Women and combat

It is most distressing that you have decided to sweep under the carpet the serious problems of women serving as combat soldiers (“Hands off women conscripts,” Editorial August 9).

It is difficult to believe you are not aware of the very real difficulties there are for women and for the army in mixed-gender units, and for women in general who serve as combat soldiers. To ignore these problems because of political correctness or a radical feminist agenda is simply unconscionable.

There is a wide range of literature on the subject, including reports from within the IDF, highlighting the dangers to women’s health in combat roles. There is also the recent report by the state comptroller pinpointing deficiencies in mixed-gender units.

We are not living in Switzerland. We live in a very dangerous neighborhood with heavily armed enemies facing us on all sides.

The IDF simply cannot afford risky experiments that endanger the health of women soldiers, who physically do not have the strength or stamina that male soldiers do. Nor is it correct to lower standards of training to accommodate women, thus putting the readiness of the army at risk. Moreover, it is both unfair and counterproductive to have women serving as officers at the expense of highly motivated and qualified religious soldiers who, for halachic reasons, cannot accept the close intimacy demanded by training in mixed units.

You must know all this, yet you choose to promote combat service for women as a high-priority matter. NAOMI SCHENDOWICH Jerusalem

My day would be incomplete without my daily dose of The

Jerusalem Post. Unfortunately, your editorials seem to be increasingly crafted by writers for Saturday Night Live.

What is the logic in confounding the issues of mixed-gender military units alongside the “insult to women putting their lives on the line in the IDF”? The editorial claims that advocates against mixed-combat units are mocking female conscripts.

The truth is that the issue of mixed-gender combat service is more about relative physical capacity, musculature and endurance. Is the Post advocating for the country’s professional soccer and basketball teams to become mixed-gender? Are Israel’s tennis and Olympic teams denigrating the “bravery and tenacity” of our female athletes by maintaining gender-separate teams?

The next thing we will be reading is that pilots should not be selected upon the basis of the quality of their vision. After all, why insult the thousands of brave young men and women with astigmatism? STEVE M. SOLOMON Efrat