Will Rabbis Finally Say "No" to the Continued de-Judaising of the IDF?

ט"ו לחודש התשעי תשע"ד

YWN: The IDF May Lose its Finest Combatants
November 11, 2013

Prominent rabbonim shlita in the dati leumi community recently spoken out against new policies in the IDF, primarily, the changing tide towards accommodating females in the military at the expense of religious soldiers and officers. Rabbi Chaim Druckman, who played a pivotal role in establishing today’s military guidelines regarding religious soldiers, is among the more vocal rabbonim, concerned the IDF is rapidly becoming an environment that is incompatible for religious soldiers and officers. For the dati leumi community this would spell disaster as military service is not viewed as a responsibility, but a privilege, at the core of the dati leumi hashkafa.

If Chief of Personnel Branch Major-General Orna Barvibai continues as planned, some prominent religiously right-wing dati leumi rabbonim may instruct their talmidim not to serve while the more liberal dati leumi community will find a way to make it work. This will result in the IDF losing some of its finest combat soldiers and officers as well as causing a major split in the dati leumi community.

The recent liberal dress code for females during phys-ed is one of the red lines along with increased integration of the genders.

(Tip Credit: Tomer Devorah)

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
I appreciate YWN reporting on this, but what they do not realize is that a split in the so called Religious Zionist (datti leumi) movement or "camp" has existed already for quite some time now.

There are the Mamlakhtim, the undying State loyalists like MK Elazar Stern, who had previously served in Gen. Barvibai's current position, and is known for engineering the demise of the Hesdar Yeshivah programs. Barvibai seems to have been handed the baton, to continue the de-Judaising of the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF], apparently taking up the gender-bending, feminist agenda. Mamlakhti rabbis include Shlomo Aviner, Tzvi Tau, Yuval Cherlow, Eli Sedan, and, none other than Chaim Druckman.

Then, there are there are those who are neither blind nor in deep denial regarding the flaws in the Israeli government, and the increasing number of stiroth (conflicts) between its laws and Torah law. Rabbis in this camp are considered to include Dov Lior, the late Avraham Shapira ztz"l, and the late Ya'aqov Yosef ztz"l, among others.

I was pleasantly surprised to read Rabbi Druckmans' concerns here. So, perhaps YWN was correct in pointing out this "split," after all.

We'll see just how far Rabbi Druckman can be pushed.

No doubt this "rift" will be used against those who follow Torah over Israeli, which is often its antithesis. Perhaps this will be a positive thing, bringing the Torah Zionists and the Haredim closer together,...as it should be.