An army committee appointed by the IDF Personnel Corps Commander recommends equal army service for men and women. MK Rabbi Yitzchak Levy (National Union) called on the Chief of Staff to reject the recommendations and thus guarantee that the IDF will "enable even observant soldiers to serve in the army without violating their religious principles."
The committee's main recommendations, as submitted to Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, are equal service length for the two genders, and equal opportunities to serve in the various corps as well.
Women who do not declare that they are religiously observant currently serve in the army for two years, while men serve for three years. There has long been talk of shortening the service by six months.
The committee also recommends that only the Defense Minister and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset will be authorized to determine that certain military units will be designated for men only.
Gen. Elazar Stern, an observant Jew who commands the IDF's Personnel Corps, appointed his predecessor in the position, Gen. (ret.) Yehuda Segev, to head the committee.
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the Elon Moreh hesder yeshiva (a framework in which students combine compulsive army service and Yeshiva study), told Arutz-7, "If these recommendations are in fact made, we will convene and come to the appropriate decisions about what to recommend to our students regarding their army service... In the meanwhile, everyone can understand the problems involved when young men and women spend the night together in a tank, or on overnight stays, or in the infantry. It leads to obvious problems, and the Americans have already removed their female soldiers from many combat positions, though it cost them millions of dollars."
"These recommendations are a declaration of war against the religious soldiers in the IDF," MK Levy said. "Their implementation would increase sexual harassment in the IDF, would cause great harm to its inner cohesiveness that is so necessary, and would mean the end of the army as an army of the people [in that many religious soldiers would either not enlist or would enlist in the all-male hareidi-religious Nachal units]."
"Unfair to His Wife"
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of the city of Tzfat, told Army Radio on Monday that the mixed-gender situation in the army continues, despite previous promises from army officials. "My son is a teacher in a yeshiva," Rabbi Eliyahu said, "and he is currently serving in the reserves, where he is forced to spend eight hours at a time in the close confines of a Hummer jeep together with another male soldier and a woman driver. It is simply unfair to his wife."
Rabbi Eliyahu said that the increase of women soldiers serving together with males will inevitably lead to a drop in motivation among some of the army's most motivated soldiers - namely, the religious: "My son and his friends show up whenever they are called for reserves duty. But he said to me, 'This just can't go on. It could be that next time they call me, my back will hurt me, or something else will come up, and I just won't show up."
Women POW's - Not a Consideration
According to the committee recommendations, the risks of being taken captive must not be taken into account when determining where women should serve.