im confused why this is an issue in the first place.all of you who are flat out against it are clearly not rachmanim. i really do not understand the controversy and i do not understand why there are shuls that dont say it or something like it every shabbos. davening for the people in the IDF is in no way supporting zionism. israel has a draft. they dont have a choice. elah mai, youll say they should all be sitting and learning and then theyll be exempt? no, if they were all chozer b’tshuvah (halevai) then the government would institute the draft for EVERYONE. whether or not that tradeoff is worth it is a different discussion for a different time.
a lot of them want to be there and a lot of them dont. they are drafted. now…again…WHY arent you davening for them? and for those that DO want to be there, are they not worthy of our tefillos? they are b’din tinok shenishba and didnt know any better obviously, so who are you to judge them? daven for their health and wellbeing so that im yirtzeh hashem they should be able to leave the IDF healthy and be chozer b’tshuva!
also i might point out that there are several branches of the army that are NOT zionist and do NOT join to protect the land (IE the government) but the people. their jewish brothers and sisters. some hakaras hatov is in order. some massive hakaras hatov.
as for people’s stupid arguments about “oh, we start here whats next the US army hatzalah etc…” youre right. we SHOULD daven for them too! i fail to see how thats an argument!