularly in the combat units across the IDF, the religious (including those religious at heart, even when their externals indicate otherwise) finally dominate what was once a secular and even anti-religious institution.
Unfortunately, at the top of the IDF hierarchy still exist the old-school secularists (including those who wear a kippah, but lack the Jewish heart) who couldn't give a darn about the rest of the country.
(Because the rest of the country aren't secular, Leftist, Ashkenazi, "progressive," upper-class elitists in Ramat Aviv and Herzliyah — like themselves.)
However, we can appreciating knowing the great Tzitzit Awakening among the regular IDF soldiers isn't just inflated news, but a very real and inspiring revival of connection to Torah and mitzvot.
May we all continue to grow spiritually and bring the Geula speedily b'rachamim.