IDF Making Amaleksploitation Great Again?

BS"D

Israeli Draft Office: Making Exploitation Holistic Again - Mind, Body & Spirit

»»» Reports on Three Refusenik Girls In Acute Distress Below «««

By Binyomin Feinberg

22 Shvat, Parshas Yisro 5781 °° Feb. 4, '21

°°° Firstly, we join in mourning the indescribably tragic, monumental loss for the entire Jewish People, the passing of the world renowned Torah giant, Rav Meshulum Dovid Soloveichik, OB"M, at 99. The Rosh Yeshiva (as he had been known by many followers) stood as the last remaining son of the Brisker Rov OB"M. In addition to all of his other greatness and accomplishments, the saintly Rosh Yeshiva served as a beacon of truth - and a priceless link to Torah Sages of previous generations - for those fighting to save generations of Jews from the antireligious elements unfortunately dominant in Israel, and from their subversive policies. Those policies against which he stood so resolutely include the (roughly) seven-decade-old female military draft, something - until recently - unheard of within the community of civilized governments.

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On a positive note, thank G-d, we received word of the release of Tadalah bas Mantjavush, a 24-year-old religious Ethiopian woman, freed from Israeli Military Prison Six, on Sunday (https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2021/01/idf-persecuting-epileptic-religious.html, http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/01/idf-persecuting-epileptic-religious.html). Tadalah had been forced into the Army at the age of 18. Not long afterwards, she fled, as she became aware first hand of just how incompatible the military environment is for a Jewish girl, or any other. Draft authorities recently caught her, in the course of an unrelated minor matter. She suffers from epilepsy, a potentially life-threatening condition. Her release comes in the wake of noteworthy efforts to disseminate information about her plight last week. (We thank all of those who participated; most of them will remain nameless.)

However, the Army forcing a young woman suffering from epilepsy to languish in military prison for about two weeks boggles the mind. It also raises multiple questions about both the ends and the means of the military female draft regime in Israel.

"As a dog returns to its own vomit..."

That's not all. Israeli Draft Office officers have been hounding another health-compromised, religious Israeli girl from near Jerusalem, Shuly, about 19. She currently lives under the risk of arrest, in the wake of her heroic choice to comply with the Torah prohibition against enlisting in the military. She remains steadfast in her refusal to submit to an army draft summons. This girl too has noteworthy health issues - impediments that would normally end the conversation about military service - even where religiosity isn't an issue - without further discussion (as some express it in America, "a mike drop"). But not in Israel.

So, in addition to dealing with her personal issues, she also is contending with her official status as an "Arikah" - i.e. her unauthorized absence from military service - for which her presence would be far more of a imposition on the IDF than her current refusal ever could be. Why the pursuit of this young lady, with nothing to offer the military that they should want to have?

And why was the world-renowned Israeli military machine so intent on drafting an epileptic Ethiopian girl? Granted, such a conscript is - presumably - a "novelty" within the Israeli Army, but not one that would showcase well in, for example, a JNS news blurb. Yes, the Israeli Army likes to kvell over certain types of female soldier "accomplishments," from Israel's all-female tank brigade (no, we did not and could not make this up), a (solitary?) female Islamic soldier, and a really-out-of-place-looking Ethiopian female member of a military flight crew (all reported in JNS). But an EPILEPTIC girl in the Army? That headline won't work well. So, what military officer in their right mind would even allow such a girl to enlist - much less force her against her will, her culture, and medical lucidity?

Does the fearsome Israeli Army seek to assemble an army of medical misfits, with which to encumber themselves - in the process of ostensibly remaining everyready to simultaneously tackle Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, drone swarms, naval attacks, cyberwarfare, Hamas, ISIS, low tech intifada-ism, et. al.? Obviously not.

Readers may recall that, about a year ago, one of the religious advocacy organizations publicized an IDF document delineating a newly restrictive policy in providing psychological exemptions ("Petur Nafshi") from military service. The Army stated that it can make ample accommodations for a broad range of individuals encumbered with psychological issues. Question: why in the world? Is the IDF an offensive military organization, or a long-term healthcare facility network multitasking as a national halfway house?

Moreover, the antireligious Army Establishment has for years [at least since 2012] pursued a policy of drafting Ethiopian Jews, including Ethiopian girls, despite being well aware that that community is known to experience greater likelihood of incompatibility and psychological difficulties in the Army. The Israelis themselves have acknowledged a disproportionate number of Ethiopian Jews in military prison. Worse, such recruits are more prone to suicide, due to the pressure to which they are particularly susceptible, being so at odds with their cultural background. Why the focus on drafting people who are known from the outset to be likely to encounter acute cultural and psychological incompatibilities? In particular, why persecute Ethiopian girls to force them into military service, as if the Army even knows what to do with them?

