On October 7th we learned not only who our enemies are, but also who we are and what is required of us to survive in this place / Ruben Castro
Good morning to you, my little daughter.
First of all, sorry for the word "little", since you are already an 18 and a half year old woman, but one day you will know the feeling yourself: you will always be my little one.
Soon you are supposed to come home for the weekend vacation and your mother did not sleep at night thinking that there might not be enough groceries in the house for me to cook for you... Between us, this was not the first night this week that she did not close her eyes because of you: she is afraid that very soon you will have to enter one of the zones who provided us with good news.
The fears are difficult to allay, but they can be channeled into small treats, such as picking you up from the train station, so that you don't have to add another half hour of bus travel to the last two weeks you spent in the army, or make sure that you have everything you like - from strawberries, through delicacies to spicy fish, It will be waiting in the fridge.
Your mother will probably pounce on the laundry that she piled up for all those days that sometimes seemed like an eternity, so that they would have time to dry in time.
Some of them - like first year uniforms, will also have to be ironed - and when I look at her impatiently waiting until I clear the kitchen, just to open the ironing board, I remember my mother who used to iron even my second year uniforms (even though I explained to her repeatedly They will be soaked with sweat within five minutes of putting them on, they still smell like home.
I look at her and remember my father, peace be upon him, who, despite my vigorous protests, insisted on polishing my dusty red shoes, reasoning that in my generation they no longer know what it is to polish shoes until they shine (which is true).
I look at the whole house preparing for the return of a young female soldier (like when your brother and sister served before you), although she was not absent for too long - and I can't help but think that while half of the houses in Israel understand exactly what I'm talking about now, half The second don't even know the feeling.
Female fighters in Gaza.
Your mother no longer sleeps for fear that you will soon be near there.
Half of the mothers in Israel know exactly what it means, the other half have no idea what it is/official website, Tel Shalu
worth and worth more
Perhaps the figures will change soon, but as of October 6, the day before the sky fell on us, only about half of Israeli citizens who turned 18 had enlisted.
This crazy situation has to change.
Naturally - and that's perfectly fine - you're not allowed to engage in politics, so I'll try to summarize what's going on for you, just so that if you're tasked with preparing a current affairs review for your teammates, you'll know what's going on.
In the last month, it was clear that the business was headed for an explosion, because the exemption originally intended for 400 yeshiva students and turned into an exemption from recruitment for an entire sector, had to be expressed in legislation.
In other times, when we still dreamed that the era of wars was over (in fact, since the Yom Kippur War, even what was defined in retrospect as a "war", was nothing but an operation that was prolonged, not to mention gone wrong) and that it was possible to be satisfied with an army based on 8200 and an air force, it was still possible to train This moral creep - and then there was a tragic twist in the plot: so it turned out that while the government wants to sentence the regular soldiers to a few more "months on the way out", at the same time as it worsens the burden on the reserve servants, it wants to enshrine in law the evasion of an entire sector.
What do you say?
Even in the most cynical and wretched system in Israel, the politician not named Goldknopf (who declared that he agreed with a committee that there would be no government if the conscription law is not enacted) has not yet been born to think that something like this could pass.
In general, this whole situation in which the exemption for yeshiva recruits grew to monstrous proportions and on the way out of the recruiting office he also met some stupid pacifist leftists, is based on the belief that the IDF mainly relies on routine security tasks, therefore it is not a bad thing if it slowly turns into a professional volunteer army.
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The commander of the commander of your commander, Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
Realized that submitting a law exempting him from conscription at this time would be an indelible stain/Government Press Office
Which Gallant understood
All of this was valid until the day that reminded us who our enemies are, but no less than that - who and what we must be in order to add and survive (an ancient Jewish hobby) in this place.
The Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, who is the commander of your commander's commander - and by virtue of his position was supposed to submit the law, understood that under the circumstances that arose it would be an indelible stain and took action:
no more what in the Ashkenazi-Haredi stream they call "foyle-shtikim" that are presented to the court, A memory of the days when we imprisoned the gentile breakaway and with their help the situation remained intact.
Now they will have to propose a solution that at least sounds fair and reasonable.
It is true that just like the tunnel shafts in Gaza, and being the work of politicians, there is a strong hold on this outline that will leave quite a few loopholes in the form of all kinds of quotas that will not really be met.
And yet, enough of the trouble at the time.
I'm sorry if my skepticism contaminates your naivety (you don't just enlist at the age of 18, before realizing that the world is not black and white), but I already know this system: in the end, he will only find the solution that guarantees his supporters the government.
One thing seems to be possible to guarantee already: no one will be recruited by force.
Although you are a young soldier, still a soldier, you must have already understood the importance of teamwork, badassery and fighting spirit - those elements that cannot be taught in any course, certainly not in a framework that her friends do not want to be a part of.
As someone who nevertheless has a slightly broader perspective than yours, I can tell you that it was this spirit that lifted the IDF out of the subterfuge it found itself in that Saturday, even before a single precision missile made by the United States arrived.
