Parshas Beraishis, 25 Tishrei, 5780 °° October 24, '19
By Binyomin Feinberg, Contributor to The Jewish Press*
FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com
* The perspectives and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of The Jewish Press.
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For Giyus Banos updates throughout the week, visit:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dPo1_Y-0u6ry7tLcfF2RbQuEFrIG-BccszjeG9FAdSw/edit?usp=sharing
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Ziva bas Mazal, the religious 19 y/o Ethiopian girl who languished for four weeks in Israeli military prison ( https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/10/making-racism-great-again.html ), was apparently sentenced illegally. Now that Ziva B"H has her own lawyer, courtesy of the Shalheves organization, the facts of the case are becoming clearer.
1. Firstly, we had reported, based on military court documentation of her plea-deal sentence of 31 days for "draft dodging," that she is fully religious, but simply submitted her religious exemption certification late. Apparently, that plea-deal insinuated a lie. Since then, it's been revealed that, in reality, Ziva reportedly sent in her religious verification MONTHS early. It is only the IDF who claimed who they never got it. This same claim has become so common - regularly employed to deny religious girls their legal rights to exemptions from military service - that it's simply lost all credibility. There's no reason why an ostensibly first-rate military cannot ensure that they get their mail.
Furthermore, it is the government that must bear the burden of proof to establish failure to receive what's sent to them. That is because it is the government that intentionally perpetuates a draconian, third-world-style policy of specifically NOT confirming that the exemption applications for religious girls were properly received and processed. That backwards policy invites corruption - and the latter takes up the invitation with alarming frequency, when it comes to religious girls' rights to avoid being forced into the immoral, exploitive IDF environment.
2. Secondly, Ziva's new lawyer just recently obtained the case-file from the government appointed advocate. There is no apparent legal reason for government's denial of a religious exemption in Ziva's case. EVEN IF she would have submitted her documentation late, as the government wants us to imagine, they failed to establish one single reason for denial of her religious exemption. Yes, the report of her interview with Maitav Vice Commander Lotati mentioned that her brothers served in the IDF, as an underhanded wink to the Judge to deny her exemption claim. But legally speaking, Lotati came up empty.
[Additionally, we're informed that, pursuant to current IDF protocol, the very fact that the Army instructed Ziva to appear for an interview indicates that she has the right to an exemption as long as she is religious (again, even if she would have submitted her documentation late).]
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Why is all of this so important? Because not only does it exonerate Ziva and implicate the government in yet another female-draft travesty, it appears in the context of a declared IDF objective to target Ethiopians, particularly the disadvantaged. The term attributed to IDF Manpower head Ornah Barbibai (now a leftist MK) was Ethiopians "in absorption centers" - i.e. easy targets (see aforementioned link). Thus, the pre-existing antireligious agenda of targeting disadvantaged Ethiopian girls is most likely a primary motivation operative behind this gross abuse of power. And it must be emphasized that this is not a Jewish or even a secular agenda, but an antireligious one. Such discrimination against black Jews not only flies in the face of everything Judaism stands for, but also fails to find support among the large majority of non-observant Jews. However, it is well rooted in the elitist mentality of the small number of deeply antireligious mullahs who have dominated Israeli policy-shaping from the establishment of the state.
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As things stand now, Ziva was released from military prison Erev Yom Kippur, where she endured considerable physical hardship. However, she never received the military exemption to which she's entitled. Thus, she had been hounded by the IDF to enlist - or face up to sixty days in military prison, as per the plea-deal into which she had been forced [in the absence of a private lawyer]. In fact, reportedly, one IDF officer verbally threatened Ziva with the bizarre spectre of an entire year in jail over her steadfast refusal to sacrifice her religious and her personal modesty by enlisting.
B"H, as reported by those in regular contact with her, Ziva is withstanding all this pressure, and has repeatedly stated her absolute refusal to enlist in the military, and her willingness to endure yet additional incarceration if need be, insisting on securing her religious exemption. She still has an upcoming enlistment date early next week, after her current temporary extension ends. G-d willing, the efforts of her lawyer will complement the public pressure, and she will receive her full exemption. The question is how much torment her elderly/ ailing parents have to endure until then. In addition, the fact that the family had to endure all of this needless torment throughout the holiest days of the Jewish year speaks volumes of the fortitude of the family, and reveals the callousness and lawlessness of those in positions of power who were complicit in these human rights abuses, actively or passively (see Talmud tractate Shabbos 54b, bottom).
Another point needs to be made here - irrespective of this case. The very notion of allowing nonreligious - or non-Jewish girls to be drafted is anathema. But in the case of Ethiopian girls, the very claim that some are less religious than others should be emphatically rejected as irrelevant to the Israeli draft. That's because it's precisely because of Israeli policies that there is such a phenomenon altogether. In Ethiopia, they were generally all religious, according to the way they understood Judaism. The antireligious elements in Israel help rob some of them of religion - and then draft those they claim aren't religious enough.
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This week, acting Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu just reqested four BILLION dollars for upgrading Israeli missile defense systems against an escalating threat of cruises missiles from Iran. Increasing attention has been given to such threats, including drone swarms overwhelming limited anti-missile batteries, especially in the wake of the Sept. 14th attack on Saudi oilfields (e.g. Defense News (Sept. 26,'19), by Seth Frantzman, https://www.meforum.org/59453/can-air-defense-systems-stop-drone-swarms). Such airborne drone tsunamis could overwhelm air defenses by sheer volume, and wreak havoc on military, medical, power, communications, transportation, fuel, water, and other vital infrastructure.
Nowadays, wars could conceivably be completed in a matter of hours. One figure quoted is that after 20% of a population is eliminated R"L, the populace loses it's will to keep fighting - if they are even given the choice. Contemporary developments in warfare provide insight into statements of Gedolim who've spoken about Milchemes Gog U'Magog lasting only a matter of hours (as alluded to by "Shalosh Sha'os Hoshiah Nah") - even minutes (as quoted from the Vilna Gaon). The spectre of waves of precision-guided missile and drone swarms - making cities deadly target zones R"L - shed new light on predictions of Jews seeking refuge in "Midbar Ha'Amim" immediately prior to the arrival of Moshiach.
Given such existential military threats, why is this "right-wing" government expending needed resources on an antiquated citizen-draft, when the IDF would be more effectively run as a professional army, for far less money, allowing proper funding of genuine and urgent defense needs? The IDF admittedly does not need all those draftees, and even has a surplus, as announced on Galei Tzahal radio several months ago. They actually are contending with the need to figure out how to release thousands of unnecessary servicemen. [This troop surplus applies even to non-religious men; how much more so are girls (especially religious girls) not needed for military reasons.]
In truth, the drafting of all citizens, and especially the women's draft, is not for national security, but rather for social engineering, with all that includes. In the case of the declared IDF objective of targeting religious women for military service (Av 5773), there are additional specific desires of government and military leadership that are operative, none of which have any positive relevance to military readiness or security (ha'maivin yovin).
Moreover, in the current geopolitical environment, we must ask: isn't the irrational insistence on maintaining the "citizens' army" actually coming at the expense of the very national security it's purportedly protecting?
It is in this context that the government has been expending considerable resources - and political capital - to target religious girls for the military, and to persecute righteous Refuseniks who refuse to violate the law of G-d to comply with the laws - or [more often] lawlessness - of men.
