After two-and-a-half years of unceasing war, the IDF is short thousands of combat soldiers. It cannot afford to forgo the service of women, whether on the home front or the front line. It cannot afford to forgo the service of religious soldiers in any combat unit. And yet, extremist rabbis are calling for women to be removed from the IDF, or at the very least reassigned to noncombatant roles.
On the other end of the ideological spectrum is the “Tel Aviv faction,” which demands that religious soldiers’ beliefs be ignored and that mixed service for men and women be imposed even in every tank and in every unit.
Both camps may tear the IDF and Israeli society apart. Extremism must not be allowed to win.
A transformation in the IDF
Since 1995, when Alice Miller petitioned the High Court of Justice to allow her to try out for the air force pilot training program, the IDF has undergone a dramatic transformation in women’s service. The reality of most military roles being closed to women is long gone. Today, the IDF is open to women serving in almost all positions, including in special units, the Armored Corps, and other tactical forces.
This worthy revolution, which gives women full and justified equal opportunity, is not self-evident in the IDF’s diverse landscape. In Home Front Command units, integrating women is generally easier to implement. In tactical and special forces units, the challenge is much greater. Sustained, physically intense service by men and women around the age of 20, involving stints of close and unavoidable contact or shared stays in small, enclosed spaces for days and weeks at a time, is not without challenges.
Even apart from religious concerns, how many men would be pleased to know that their partner was spending long weeks of reserve duty with another man in the intimacy of some remote guard post, and vice versa?
But the deeper challenge lies in the clash between equality at any price and adherence to Jewish law. For observant soldiers, even those accustomed to women’s company in civilian life, serving with women in the same tank or infantry unit can mean a breach, sometimes stark, of halachic boundaries.
This challenge has vexed the IDF and its religious soldiers ever since meaningful integration of women began. As that integration reached combat formations, the challenge intensified. At times, it has resulted in confrontations with rabbis and religious servicemen threatening to refuse to serve in mixed units if the process advanced.
Solving the challenges
The solution the IDF crafted in 2016, through dialogue and cooperation with rabbis and women’s organizations, was the Joint Service Order, an attempt to shape a military space shared by men and women that does not devolve from an asset to a liability. But none of this prevented the latest explosion.
Several days ago, in its ruling in the Kliger case, the High Court elbowed the IDF in the ribs and demanded faster integration of women into the Armored Corps. In response, several rabbis announced that, if this were to happen, they would instruct their students not to serve there. The moderate Tzohar organization joined in, calling on the army and the rabbis to speak out – and was met with a torrent of criticism. Politicians and online influencers attacked it for siding with “benighted” rabbis and daring to oppose the “religion of equality.”
Once again, on the liberal side, too, it became clear that some refuse to acknowledge the other and their values. While every fair-minded jurist – and the court itself – understands that equality is never absolute, they demand equality to the bitter end. Like the extremist rabbis, the “Tel Aviv faction” will not rest until women serve in each and every IDF unit, whatever the cost.
One can only hope that, in this ongoing struggle, too, the IDF and Israel’s security will not fall victim to the extremists. As the past has shown, dialogue and the design of orders and spaces that allow everyone to serve are the solution that will enable women and religious soldiers alike to contribute as much as they can to Israel’s security, without violating their values.
The writer is director-general of the Jewish People Policy Institute and a senior lecturer in law at the Peres Academic Center.