Senior dati leumi rabbonim shlita met on Tuesday 28 Cheshvan to discuss the recent troubling decision to expand the ranks of female combatants in the IDF, to the Tank Corps. The rabbonim are trying, having met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott and other high-ranking officers, sending a clear message, their talmidim will not serve alongside females in tanks.
This latest step highlights the growing anti-religious sentiment that is becoming increasingly prominent in the IDF during the tenure of Eizenkott, who also significantly diminished the authority of the IDF Rabbinate.
During the meeting on Tuesday, the rabbis expressed harsh criticism against Eizenkott as well as IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Moti Almoz. Almoz came under fire last week for his disrespectful remarks and brazen attitude towards talmidei chachamim.
Among the rabbonim taking part in the meeting were Rabbi Dov Lior Shlita, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Shlita, and Rabbi Mordechai Sternberg Shlita. It appears that this issue combined with the planned destruction of the community of Amona by December 25, 2016, the High Court of Justice-imposed deadline to carry out the destruction, may lead to a coalition crisis initiated by the Bayit Yehudi party, which is the primary Knesset representative of the dati leumi tzibur.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Why is serving in the Tank Corp alongside females different than serving alongside females anywhere else in the army? One is treif, the other is neveilah – both assur.
Kol hakavod to stand up for KEDUSHA!!!
Daas Torah generations ago like the Chazon ish said it is assur to serve in the atheist IDF, why are they ignoring a clear psak? The Zionists ONLY goal is to make Yidden go astray from the Torah and their main tool for this is the secular, atheist IDF.
Despite the phony wailing of YWN, the IDF is not anti-religious at all. The IDF is facing a growing problem of a shortage of manpower and is trying to deal with it, as it did in the War of Independence, by placing women in combat units.
Let’s be frank: the problem stems from the fact that two segments of the population – Arabs and Charedim – largely refuse to serve and that those two segments of the population are growing very rapidly. The obvious solution is to draft more Arab and Charedi men but that has been insufficiently successful to date: hence the move to women.
YWN is hypocritically wailing about both solutions, standing against both the draft of charedim and against the placing women in combat units. I challenge YWN to offer a real solution to the problem (other than claiming that there is no problem, thus dodging the need to propose a solution to it).
I agree that placing women in combat units is a very bad idea, for many reasons, but I whole-heartedly support drafting charedim into the IDF, which I think an excellent idea, for many reasons.
What does YWN propose, other that hiding our heads in the sand and complaining about everything?
Yagel Libi, we propose, and have successfully implemented, more learning of Torah.
Defending the state should not involve transgressing aveiros chamuros.
The IDF could solve all its manpower problems by not being such a bastion of secularism and promiscuity.