I usually hate being told I'm wrong...

... but in this case I am actually inviting - begging even! - someone to step up and tell me where I've missed something here, and that I'm totally wrong.

Here, as usual I'm getting ahead of myself... so let me start at the beginning:

When the State of Israel was founded, the leadership had to come up with a solution for balancing the young state's pressing defense needs against the basic economic need to allow the citizens do something besides serve in the army (i.e. go to work). 

The country on which Israel chose to model its military structure was Switzerland. 

Switzerland, it turns out, requires that it's citizens perform a relatively short mandatory military service, followed by an extended period of reserve obligation.  This allows the country to field a small standing army, yet have the ability to rapidly call up a much larger, well trained, reserve force in case of national emergency (i.e. a war).

For decades this model has worked well for Israel despite the exemptions given to certain sectors of the population such as Arabs, religious Jewish women and Haredi men who are actively engaged in yeshiva study [it should be pointed out that most religious men perform army service] and that many religious women opt to perform some sort of civilian national service.]. 

However, over the past couple of decades, the Israeli Army has faced a growing problem of draft dodging among citizens who would not normally be eligible for the exemption or deferment mentioned above.   

A very small number of these are actual draft dodgers (in the classic Vietnam-era sense) in that they leave the country and go live with friends/relatives abroad rather than allow themselves to be drafted into the IDF.   But most who wish to avoid service remain in Israel and receive exemptions based on various easily obtained disqualifications ranging from 'ideological reasons' to 'mental instability'.

In order to try to counter this trend and increase the number of draft-eligible Israelis who actually serve, the IDF has begun a program of sending officers to speak at high schools in order to explain to the students the importance of performing military service, and to encourage kids to shoulder their share of the national defense responsibility when their time comes to be inducted. 

I should interject here that there are an incredible range of non-combat roles in the IDF so we're not talking about glorifying war or pressuring kids to be heroes.

Well, apparently there's a group of 'activists' calling themselves "New Profile" who have taken exception to what they deem an "inappropriate militarization of Israeli society" as well as what they call the attempted 'brainwashing' of Israeli high school students by IDF officers. 

In order to protest these things, the group is planning on dressing up as IDF officers and literally 'washing'  large models of brains in front of Tel Aviv's Ironi Alef High School, which reportedly has one of the highest draft-dodging rates in the country.

Here are some quotes attributed to Lotahn Raz, one of the organizers of the 'New Profile' protest (followed by my take):

"I think the fact that military officers have free access to schools exploits the status of soldiers and the status of schools."

First off, Lotahn, since the government funds the schools, it seems to me that it also has the right to establish the curriculum... including allowing occasional visits by government officials to discuss matters related to civics, law, defense and shared national responsibility.  Would you object to a policeman visiting a school to discuss drunk driving or using illegal drugs?  Do you object to any other aspects of the school curriculum... or just this?

"We want to reach out to students across the country and tell them that they have an opportunity to think differently. We also want to reach out to the larger Israeli public and tell them that the army should not play a part in our schools."

It seems to me that if the government can send police officers into schools to discuss law enforcement issues such as drunk driving and using drugs, it also has the right to send representatives of the military into schools to discuss matters related to the national service which all of the students are required to perform (or show cause why they should be exempt).  You aren't really asking students to "think differently".  You are encouraging them to break the law and avoid national service.

"The issue isn't about enlistment, but about the army putting pressure on students to enlist."

Um, yes it is about enlistment... just as an occasional visit from a policeman/woman to the classroom is intended to apply gentle pressure to the kids not to break other laws, an occasional lecture by an IDF officer about the importance of not dodging the draft seems an acceptable amount of pressure to me.  I don't see the problem here.

"The army is something that they need to think about... It shouldn't be an automatic decision. But the army coming in and exploiting their position of power is brainwashing."

No, this is exactly where your logic falls apart.  You don't encourage people to think about obeying the law... you encourage them to do so as a matter of reflex.  Like drunk driving and using illegal drugs, draft dodging is not something that kids should be encouraged to think about... and following the law should be an automatic decision.  If you have a problem with the law, by all means try to change it.  That's called living in a democracy.  But encouraging people to break the law is called anarchy... and blaming your potential failure on 'brainwashing' by government representatives is just wrong-headed on too many levels to count!

"The army is a hierarchical organization... It doesn't have respect for life, and they have no regard for the equality of women. It encourages following orders instead of individual thinking."

Yes, Virginia, the army is a hierarchical organization. And yes they do encourage following orders and discourage individual thinking.  Otherwise in wartime people die in horrifically large numbers.  To me, that demonstrates an enormous respect for life.    You should know this but alas, you yourself dodged army service based on the old stand-by; 'ideological reasons'.  As to the equality of women, I defy you to show me another military in the world whose female soldiers hold a larger percentage of combat, technical and intelligence roles than those serving the IDF.

"[The IDF has] brought us constant conflict with our neighbors.

No, actually our neighbors have brought us constant conflict.  The IDF, on the other hand, is the only reason those conflicts haven't ended with the destruction of your country and the untimely death of little old you.

"The military's presence in schools is reminiscent of countries we'd rather not like to think of ourselves as. If there is a change in the attitude of young people and Israeli society in general about the military, maybe that's what needs to be heard."

I'm curious what you imagine would happen if your bit of 'street theater' succeeded beyond your wildest expectations and all high school graduates suddenly began opting not to serve in the IDF.  Do you imagine it would be like those 1960s-era posters that said "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"  Do you really think that the next time one (or more) of our neighbors 'gives a war' they won't remember to show up?

I'm asking - no begging - for someone to please tell me what I've missed here.  Does this guy really have a point I'm missing?