War, Morality, and the Israeli Soldier
Israel, whose military includes significant populations of Druze, Bedouins, and other minority groups, is the only Western nation to draft and assign women to combat roles. Israel’s geographic location and perpetual conflict with its neighbors make compulsory military service an official necessity.
“Being a commander in the army is like being a mother,” said Shira Lawrence, a second lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in an interview with this author. “You’re with your soldiers way more than their parents. You’re responsible for making them transition from civilians to soldiers.”
Lawrence is a marksman instructor at the IDF School for Counter-Terrorism that trains IDF Special Forces and elite units.
“It’s understood that women will play the same role as men,” said Lawrence.
Her job is focused on teaching ethical warfare in order to minimize civilian casualties.
“We ask of our soldiers and demand of our soldiers a high standard,” said Lawrence. “They can’t mess up — we can’t allow for mistakes. It’s part of being a soldier. It’s part of being a part of an army that really values human lives.”
Israeli soldiers are taught ruach tzahal, the spirit of the IDF. Its values stem from a combination of international law, Israel’s law, and the IDF’s traditional moral code.
“The IDF has a very clear and strong and solid ethic code,” said Adi Ben-Haim, a training officer in the Nahal Brigade. “We teach our soldiers this code from the moment they’re recruited for the army.”
But Israel is not fighting a regular military. Much of the time, the enemy isn’t distinguishable from civilians.
“We’re dealing with armies that work out of their homes, so to speak,” said Lawrence. “They will place all of their ammunition in a mosque. It’s just a really difficult issue.”
During the three-week Gaza War that ended in January 2009, Hamas fighters used children as human shields and set up Kassam launching pads at or near more than 100 mosques and hospitals, according to Malam, an Israeli intelligence think tank. A 500-page Malam report on the Gaza War cited IDF and Shin Bet declassified evidence that included videos and prisoner interrogations. The document was released on the heels of the controversial UN-sanctioned Goldstone Report that blasted Israel’s Gaza offensive. The Malam report illustrates the challenges IDF soldiers face.
Sorry, the IDF doesn’t “assign women to combat roles.” Disappointing to see PJ repeat this myth.
Whatever the editorial merits of the article, women do, in fact, serve in full, front-line combat roles in the IDF:
Women represent a significant portion of manpower in the combat units that they serve in; in the Anti-Aircraft Division and in the Artillery Corps, women represent 20 percent of soldiers, 25 percent of soldiers in Search and Rescue units, 10 percent of the Border Police, and the Caracal Battalion – a combat battalion – is made up of 70 percent female soldiers. In addition, this year marked the first year in which women are eligible to serve in the Field Intelligence Corps.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Integration_women_in_IDF-March_2009
Combat Tryouts for Women in the IDF
23 February 2010 , 14:05
On average, half of the women that begin orientation will finish it.
The intense orientation training lasts 24 hours, during which the participants encounter physical and mental difficulties.
Hundreds of women interested in entering IDF combat units are currently participating in tryouts. “The army made a quantum leap with the drafting of women into the tryouts.”
http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/02/2301.htm
In addition to combat and transport pilots, the IAF has female navigators, combat helicopter pilots and Saar helicopter pilots. Advanced Air Force training courses last three years and require soldiers to give an additional nine years of IDF service. Air Force officials said that the three female pilots integrated well into their squadrons.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/IDFfemales.html
Yael Kidron is 21 years old and a combat soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces’ mixed-sex Karakal Battalion, based in the Negev desert. She argues that it is only fair to allow women to take on physically challenging army roles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8518649.stm
You were saying?
It’s not the norm, but it does happen.
The women interviewed in this article are trainers, but women can request combat units, even para-rescue, which is about the most dangerous job you can get.
These articles show the IDF even have Arab females in a combat role:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3527584,00.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138807
Women in the Israeli army are trained to assume combat roles, but there are indeed women who are assigned actual combat missions – in particular, pilots. Women are trained in combat and assume training roles within the army. The lesson is clear, Norden, do not mess with Israeli women.
