IDF Female Draft Updates

 BS"D 

https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/08/making-saving-souls-great-again.html

Making Saving Souls ("Hatzolas Nefashos") Great Again

22 Av, 5780 °°  Aug. 12, '20  (parshas Re'aih)

By Binyomin Feinberg

The latest breaking news from Israel regarding the female military draft is mixed.

1.  Firstly, multiple girls encountering serious problems with the Israeli Army Draft Office are, B"H (thank G-d), currently being assisted by "Chomosaich" volunteers. This group includes girls whose scheduled draft-dates are rapidly approaching.  It must be emphasized that these are girls whom volunteers have encountered prior to any arrest. However, tragically, there are numerous girls languishing in Israeli military prisons to whom we lack access, and about whom we have little if any information at the moment. That situation must change if these girls are to obtain the guidance they need to secure their rights and their freedom. If non-Jews would be mistreating our sisters even one thousandth as much as Jews are doing so in the Israeli military, and to a lesser extent in the military prison system, there would be an international uproar.

2.  One girl currently receiving guidance, Cheiyn A., an 18 year-old from a national-religious background, initially applied properly for a religious exemption.  However, subsequently, in the midst of the uncertainty pervasive during Coronavirus shutdown, she was duped into enlisting into the Army.  Thus, on Sunday, May 24, '20 (1 Sivan), between about 12 and 1pm, she signed up to enlist in the Army at the Be'er Sheva Draft Office, thinking that she would be able to serve on an ostensibly all-female base. The Army officer who took her signature, to whom we'll refer as "A.," waited until after Cheiyn signed. After Cheiyn signed, A. notified her, post facto, that she just signed away her own right to secure a religious exemption from military service in the future. Cheiyn claims she had been previously unaware of that  important fact. Thus, her volunteer spirit was met "in kind" with a rude awakening as to whom she was dealing with. [The officer involved, A., was reportedly a female approximately 21 years of age, of a height of approximately 160 cm, with slightly dark complexion and long black hair, and apparently of Yemenite lineage.]  

It should also be noted that even girls in ostensibly "all-female" military environments are by no means totally protected from inappropriate behavior and interaction of the genders.

3.  Subsequently, B"H, Cheiyn did reapply for her religious exemption, obtaining another religiosity verification affidavit and sending it in to Maitav. However, as of our most recent information, her efforts have not yet borne fruit. Her draft-date R"L has been set for August 18, next Tuesday, at which point arrest and incarceration in military prison is a spectre many such girls face.  However, awareness of her plight in the Diaspora plays very much in her favor.

4.  Secondly, the Chareidi publication "HaPeles" recently publicized a report by Chagai Amit in the "Di Marker" regarding a recent Israeli Army initiative to expand National, Civilian ("Sheirut Ezrachi"), and Military Service to include every Israeli boy and girl, including religious and Chareidi girls and women - for a service period of between one and three years. Government "benefits," of course, would be provided. Those benefits would apparently help reduce the intensity of opposition from certain sectors.

The incremental steps the Army has taken over the past several years to draft increasing numbers of girls, especially religious ones, indicate that such a broad initiative would place many more religious girls in grave danger of mandatory military and "semi-military" service, in the long and intermediate term, if not in the short term.

Furthermore, a universally applicable public-service law that would include girls would also reveal one of the fundamental flaws in the approach of allowing more vulnerable youth to be drafted without resistance from the religious political parties - in order to secure protection for their own cliques ("our own girls") from the Draft Office. That approach has been taken by some in the Chareidi political milieu in recent years, facilitating this radical expansion. That's because capitulation to Maitav incrementalism is tantamount to handing the Army a blank check, albeit via a post-dated one.  By broadcasting that some lives don't matter as much as others, it's just a matter of time before the Divide & Conquer approach runs its course. Simply put, it's ultimately self-destruction, albeit in comfortable installments. Silencing the ongoing incremental encroachment of the Army in drafting "easy targets" - including "periphery" girls - ultimately enabled the Israeli government to get to this point.  Even if the various religious communities would somehow figuratively dodge the bullet this time, religious Jewry has been communally put on defense, making it far harder to shift the battle lines to fending off an ever-encroaching Draft Office.

