Making Discrimination Vs. BT's Great Again

BS"D

Israeli Army Draft Office: Making Discrimination Against Newly-Observant Jewish Girls Great Again

by Binyomin Feinberg

5 Menachem Av, 5780 °°  July 26, '20  (Parshas VaEschanon)

In our most recent update on Refusenik girls being persecuted over their compliance with the  Torah prohibitions against submitting to Military Draft directives ( https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/making-bt-baiting-great-again.html ), we reported on the plight of Kasanya Z..  Miss Z. is a recent Ba'alas Teshuva [the Hebrew term for a Jewish girl who rediscovered her Jewish roots], who immigrated to Israel about five years ago.  Even though she has been studying at a religious school, she is being subjected to threats of arrest by the Army for her fidelity to her faith. It make strike some as ironic that her faith is the same one claimed - as a basis for global recognition - by the very government seeking to force her into the notoriously promiscuous, abusive military environment. All leading Torah authorities from across the spectrum prohibit girls from serving in the Israeli military.

The Army insistence on drafting Miss Z. - today, Sunday July 26 - in blatant disregard of her demonstrable religiosity - constitutes persecutory treatment. It's also consistent with the Army Draft Office focus on "easy" female targets, including recent immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, and Ba'alos Teshuva - in this case, both combined.

One legalistic subterfuge - regularly employed by Army draft officers to disguise persecutory tactics against such girls - is to generously offer "opportunities" for the girls to "explain" their positions - at the Draft Office itself, often on their draft date, or at a "Religiosity Interview" ("Rayon Dat", the acute hazards of which we've previously addressed).

Both options are, understandably, generally futile, and risky in the extreme.  These Army "offers" are akin to the fox formally inviting the fish onto the shore, to deliver a presentation of academic arguments as to why the fish deserves not to be eaten - in front of a fox forum - and then self-righteously imputing stubbornness to any fish who refuses such a reasonable, balanced proposal for open dialogue.

Girls who wisely refuse such "offers" to enable their own spiritual demise are then painted as suffering from predicaments of their own creation. Additionally, those selfless volunteers assisting them, available day and night, are sometimes tarred as sacrificing the prospects of saving the girl on the altar of their "extreme" position against the girls accepting these  "offers." 

The real question is: why does anyone ever fall for these entrapment tactics? That is not a simple question to answer. One answer is: due to an irrational phobia that by not enabling their own drafting, they might... get drafted.  Another is that many, many girls are routinely being maladvised by the wrong people - some of whom may be well intentioned, but are misguided - or themselves malinformed. This type of faulty advice is found among even a few frum activists who tend to look at Ba'alos Teshuva, Sefardi girls, etc. as less resolute in withstanding ongoing Army harassment - and what some describe as "terror tactics."

In reality, these (unwittingly condescending) perceptions are often erroneous, and presumptuous. The qualities of mesiras nefesh (self sacrifice), strength of character, persistence, and acumen are found in all types of girls, from all backgrounds. The key to actualize those qualities - often dormant - is to provide any girl who wants help everything she needs to help herself. That includes emotional support, religious chizuk, accurate information, proper guidance, and warm relationships with sincere women more than willing to sacrifice their own needs to help save Jewish girls from the exploitive immorality of the military environment. To make all of this - along with any necessary legal assistance - available to all girls in need, financial supporters play a crucial role as well.  Additionally, properly publicizing the plight of such heroic souls is vital in containing and deterring the military persecution of these girls.

Unfortunately, only a small fraction of such cases come to attention of the public. This is because the Israeli government knows that this war for the souls of Jewish Daughters is being fought not with bullets but with bulletins, with information rather than with ammunition.  As such, the government and Army unrelenting pursue every avenue, trying to ensure that those Refusenik-advocates who fight best also fight least-informed. Thank G-d, those efforts often fail.

The multifaceted approach the government employs in embargoing information about girls being pursued by Maitav would require a book to detail and document. Suffice it for now to observe that whatever cases do come our way are the tip of the iceberg, and reflect a crisis far broader than we can convey here.

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Killing Aliyah, One Girl at a Time:

Furthermore, the Israeli Army is putting this recent Olah (immigrant girl) through a purgatory she never would have experienced in her country of origin, or in practically any country other than the one claiming to be Jewish. This is reminiscent of the well-known critique about the historical Israeli government callousness towards immigrants: "The Israeli government wants Aliyah, not Olim."  For cases like this, one could tweak that: "The government wants Mit'gaysot, not Olot" (they want female recruits, not female immigrants).  Draft Office Persecution of immigrant Ba'alos Teshuva is not only deeply wrong, it presents a formidable Kitrug against Aliyah.

This all raises many questions, a modest sampling of which we humbly submit for consideration by our esteemed readership:

1.  If we want G-d to restore the Jewish People to His Holy Land, what are we waiting for?  Where is the outrage, especially by - or at -  the ostensibly religious political parties and media?

2.  Why is it that the same people who made a ongoing campaign to free one particular incarcerated target of US prosecutorial bias are now enabling the drafting of hundreds, even thousands of girls into the Israeli Army - by their  cover-up of the Israeli draft crisis?  Even if they didn't care about Jewish girls being sexually abused in the Army, and persecuted in their efforts to avoid the Draft, they should have a simple practical interest in reporting real news (as opposed to all the trivia that passes for contemporary journalism) - news that actually makes a difference in saving lives and souls.

3.  Why is it that some people manage to find time to raise tens of thousands of dollars to free dangerous child-molesters from prison (where they belong), by illicitly soliciting funds under the  pretext of "Pidyon Shvuyim" -- but are nowhere to be seen in helping save girls from the abusive military and/or Israeli military prison? In stark contrast, efforts to save these innocent girls are impeccably legitimate, of unquestionably top priority, and also generally cost far less money.

4.  Do we imagine that we can discharge our obligations of mourning over the Churban by partaking of some feel-good inspirational lectures, delicately designed to sidestep any "controversial" observations, even those vital for spiritual lifesaving causes staring us in the face?  How much value do inspirational trips have from the perspective of Heaven, when they serve more as a "potair" than a "mechayev" to do simple, practical things, including - among many other things - saving Jewish teenage girls from being forced into the exploitive, immoral Israeli military - by "our own"?

In truth, it only takes a few good people to save these precious neshomos. But the vast majority of the Torah observant world is intentionally being kept uninformed or malinformed about these Refusenik girls.

We see from the recent outpouring of Divine Wrath around the world that G-d is very angry.  Unfortunately, there are many things that we find in our own communities that would account for the current Charon Af HaShem. Do we imagine that in Heaven our excuses for our overall passivity are tolerated?

I was recently informed that a Monsey Rabbi made the following observation about one lesson which we can imbibe from the Plague of Corona.  We paraphrase  here, humbly presenting it to the esteemed Tzibbur as food for thought:

We know that G-d is the Ultimate Good, and all that He does is pure good. Thus, whenever he gives us a punishment, it's to save us from something even worse.

Several months ago, G-d closed down almost all of our Torah institutions - our Kollelim, Yeshivos, Bais Yaakov schools, Synagogues, etc. If this terrible Decree was to save the Jewish People from something worse, we must ask:

Q:  "What could possibly be worse than closing down all of our institutions?

A:  Leaving them open --

 the way they were...."

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"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

--  Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)

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Update link for the month of Tammuz to check in case we post during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19P6537IM3H-v_UlYsRzeiukw9uBWq3M0GjaoYJhIQUk/edit?usp=sharing