During her address to a gathering on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Personnel Major-General Orna Barvibai addressed the Tal Law and “the people’s army” as she presented enlistment and other statistics to participants.
She explained the IDF is working to increase chareidi enlistment, explaining that one in four males in Israel does not enter the military and almost half of the women do not. The senior officer explained that enlisting chareidim is essential to continue with a “people’s army” and the IDF continues to call for mandatory service from all its citizens without consideration for race, gender or religion. She stressed that while serving in the IDF is the first priority, citizens may opt to enter a national service plan as an alternative.
According to Barvibai, 2,000 chareidim enlist into various IDF units today, including tailor made programs designed to accommodate their lifestyle. Her goal is to increase that number to 2,400 annually by 2015 in line with government decisions. She clarifies that this number is based on the premise that an equal number of chareidim opt for national service instead of the IDF so in essence, 4,800 chareidim will enter one type of service or another by 2015.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Then all he has to do is convince the hilonim that while they are in the army, they have to behaive according to the social norms that are expected of a “mentsch” by traditional societies throught the world. Wear clothes even when off duty. Avoid foul language. Know enough about the religion of your countryment so you can avoid insulting them by schedule breakast at a time when normal people (our definition) think its time for shul. Avoid matters like pritsus, yihud and negiah. Assume such accomodations will be extended to the workplace througout Israel. The hilonim have to keep their militant secularism in the closet.
Except for a handful who oppose having any sort of Jewish state on halachic grounds (which qualifies them as conscientious objectors), most Hareidim want to serve in the army and only a handful want to spend their lives as professional students. It is a response to the ultra-secular coerive hiloniyus that the Hareidim in Eretz Yisrael are forced into the current defensive mode of turning the yeshivos as fortresses against the hilonim.
I have a good idea. Stop trying to shmad us in the army. Then, we’ll be a lot more willing to join.
united hatzoloh, MDA, ZAKA, chevra kadisha, shmira at the kosel should qulaify too.
This woman is unbelievable. She wants to push/force chareidim in to the idf and then renege on any and all agreements made between the two.
I think the comments are on mark. The army has lately gone out of its way to un-accomodate the religious. I think that makes a statement about if they want the Charedim in the army.
Yes, she wants more Chareidim, but on Her terms, not theirs!
Remember. Ben-Gurion made it quite clear, right at the outset of Medinat Israel, that the army would be the great “melting pot” that would fundamentally transform all the disparate refugee Jewish groups who would come to Israel into one uniform Chiloni Sabra citizen.
The campaign against religious standards in the army, as well as in the workforce, is ideologically motivated. It not an accident.