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.
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.
***
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...."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"... 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)
....
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/
"... 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)
....
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/