They’re not front-line infantry, but many do serve combat roles, including helicopter and fighter pilots, and search and rescue. They also do a lot of behind the lines work, including intelligence, operating UAVs, and education.
i’d say “Caracal” is quite front line infantry if i ever saw one…
The IDF most certain does assign women to combat roles. The mixed Caracal unit is one. Oketz is another amazing elite unit, and they are also coed.
what is it? a quote from some unnamed article? a translation from israeli presser? did reut cohen personally interview all these people?
what a strange, disjoined article, except for comedy part about “ruah tzahal”. that was funny.
You are ignorant , cannot handle the truth, the facts of what’s going in the world. in israel. A tiny only democratic country in the Middle East surrounded by Islamic jihadist whose aim is to destroy her . Israel msut defend itself and its people. Israel teh only country in teh world who provide medical care, humaniterian help to those who planeed its destruction. This is the truth. Because of you and others like you, with no values, principles, care for human life , islamism , jihadists committing genocides all over the world, not only in Israel, mudering men , women and children .Just this week in Nigeria, Islamists burned Christians houses with the people inside..
what in the world are you ranting about and why do you think i disagree with all these things? oh, let me guess: you can barely understand basic english, and think that anyone who disagrees with *anything* said about israel must be the enemy.
in other words, an idiot.
The quotes are attributed. Can you read?
attributed to who said it, not to who took the quote. can you read?
“Being a commander in the army is like being a mother,” said Shira Lawrence, a second lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in an interview with this author.
In case you didn’t catch that.
“…in an interview with this author.”
Once again- can you read? Journalism isn’t complicated. A journalist the person who either comes up or is assigned a story, interviews sources and writes the article. Apparently people like you, who aren’t really even here to read the article, need that spelled out for you.
“journalism” is many things to many people. did Reut Cohen fly to israel to take these interviews? talked on the phone? send them written quesions?
i’d love to see her answer. wouldn’t you?
also, “compulsory military service is an official necessity” for political and societal reasons, not for military ones. all combat positions – “kravi” – have multiple eager candidates, so they can easily filled by volunteers; the support positions – “jobnicks”
(yes, this american-russian mongrel is an actual word in modern hebrew) – could be filled by hired civilians, and for much less money.
it is, as correctly noted by officers in the article, to create an illusion of equality, and to provide ghetto dwellers with some chance for upward social mobiity.
Actually that word is a 90 year old yiddish term, and many yiddish term have made it into Ivrit
yiddish borrowing from english 90 years ago? not likely…
“yiddish borrowing from english 90 years ago? not likely”
troul, apparently you’ve never encountered the term “boychik”. And apparently you are not aware that were Yiddish speaking people in the US more than 90 years ago.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatiotroll than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Poul, where in the world are you coming from???
Reut Cohen’s article IS strange…to someone who doesn’t come from a DEMOCRATIC BACKGROUND! But you sound like you have a personal agenda towards Reut Cohen! I guess she’s getting under your skin, huh?
Her article isn’t disjoined (maybe you met “disjointed?” Well, it’s not disjointed either).
I WISH the “ruach tzahal” part was funny, but it’s not.
And that’s probably all that’s stopping Israel from going in & flattening Gaza now for all of those missiles that democratically-elected Hamas is once more firing into civilian populations.
You are wrong, too, about Israeli military service not being a necessity.
During wars, almost the whole nation is called up to do service since there is only 1 Jewish state in world, while there are 22 Arab states, plus a lot more Islamic states, Israel can’t afford the luxury of not being ready & that’s probably the main reason that the IDF doesn’t “hire civilians.” The equality that the IDF offers is no illusion; most youngsters grow up real fast upon joining & they then take the many courses offered by the army far more seriously than they took high school.
“where in the world are you coming from???” – last time, Hadera.
any other questions? oh, wait…
“But you sound like you have a personal agenda towards Reut Cohen” – never heard of her before. you sound like you have a personal agenda, though.
