Training in a coed combat unit
Training in a coed combat unitFlash 90

Forum for a Strong IDF (FSIDF) CEO Reserve Colonel Raz Sagi responded on Monday morning to an article claiming the IDF lowered its standards in order to allow for coed combat units.

"The age of pretense has ended, and the IDF has turned equality into the measure for everything, and decided openly and officially to prefer it over operational competence," Sagi said.

According to him, the high number of injuries in mixed combat units has not led people to understand that women should be drafted into units more appropriate for their physical abilities. Instead, it led to the IDF's decision to harm both men's and women's combat readiness.

"It's time IDF commanders stop giving in to internal and external pressures, and understand that the efforts to integrate women into combat units have failed," Sagi said. "We need to stop prioritizing equality over security. Israel doesn't have the privilege of finding out how much we can change the army before it won't be an army anymore, because it harms Israel's security."

On Monday morning, Yediot Aharonot reported that Brigadier General Mordechai Kahane decided to lower the standards for basic training. This included canceling wall climbing exercise, as well as one of the training marches. Both of these elements presented an obstacle for the female soldiers in mixed units.

The report also noted that these changes went into effect over a month ago, after the IDF pondered ways to solve the various issues which had come up during the coed units' basic training.

Previously, several complaints were submitted regarding the allowances made to female soldiers in the wall-climbing and marches. These leniences included allowing female soldiers to climb the wall using a pile of stones or a bench and carry less equipment. The decision was therefore made to provide male soldiers with the same leniencies, in order to avoid discrimination.

"I did not see, either in Gaza or Lebanon, the need to climb a wall such as this," Yediot Aharonot quoted Kahane as saying.

The article also noted that the US army does not provide leniencies for coed units, and women are expected to maintain the same standards as men.