5.  This ominous policy shift bears an eerie resemblance to a similar but more constrained movement in the US, spearheaded by an 11- member "Heck Commission," to promote a similar, three-track national /civilian /military service initiative for American youth - starting, however, on a volunteer basis. Is there a coordinated transatlantic effort afoot?

For those interested in further research, the Center for Military Readiness (www.cmrlink.org) is one American organization that follows these issues, with an eye towards the moral degradation of the US military, including the misapplication of women's equality to the military milieu.

5.  Thirdly, over the past several weeks, many religious girls have been ordered to appear for religiosity interviews/ interrogations, just because they studied in non-religious schools, for whatever reasons (including lack of religious venues that meet their specifications).

6.  According to Chomosaich volunteers, and an attorney working with some of these girls,  the Draft Office is now rejecting the entreaties of these girls even when accompanied with documentation establishing their religiosity, including letters of known Rabbis, and even if formally submitted via legal counsel. This documentation is being sent on top of the "Tatzhir Dat" affidavit these girls normally submit, after attesting to meeting legal religiosity requirements on penalty of purgery (generally before a Rabbanut court).

7.  As we've reported previously, once the Army Draft Office (operating under "Maitav") receives the Tatzhir Dat, the girl is legally entitled to an automatic military service exemption - unless the Army has legitimate basis to question her religiosity. Merely studying in a non-religious school fails to meet that criteria; many religious girls study in nonreligious schools (although that's increasingly hazardous, for multiple reasons, one demonstrated by this recent Army trend). Thus, Army policy is inconsistent with it's own regulations in summoning these girls for a Rayon Dat, and holding their exemptions hostage to compel them to comply. 

8.  Moreover, this legally- and ethically-compromised manipulation of girls is not a means of objective fact-finding. Rather, the Rayon Dat often serves as a means of duping, convincing, intimidating or terrorizing girls (usually teenagers below 18) into enlisting in the Army. Again, these girls, sometimes not even 17, are expected to withstand - while alone and unable to communicate with the outside world - honed interrogation techniques, employed by trained military officers, seeking to draft every suitable girl possible.

9. This latest Army effort to enlist even more religious girls also raises the question: why is it that antireligious elements vocally complain about religious Israelis failing to pursue quality secular education - but tolerate [and perhaps encourage] Draft Office discrimination against religious girls who do exactly that? That inconsistency conveys the impression that the Draft Office is  exploiting secular educational institutions, seeking a pretext to rob religious girls - by all means feasible - of their legal rights to avoid the exploitive, morally corrosive military environment.

10.  Interestingly, in an interview in Misphacha Magazine (of the week of Va'Eschanon), outgoing Israeli United Nations Ambassador Danny Dannon indicated that Israel would benefit by adopting the American Jewish approach to Jewish Education, in teaching "Jewish traditions," "traditions" which - he acknowledged - Israeli schools - outside of religious schools - fail to teach. This acknowledgement by a high level Netanyahu official stands in contrast to the actual Israeli government policy of robbing successive generations of Israeli children of our priceless and timeless Torah heritage. In regards to our topic, this intentionally dumbing down of millions of Jewish children hands Maitav a yearly yield of thousands of more conscripts - teenage girls "not religious enough" to merit protection from being forced into the institution whose leadership unfortunately grants it the distinction of being the largest open human-trafficking network in the Middle East.

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May we merit to transform the multitude of challenges we face into fruitful opportunities to advance the true benefit of all, including nonreligious girls as well, whose ongoing mistreatment in the Army should never be ignored or forgotten.

~~~
"... 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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