Precisely what purpose do these clearly incompatible girls serve in the Army? And if the goal is not to draft them, what purpose does their persecution by the Draft Office serve?

The answer seems, at least in part, quite apparent - once we understand why all the OTHER girls are needed: http://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/02/creep-state.html.

Even girls who would serve no viable military PURPOSES - would serve military °officers° - in ways male soldiers could not (namely, as "Mizron Tzahali," best left untranslated here). Accordingly, any girl the Draft Office [and enablers] could manage to draft would serve their immoral, exploitive purposes. The other girls (those who would resist) would serve as "examples" (canon fodder of sorts), whose suffering would be showcased, with the goal of terrorizing the masses of less steadfast girls into submitting to Draft Office dictates - regardless of Halacha, basic humanity, or even, le'havdil, Israeli law.

Those with healthy skepticism to some of the above may benefit from knowledge that, decades ago, the Israeli Army earned an additional name - from some of its own people: "T'zvah HaPa'lah Le'Yisroel," "Israeli Abortion Forces." Tragically, there's basis for that "internal" branding, as some relatively recent articles illustrate:

1) https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/40-cases-of-rape-reported-in-the-IDF-signifying-rise-in-complaints-561765

2) https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Dramatic-rise-in-number-of-IDF-soldiers-reporting-sexual-assault-572369

3) https://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/12/idf-sees-spike-in-sexual-harassment-complaints-in-2018/

4) https://www.1202.org.il/en/union/info/statistics/arcci-statistics

5) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium.MAGAZINE-israeli-choreographer-takes-on-routine-sexual-harassment-in-idf-1.6717980

6) https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-to-offer-day-after-pills-to-soldiers-570107

7) https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-to-provide-morning-after-pills-in-effort-to-decrease-abortions/

8) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16146146/

9) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-shhh-don-t-tell-evangelical-supporters-of-israel-about-the-country-s-abortion-laws-1.7274968

What's sometimes shocking is how obvious the Draft Offices make it that their pursuit of girls has precious little to do with military interests. This is particularly evident in some of their choices as to whom they choose to pursue.

One particularly outrageous case in point is the plight of Talya bas Chana, 18, a religious Sedardic girl being literally persecuted by the Draft Office. A daughter of divorced parents, with whom she doesn't live, she is homeless, and financially shipwrecked at present, even lacking access to basic health insurance (Kupat Cholim). In other words, she's an easy target for the Draft Office to exploit. Or so they imagined.

Nevertheless, Talya remains steadfast in her refusal to violate the Torah prohibition against women serving in the military. She received two separate draft dates - the most recent being on Dec. 27, '20. Yet, she has maintained her refusal to submit, risking arrest and incarceration in military prison on a daily basis.

Another religious sefardic girl being subjected to "the treatment" is Ester Avigail bas Nilli of Rechovos (who studied in a Chareidi school), not even quite 18 years of age, yet. Like Talya, and many, many other targets of Draft Office pursuit, Ester hails from a family unable to properly fight the government on its own - again, an ostensibly "easy" target. She is an orphan, who's mother recently passed away, leaving 18 children, of which 10 are still at home (B"H, eight are married). Ester, being the oldest of the ten children at home, is needed by her cash-strapped father to help manage the family needs at home. But wait to hear what they're doing her.

Ester made sure to submit her religiosity certification, signed July 21, '20, on time. So how did the Draft Office find a way to target her? Apparently the signature of the Judge on her certificate of religiosity was slightly out of place. Legally, we're informed, that's not a basis to disqualify her documentation or question her religiosity. Nevertheless, the Army sent her a letter, dated Aug. 18th, disqualifying her certification. Due to the Corona shutdowns, and other circumstances beyond her control, she was unable to obtain a "correct" certification in a "timely" manner. However she did submit her re-signed certification by certified mail on Jan. 12, '21.

It was under pretext of aforementioned nonsense that the Army summoned Ester to a "Rayon Dat" (religiosity interview), scheduled for the beginning of February (just a few days ago). She refused to go, inasmuch as she and her father comply with the views of leading Rabbonim prohibiting appearance at any such interview/meeting. As we've explained many times, the Rayon Dat is practically speaking very dangerous, and Halachically speaking extremely problematic. In addition, even from a perspective of Israeli law, le'havdil, it's faulty. It's antireligious ["kefi'ah anti-Datit"] for all of those opposed on religious grounds.* Additionally, for that very reason, it's inherently contradictory as well, by virtue of purportedly establishing religiosity by compelling a girl to violate her own religious principles* [principles generally more foundational by far than whatever legitimate questions any one would have about her religiosity]. In fact, Ester's very refusal to appear at the Rayon Dat this week should - certainly within context - serve to dispel any notion that her religiosity is subject to any question. Thereby, any previously imagined legal basis to summon her to a Rayon Dat would be refuted.

