The disciplinary action has sparked a political row, with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the defence ministry, backing the soldiers and saying he would demand answers from the IDF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe soldiers have the full backing of the rabbis and directors of the Hesder Yeshivot Association, who examined the issue thoroughly and with the appropriate caution and stand behind the decision,\u201d the far-right leader of the Religious Zionism party said following the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prayed and hoped with all my heart that the IDF would come to its senses and prevent the need for my intervention, but since that did not happen, as the leader of Religious Zionism, I cannot sit idly by, and I will demand answers from the IDF on the matter,\u201d he\u00a0added.<\/p>\n
Smotrich also criticised the army for confronting soldiers who he said \u201cserve and contribute the most\u201d, arguing that the decision could damage public trust in the IDF.<\/p>\n
Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot<\/a>, who\u00a0now leads\u00a0the Yashar Party and has emerged as the main contender to Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> in next month\u2019s Israeli election, hit out at\u00a0Smotrich, accusing him of encouraging insubordination and of \u201crecklessness\u201d.<\/p>\n “This is not the first time Smotrich has called for insubordination,\u201d Eisenkot\u00a0wrote on X.<\/p>\n “A minister in the defence ministry who promoted draft evasion during wartime and continues, constantly, to invest in dismantling the IDF and work determinedly to harm the command, the IDF’s values, and public trust in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n “Recklessness. There are chasms between Smotrich and the values of the sons and daughters of Religious Zionism \u2013 those who serve, who are dedicated, who love the people and the land,” the former IDF chief of staff added.<\/p>\n The dispute comes amid an increasingly bitter debate over the integration of women into combat roles, particularly among Religious Zionist soldiers.<\/p>\n In June, rabbis from 25 hesder yeshivas \u2013 institutions that combine Torah study with military service \u2013 said they would not allow their students to serve in Armoured Corps units because of the integration of female combat soldiers.<\/p>\n The rabbis argued that placing men and women together in tanks could harm combat capability and conflict with religious standards concerning modesty and physical contact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The disciplinary action has sparked a political row, with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[2961,423,37,46423],"class_list":["post-272672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-courts","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-religious-zionism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117195256854767665","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}