“I WISH the “ruach tzahal” part was funny, but it’s not. And that’s probably all that’s stopping Israel from going in & flattening Gaza now for all of those missiles that democratically-elected Hamas is once more firing into civilian populations.”
no, what’s stopping israel from doing it is the general civility of israelis. you sound as if israeli youth was some kind of barbarians until they go through tzahal and transformed into supermoral supermen. this is nice soundbite for the first week of tironut, but we are adults here, ok?
“During wars, almost the whole nation is called up to do service since there is only 1 Jewish state in world, while there are 22 Arab states, plus a lot more Islamic states, Israel can’t afford the luxury of not being ready & that’s probably the main reason that the IDF doesn’t “hire civilians.”” – ok, this is the only rational point in your diatribe, and deserves a detailed answer. i doubt the jobnicks are needed much more in the case of war, it’s combat units that’s mobilized. are you saying that in the case of war the warehouse floors will need to be cleaned 10 times more often? any war israel may find itself in will be over before any non-combat reservist will even know what to do. but that’s my personal opinion that doesn’t change anything.
what is YOUR point bored poul from hadera? unless you actually have something to say-go and get a life! Talia from rishon, tembel!
The IDF assigns women to combat roles, including nowadays even pilots.
There are a lot of individual stories touched on in this article. If they were properly “sourced” and developed, any one of these stories could have contributed to a solid defense of the IDF as a humane army, working under difficult circumstances. But I agree with comment #2. This article is disjointed. It’s also built around subjective statements from sources with no credibility to speak of. This means that the great mass of “undecideds” (who stand a chance of being educated about Israel and its defense needs/policies) learn nothing useful here. Worse, the even greater mass of people who reflexively disbelieve any statement about Israel’s commitment to morality in the military can look at this article, and laugh it off as propaganda.
The writer’s heart is in the right place. But the PJM editorial staff was out to lunch on this one.
Dear Sandy,
Write a better article for PJM yourself. Each piece of information in the article is true enough to be counted as truth. As Poul points out in comment 3, some things are illusions. Opportunity in the IDF is an illusion for those who to come to the task already embittered. For those who maintain some sense of optimism, the IDF service is an opportunity. It provides experiences that aid its members later in life as can be seen in the amount of entrepreneurial spirit that pervades Israel’s daily life. No doubt Poul would find something wrong with that as well, given the bitter quality of his comments.
the only bitterness i have is the stark realization of how bad israeli PR actually is, and how a fake quality of such articles actually hurts rather than helps the israeli cause.
What is so disjoined, Sandy? The piece is pretty clear about the fact that IDF soldiers are speaking on challenges they face. It’s a news article based on interviews with two women who are soldiers and in high positions. Why are you dismissing their experiences?
who took those interviews?
What do you mean who took the interviews? The author. It says that explicitly above and is the very nature of journalism.
Sandy, your unqualified agreement with comment #2 is scary & seems to indicate an agenda you have with Reut’s defense of Israel. I can’t see any other reason for you saying that quoting “a marksman instructor at the IDF School for Counter-Terrorism that trains IDF Special Forces and elite units” has no credibility. Reut also developed and supported the IDF’s care in not hurting the innocent with numerous examples. Your attempts at being more sophisticated than Poul are quite transparent.
you must be the boyfriend…
Anyone who points out you’re trolling the site is the author’s boyfriend?
Fighting an ethical war? Seriously? That’s what’s wrong with their stategy. They are going to be demonized by the left/europe/islam anyway, so they might as well fight a proper war. Make them bleed – make them hurt so their population will demand peace!
If they see gunmen hiding behind children – mow them all down. A woman with a bomb – put her in a field and detonate her! Arms in a mosque? Blow it up!
The arabs are masters at propaganda – make the propaganda a reality otherwise they will whittle Israel down into nothing.
