I’m quite positive the Rebbe disagreed on this point. read through the sichos on this topic.

Everyone in Israel is drafted the IDF (whether he want to or not)
and ONLY if the man brings documents proving that he is studying now in a yeshiva – his draft is rejected

Though in previous generations yeshivos where exclusively were for those ready to learn more, today all rabbonim and roshei yeshiva agree that yeshivos are an “ir miklat” from the secular world outside and it is critical for every young person even if they are not up to fulltime learning.

Now, what they should do with their time and whether someone who has a device (and therefore not in the “ir miklat”) is benefiting from being in yeshiva – those are questions worth asking.

Did the Rebbe ever say something like this?

Or does the Rebbe view it the IDF like university which should be avoided even if someone’s not learning bc of the strong not frum influences there and also the fact that the way the army operates in regards to how they fight (or don’t fight) the Arabs?

The problem is that there are no real “IDF units designed for Frum Yidden”.

The amount of breaches in the standards of the “nachal hachreidi” shows that the idf are not seriously interested in accommodating the frume standards.

If fact, they explicitly state that the army is the “melting pot” of Israeli society. And it shows; a huge percentage of bochurim (and yungerleit) that join the army have a yeridah bruchnius over the course of their service.

As long as this isn’t satisfactorily rectified, no frum yid, in yeshiva or out, should be encouraged to join the army.

There is however a huge difference between Yeshiva Students and the current situation where everyone born to a Frum family is exempt from the IDF, despite the fact that they are not currently learning in Yeshiva.

The culture needs to change, either you learn in Yeshiva full time or join the IDF units designed for Frum Yidden.