Battle of the sexes in the IDF

I am surprised at the argument put forward by your editorial “Defend IDF’s women” (January 22). One of the most misleading methods of arguing is to adopt the approach that my late mother used to call in Yiddish oder gur oder gur nisht (all or nothing).

On the one side, you correctly applaud and encourage the increase in the participation of women in the IDF by saying that women “often have leadership or technological skills that depend on high intelligence and unique personality traits,” with which I heartily agree. On the other side, “religious soldiers are disproportionately represented in command positions, particularly in combat units” and everything must be done to maintain this motivation.

The disapproval of the rabbis is understandable. For example, anybody who has a son in the Armored Corps will be aware that life inside a tank is conducted within highly limited confines in which several young adults are working. What do you think the probable result would be if a woman were introduced into such a crew?

But why do you then jump in with this oder gur oder gur nisht solution by stating: “Rabbis have no business meddling in the running of the IDF”? There is another way: Women do not have to be paper shufflers or beverage servers, and their talents should be used to the advantage of the IDF – but not in situations that compromise what you say is a disproportional representation of religious soldiers.

Women have proved their value in intelligence units, technological units and the new cyber units. A woman is neither intended nor physiologically designed nor emotionally programmed for combat.

Let us not fall prey to the current surge of misplaced feminism. Instead, we should look for the overall benefit of the cumulative contribution of the wonderful men and women of our IDF. LAURENCE BECKER

Jerusalem