There is one problem with what you describe all be it true. What is the effect on the man who is pulling the trigger mowing down women and children. The main reason this soldier is in the field and willing to die if necessary is that his family including women and children are being protected. Killing innocent women and children will create a moral dilemma which that man will carry the rest of his life. In effect, it kills the killer, not with a bullet but with his own deeds. The emotions of the post war individual are forever effected. It is still better to take casualties and keep the moral high ground no matter how tempting the other course. In essence, f**k the world and how it thinks about us. We are still Jews and we know what it right. That’s the way most of us live, we can’t and shouldn’t ever change that.
Of course it affects the soldier pulling the trigger (I won’t say killer because they are not. Soldiering is held to a differnt standard than a civilian). That is why they must do it – to make it so terrible that it is centuries before the memory fades and the enemy thinks war is ok and livable again. Look how long the Crusades kept the muslims away from Europe.
There is a difference because of moral high ground. It has nothing to do with “them”, it has everything to do with us. In WWII when St. Petersburg (Leningrad) was surrounded and starved, they turned to cannibalism. Our people in the concentration camps starved to death but didn’t do that. We separate ourselves. I have to admit the concept of genocide is tempting especially after the murder of our children in targeted attacks. Everyone thinks of it. However, no matter how badly our enemies paint us with lies, people of the world see them as lies, if not right away….later. Make those lies into facts and it will make a gigantic difference. Should we ever lose to our enemies, we have the Samson option. If we have no tomorrow, our enemies will not have one either. One bomb can kill 80% of the Egyptian population. Most of the Arab and Persian populations are urbanized and totally vulnerable. We don’t pull the trigger just because we can. We do it only if we have to.
I saw a documentary film a couple of years ago called “Flipping Out”. It is about troubled former IDF young men who go to India to get away from their country for a while. Soldiers always have a difficult life when violence, however slow motion and muted, is involved.
It seems the slow motion war surrounding the problematic decision by Israel to hold on to the West Bank is one that particularly troubles a democracy because morality lies at the heart of a democracy in a way a culture willing to let itself be ruled by dictators does not.
The West Bank of the Jordan River is really Judea & Samaria, the heartland of the Biblical homeland of the Jews that was captured by Israel when Jordan attacked in the 1967 War. It would be FAR more problematic historically & militarily to give that land to the Arabs who attacked from it.
that decision was made by rabin in 1993, and is irreversible; everything else we see is the fallout from it. it was a bad decision, and i am sure he’d regret it if he lived to see the fallout, but it cannot be undone; not at least without arabs starting another major land war against israel, and how likely is that?
How likely is that? Is water wet?
One can always tell when the trolls feel threatened.
First ‘poul’ says the quotes are without attribution, but when this is shown to be an error on HIS part, he then abruptly alters his demands, and now wants to know HOW the interviews were conducted – by phone, in person, through Skype, wet-wired brain-to-brain neural networks, etc.
It is a transparent attempt to undermine the substance of the article through the weak implication that the interviews are in some way unreliable; however it is notable that this individual is not trolling the rest of the articles at PJM, demanding to know who conducted those interviews, and by what means.
No, most people would NOT like to know how the interviews were conducted, as that information is utterly irrelevant to the substance of the article. Furthermore, we are not interested in literary criticism from people who have proven incapable of using capital letters in sentences.
Finally, we can feel the sincerity oozing from each of your venomous comments, and we are all so very impressed by how deeply concerned you are that articles such as this hurt Israel, rather than helping her. We can tell by the fact that you have said nothing in Israel’s defense, and worked so hard to undermine this article, that you only have Israel’s welfare at heart, and we are sure any future commentary from you will be devoted to improving Israel’s PR image, that being your greatest concern.
I am confused by Poul’s pronouncements. Perhaps the mixed reviews inclining toward the negative he is receiving here is based on the “vibes” he is transmitting in the quality of his composition. Everyone cannot be absolutely mistaken, Poul. I am sorry if I misunderstood your motives; I am not sorry if I did not misunderstand.
The Israeli only hope- IDF become the focus of pretensions from the whole World including the World Jewry. The anti-Israel pressure create Stocholm Syndromed Jews permanently.Long live IDF!