Each outline will include creative solutions for national service for those who feel that they cannot enlist in any way - and will generously reward those who choose full military service / Reuven Castro
There will be no coercion
It is true that the Israeli government in its folly did almost everything possible to waste this great credit, which caused those who had just been released and traveled to all kinds of exotic destinations in the Far East and South America to get on the first plane home, but we will not get into that now - and not only because "politics is forbidden in the army" .
What is important in our case is that no one wants to recruit by force.
Not even for national service, certainly not for the IDF. I assume that those for whom the IDF is not ultra-Orthodox (or alternatively, for those who do not want to be forced to fight against their Palestinian relatives) will be offered an alternative in the form of national service: in the hospitals, in the fire fighting formation, In the rescue organizations, in the education system, in nursing jobs and more.
This will be countered with sanctions related to the denial of budgets from those who evade even the new and easier duty, because that's how people are - you always have to hope that they will do the best, but also prepare for the possibility that they will choose the worst.
It will not be easy, even if it is a blessing: some of those who will have no choice but to serve in some way, will choose the army, which will remain the more significant and rewarding option.
What it means?
That the IDF will have to be prepared not only to take in thousands of ultra-Orthodox (instead of hundreds) already from the upcoming recruitment cycles, but also many more Arab soldiers, for all that this implies. Knowing the IDF, he will find a reasonable lure (after exhausting every other possibility on the way there. ..) and will establish special frameworks that will enable more diverse populations to do military service, even combat.
If the IDF found solutions for outstanding soccer players, it will also find solutions for outstanding Torah students, but only on the condition that they excel/Reuven Castro
Exemption is justified for raising the Torah
It won't happen overnight, of course - but maybe by the day your daughter enlists, for example (they used to say about babies born here that by the time they grow up they won't have to enlist anymore. Unfortunately, we've given up on that hope), there will already be a normative framework within which every candidate for security service , who were not released for physiological or mental reasons, will be obligated for two years of significant national service.
Those who volunteer for combat or for another position in an organization that supports combat, will also have to serve a third year, which will be rewarded with a high salary and other generous benefits.
I won't deceive you: even then there will be all sorts of restrictions that will make it possible to perform a musical act and demand a reward like Pinchas.
what did not you understand?
Ask your new friend who grew up in the settlement to explain the verse to you, although I will warn you in advance that my act of singing in the Midianite princess - and also "in the eyes of Moses and in the eyes of the whole congregation of Israel" (Bamadbar, 25:6), may cause you embarrassment. And yet, at least who who risks losing his life, God forbid, on the battlefield, will not go out knowing that there are dodgers who preferred to kill themselves in a Torah tent.
Little by little there will also be social transformations: for some ultra-Orthodox, for example, the hope that the son will be great in Torah outweighs any other ambition. They will have to get used to this that only those who have a real chance of becoming such, will benefit from an exemption from conscription, or from an easy service path.
If we built such paths for outstanding athletes (for example) or, in contrast - academic paths for those who have a chance to be elite in medicine or engineering, there is no reason why we should not be able to combine in similar paths the The elite of the Torah world.
But come on, sweetie, I've dug enough - after all, all you wanted was to inhale the smell of home, wash the desert dust off you, eat something straight from the pot and get some sleep, before you start finding out who else among your friends "went out".
As far as I'm concerned, With the exception of mandatory attendance for tomorrow's meal, Saturday evening, you may use the next 72 hours in any way possible, from hoarding hours of sleep to hoarding experiences.
Female fighters in the Gaza Strip.
No proposed outline even refers to the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox and Arab women/official website, Tel
Where are the women's organizations?
And yet, a moment before I return to the stove, I must nevertheless ask you for forgiveness for my complete failure as a citizen: in no outline of one service or another, there is not a single one that includes compulsory service for women.
I am not talking only about military service, but also about civil service.
Already today, not only ultra-Orthodox girls are exempt from service, but also "regular" religious girls who declare to have a religious lifestyle.
Why?
No one knows.
Where are the women's organizations that know how to protest (rightly!) against the fact that there are still positions in the IDF that are not accessible to women, but not against the fact that all the discussions on conscription laws of any kind only deal with men?
Well, well, here I started digging again, so let's summarize the conversation In that we will not be able to solve all the problems associated with inequality at once, and in any case, even if we think we will, there will never be complete equality: there will always be those who will contribute more and those who will look for any way to evade, but you must have already learned that, even though at your age you believe Everything is fixable.
So come on, come home quickly, don't forget to give about half an hour's notice, so that we have enough time to gather with other parents in the parking lot of the train station - and please don't say the word "Aza" near your mother, she won't sleep anyway at night.
Here we are back to the point: half of the mothers in Israel read the last sentence with a bitter smile, while the other half have no idea what I'm talking about.
We have to change this situation.
More on the same topic:
The conscription law
Haredim recruitment
IDF
Defense Minister