Courageous IDF commanders must take a public stand. Op-ed.
by Emmanuel Shilo, editor of the Besheva weekly, translated by Hillel Fendel.
The announcement by first a dozen
Hesder yeshiva heads, then another dozen, and now a full half of the Yeshivot
Hesder in Israel – followed even by several army preparatory academies – that
they will not send their students to serve in the IDF's Armored
Corps is a resounding wake-up call and a bright red warning light to the IDF
top brass.
Declarations of that nature are not issued easily from yeshivot whose students are a
primary and high-quality component of the army's field forces. A glorious combat heritage of Hesder tank soldiers, beginning
over 50 years ago, is now threatened with extinction, due to a feminist cause that
childishly cares for nothing other than to smash glass ceilings. The problem
continues to fester because of the irresponsible cowardice of senior IDF
officials who fear confronting it and setting boundaries.
In the Artillery Corps, it's
already a lost cause. The hesder yeshivot stopped sending their students to
serve there a while ago, given that it became a totally mixed service corps in
which the gender boundaries set by Jewish Law can simply not be observed. This
has led to a major lack in Artillery reserves personnel, as male students who
would have served in the reserves for years afterwards have been replaced by
females who, for various predictable reasons, invariably do not show up to serve
in the reserves. This is the problem that the Armored Corps, too, will soon
face, if nothing is done to stop the introduction of girls into tanks.
It must be emphasized that the
deployment of females into the Armored Corps has nothing to do with a lack of
manpower. There is no such shortage, because the number of tank soldiers is
limited in any event by the amount of tanks in the IDF. At present this number
has been reduced, for various reasons; but even if it again rises, there will
be no shortage of male soldiers to man them – on condition that the relatively
few women are removed and the large number of yeshiva students can return.
From an operational standpoint, the integration
of female combat soldiers into the Armored Corps primarily creates unnecessary
difficulties. The pilot programs conducted so far have not been a success
story. It is no coincidence that the females who were qualified to serve as
tank crew members were specifically deployed in non-maneuvering battalions. And
although the actions of the female 'Pere' company on October 7 were effective
and even saved lives, their battle was not exactly Avigdor Kahalani's battle in
the Yom Kippur War. In fact, they were later not permitted to fight inside
Gaza.
The current decision to begin training female
tank crew members for maneuvering battalions does not address any operational
need, but rather only ideological feminist desires. The General Staff orders
state unequivocally the right of every religious soldier to demand
gender-combat combat service. During this past and ongoing war, it happened
many times that troops had to remain locked inside their armored vehicles for days at a time. It goes
without saying that it is impossible to maintain basic standards of modesty
between men and women under such conditions. Single-gender tank crews do not
offer a sufficient solution, because of overnight stays in a building or in
defense encampments. Even separate battalions for female soldiers would not be
effective, because tank battalions are split into smaller units and attached to
infantry and combat engineering battalions and brigades.
And we have not even touched on the expected
drop in operational abilities. The idea of ignoring or overlooking physical
differences and abilities between the genders is simply dangerous. As several
of the Yeshiva heads have said, "The army's main goal is to win, and that
critical value is being shunted aside in the drive to satisfy feminist
whims."
Where Do the Hareidim Fit In?
Good question. The "lack of consideration," to say
the least, for the religious soldiers doesn't exactly encourage hareidi boys to
enlist in the army. The hareidi public looks on and says to itself, "If
the IDF refuses to take the religious-Zionist public's needs into account,
after all the human losses it suffered, just because of a few girls, then why
should we believe that they will fulfill their promises to us in the long
term?"
This problem must be solved, and quickly. If the IDF commanders don't wake up and explain to the Supreme Court that their latest decision demanding an introductory trial of recruiting women into the Armored Corps this coming November – and we all know that such "trials" quickly become the norm – is simply unworkable, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister will have no choice but to intervene. If not, the military ramifications, as well as those caused by breaking apart the delicate fabric of our society, will become much too dangerous for the State of Israel to safely absorb.
Note 1: In Israel's over 70 Hesder yeshivot, students undergo a five-year program combining Yeshiva study and army service. Yeshiva preparatory academies (mechinot) provide a one-year yeshiva program for students who then go on to serve in the army for three years.
Note 2: After the publication of this article IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir decided that the "pilot" program to integrate female soldiers in the Armed Corps will not be held as planned in November.