Betrayal in the IDF?

This is a story about three soldiers--Benny Gantz, Orna Barbivai and Eran Niv. You may not know them. But you should know who they are because they help run—and could ruin—the IDF.

Our story starts in January 2011 with two unrelated events. The first was a decision by Israel’s Cabinet to increase dramatically IDF recruitment of ultra-religious (Haredi) youth. They had two reasons for that decision. First, IDF recruitment was dropping; and second, the army had reported that, with proper accommodation, ultra-religious—and other religious—youth would indeed enlist. That accommodation included time for daily Torah study and prayer, special attention to dietary requirements and reduced exposure to women. These accommodations had been designed specifically for the Haredi, but everyone understood that when the needs of all religious soldiers were met, morale and recruitment rose. The Cabinet’s decision was clear: accommodate the religious, recruit, build the IDF.

The second event that affects our story was a report in Haaretz,  “A wise move”, (Asher Pfeffer, January 7, 2011).  This essay introduced us to Colonel Eran Niv, who had been appointed in 2010 to Command the Officer training school, Bahad 1. The report praised Niv as a leader who promoted a ‘return’ to secular values in the army.

The next month—and unrelated to Colonel Niv—Lt. General  Benny Gantz became Chief of General Staff (COS), Israel’s top military officer. In May, Gantz promoted Orna Barbivai and appointed her Director of IDF Manpower. At the time of their appointments, nothing was reported about the attitudes of Gantz and Barbivai towards the religious in the IDF.

By the beginning of June, 2011, the players were in place--Gantz, Barbavai and Niv. Our story was ready to begin:

-July 2011: a report commissioned by the Advisor to the Chief of Staff on Women’s Affairs concluded that, “soldiers who refuse to hear women sing out of Halakhic [religious] considerations should not serve as officers in the IDF.”

-September, 2011: In a decision that broke a long-standing agreement between the IDF and Israel’s religious communities, Training Commander Eran Niv ordered nine religious officer-training-cadets expelled from their training program. The agreement in question had stipulated that soldiers could quietly leave a military ceremony when a woman sang --if hearing a woman sing was against their religious belief. When these nine cadets refused to stay at a ceremony where a woman sang (specifically because of their belief), Colonel Niv ordered them expelled. Five of these soldiers were readmitted after they had officially ‘apologized’.

 -November, 2011: after Rabbis had objected to the expulsions, General Gantz spoke of the ‘victims’ of this incident. He did not mean the expelled soldiers. He meant singing women.

-A report appeared that General Gantz had given General Barbivai the official task of “integrating females with religious male soldiers in the same unit”. Such integration had been specifically prohibited by agreement between the IDF and Israeli religious leaders.

-December, 2011: Major General Barbivai announced that religious soldiers can be excused from ceremonies where women sing only if their commanders allowed; the Jerusalem Post announced, “Barbivai says that commanders’ authority comes before Halacha”  (Jewish religious law).

-January, 2012:  Arutz Sheva reported that Haredi soldiers had been ordered to clean toilets in women’s barracks.  This order, Arutz Sheva reported,  “clearly contradicts the terms of service [not to enter women’s quarters] to which the IDF committed itself when”  recruiting religious soldiers.

-General Gantz announced his final decision about singing women: “no soldier will be allowed to absent himself from official military ceremonies, even if it conflicts with his religious observance.”

-One day later, the IAF (Israel Air Force) Chief Rabbi resigned from a special Haredi-religious soldier program because these anti-religious actions were, he claimed, a “breach of the IDF commitment” to religious soldiers.

-The day after the resignation, MK (Member of Knesset) Moshe Gafni announced that the women-singing ruling by General Gantz “flies directly in the face of previous agreements.”  

-Retired Judge Tzvi Tal, a respected Jurist who had worked on Haredi-IDF enlistment issues, spoke on Voice of Israel radio and said, "I think this matter of women singing is strange. No one forbids women singing. There is a group that thinks that for religious reasons, it must not listen to women singing. So why force it upon them? Why do the 'knights' of freedom of expression and the 'knights' of minority rights want to force this upon a minority?"

- Responding to criticism of IDF treatment of ultra-religious soldiers, the IDF said, “the scope of integrating haredim in the IDF has grown, and the intention is to double their numbers every year…Unique frameworks have been defined for haredi soldiers.”

- Eliyahu Lax, Chairman of the Organization for the Religious Soldier, declared that public promises by the IDF “to make army service more religious-friendly do not materialize on the ground”.

-Approximately one hundred pre-draft age religious-nationalist Yeshiva students signed a petition which declared that, while they believe they should serve in the army, they would not do so if the army acted with hostility towards their religious observance.

-February: two religious (non-haredi) officer-cadets-in-training were expelled from their training program for praying shacharit [morning prayers]. MK Zevulun Orlev called Gantz and Barbivai directly responsible for IDF treatment of religious soldiers.

-Religious soldiers file a formal complaint against Training Commander Eran Niv for hostile treatment of religious officer-cadets.

Today, forty-two per cent of officer-cadets are religious. Their numbers are growing.  Religious enlistment is going up as secular enlistment stagnates. We are close to the day when IDF combat units will have more observant Jews than non-observant Jews. Leaders who create a hostile and hateful environment for religious soldiers not only behave in a manner that is unprofessional (religious belief has nothing to do with fighting competence), their behaviour is against the explicit decisions of their civilian superiors. Remember, the IDF is not a secular club that needs to keep its ranks ‘pure’. It is the living shield that protects Israel. The government has decided to recruit the religious precisely because it knows that it is the religious (not the secular) who volunteer aggressively for combat and elite-combat units. At a time of falling enlistment, the religious keep the IDF strong—if they enlist.  

This story focuses on three soldiers--Gantz, Barbivai and Niv. It is a story of betrayal: military promises to the religious--betrayed; civilian decisions by superiors to accommodate religious soldiers, to build the IDF--betrayed. 

Is this the the military leadership Israel wants?