The IDF is poised to establish one or two new mixed-gender battalions, which will be permanently based along Israel's borders on routine patrol and observation missions, according to Army Radio.
The new battalion or battalions will join the existing Karakal mixed-gender battalion, and the new Arayot Hayarden battalion, which is still in its formative stages.
The establishment of the new battalions with female members is reportedly linked to a decision to shorten the period of mandatory military service for non-combat males, which will go into force in July.
Another reason for establishing the new battalions is a concept according to which units that are meant for actual wartime combat should be freed up for training instead of carrying out routine patrol and observation assignments. These battalions will only be deployed along peaceful borders, and will be replaced by “real” combat battalions in times of escalation and war.
'It's all a bluff'
However, the Head of the IDF Fortitude Forum, Col. (res.) Raz Sagi, told Arutz Sheva there is a lot of bluffing and leftist meddling behind the changes announced. For one thing, he explained, “it is only non-combat males whose period of service is to be shortened. Therefore, this cannot be used as justification for adding more women as combat soldiers.”
The idea of creating specialized units for the “softer” combat routine of patrolling and observation along peaceful borders, so as to let the fighting combat battalions spend more time training, is not a bad one, he opined.
“But it also means that from now on, the security along the borders of the country will be in the hands of mixed-gender battalions that are not operationally fit, and in which the level of operational fitness has been lowered beneath the minimum required.”
The more women are placed in the combat units, he explained, the lower their combat-readiness level. For 12 years running, he said, the IDF was unable to get more than 530 women to volunteer and be accepted into combat service annually.
This number shot up to 800 in 2014, according to Sagi – not because more physically fit women volunteered, but because the "gibush" phase of basic training, in which those unfit for combat are weeded out, was cancelled, and replaced with a preparatory course that does not weed out anyone.
Sagi noted that the US military also opened its doors to women in combat units, but did not lower admissions standards. As a result, no women have been able to make it into the SEAL, Ranger and Marines units.
Political agenda
Sagi sees a genderist political agenda behind the attempts to artificially enlarge the number of women in combat units. He noted that Vered Swed, who heads the Authority for Advancement of Women's Status, reacted to the latest news from the IDF by demanding more female commanders and officers as well.
“So there is no need to test if they are good enough, interested, trained or experienced enough for the positions,” he added sarcastically.”Of course not – the appointments will be carried out once a chromosome count confirms that they are women, and in accordance with the demands of the Chairwoman of the Authority for Advancement of Women's Status.”
The governmental Authority for Advancement of Women's Status and the Knesset Committee for Advancement of Women's Status were both established by then-MK Naomi Chazan (Meretz) in the 1990s, as was the Israel Women's Lobby, which is a flagship organization of the New Israel Fund.
It is estimated that the more women who are artificially inserted into key positions in the IDF, the greater the influence of the NIF within the military.
Chazan, who was president of the NIF for years, has been described as virulently leftist. She co-signed a petition denouncing the “massacre” of Gazans by the IDF on the first day of Operation Cast Lead in 2008, and NIF groups subsequently provided over 90% of the Israeli quotes in the infamous Goldstone Report. The NIF is generally regarded in nationalist circles as a subversive fund.