At this juncture, Ester faces a threat of potential arrest as early as Monday, February 15, because, in a summons dated Dec. 6, '20, the Army told Ester that she faces a draft date of that date. (It may be noteworthy that her draft date is scheduled for the week of Parshas Zochor. It's on that following Shabbos that we have the public reading of the Torah portion (in Kee Saitzai, Devarim 25:17-19) requiring every Jew to keep alive the Love of G-d that, by definition, translates into the Torah mandate for unwavering antipathy towards those who embody the age-old war against the Creator Himself, i.e. Amalek.)

[* Even in the event that an individual girl unfortunately succumbs to acute duress (and often confusion) - and, in the end, submits to a Rayon Dat - that doesn't reflect on what the Torah's principles are. Additionally, said government-perpetrated duress doesn't brand the girl as non-religious either.]

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° The inspiring conduct of such young sefardic women demonstrates how much more religious they are than some superficially observant people who pride themselves on being "Chareidi." Unfortunately, the latter include some who don't deem the recent Army escalation of the female draft as a threat to "our frum girls." However, realize that both of these girls are very frum -- no less Chareidi than many who identify as such. Moreover, regardless of labels, their harassment by the Israeli Army Draft Office constitutes and reveals a serious escalation in drafting girls into the military. Girls serving in the Israeli Army is something leading Torah sages declared is Yai'horaig Ve'al Ya'avor, meaning something we're obligated to give up our very lives to avert. And the more we allow them to continue escalating their attack against religious girls, the closer they'll get to "our own." And the more we'll deserve the unprecedented troubles headed our way, R"L.

° It doesn't appear that the Draft Office imagines that they will succeed in drafting these resolute girls. What's apparent is that they seek to make an example of them - by persecuting them - in order to instill terror in the hearts of hundreds of other weaker girls, who are liable to buckle to terror - or mere threat thereof.

However, for that very reason and more, it's our job as fellow Jews to ensure that their exploitive designs not only misfire but backfire. By rallying international support for refusenik girls and women like Talya, Ester and Shuly, we telegraph all others that concerned Jews stand ready to extend a lifeline to them as well. Thereby we can leverage Maitav malice against itself. We need expose the evils inherent in both the means and the ends of exploitive Draft Office techniques. We ought not succumb to discouragement, in the realization that what's in effect tantamount to a human trafficking agency - intelligently exposed - cannot long stand.

From a spiritual perspective, we would benefit from communal introspection into our stance regarding standing up for those who need our intervention the most. As we've touched on previously, perhaps one primary lesson of the threat to the Jewish People posed by the female draft is an understanding of the gravity of our communal abandonment of many of the women outside of our communities who are routinely being subjected to the military draft. This includes the spiritually weak, "ha'Nechesholim acha'rechah," as the Torah at the end of Parshas Kee-Saitzai describes the spiritually deficient stragglers targeted by Amalek (Dev. 25:18). The "Netziv" (Rav Naftoli Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, O.B.M.) there provides an eye-opening insight into a modus operandi operative throughout a range of antireligious edicts afflicting our communities.

Shortly after the historic Exodus from Egypt, Amalek ambushed the spiritually weak among the Jewish People. The Netziv suggests that it was the collaboration of wicked Jews - working in tandem with Amalek in targeting the weaker Jews - that was instrumental in enabling Amalek to victimize those spiritually vulnerable Jews. It appears from the Netziv that those wicked Jewish collaborators had engaged in a selection process, a "Selectziah," separating some Jews from others - rendering Jews deemed less worthy, and thus cannon fodder for Amalek. This phenomenon, also known as the Kantonist mentality, reveals the solution to the current draft crisis, as well as to the Education crisis in NY and NJ, and additional threats facing our communities. We must not succumb to the argument that we need to sacrifice "others" for "our own," even passively. To the contrary, by taking a stand for those outside our own communities, we project a level of altruism that speaks for itself, against our enemies.

Reb Elchonon Wasserman HY"D writes in a somewhat related context (Kovetz He'oros on Yevamos, Aggada 10, beginning), in reference to identifying Spiritual Amalek ("Zera Amalek"), that what the Torah teaches us provides timeless lessons for the ages, down to our own days - "Ma'aseh Avos siman le'banim."

Accordingly, this aforementioned modus operandi - using Jews against other Jews - would be sought out by Gog U'Magog Agenda proponents, as well as by other Amalek-oriented adversaries.

Furthermore, the Jewish spiritual heirs of Amalek (whom Reb Elchonon (ibid., 10:1-6) brands as "Zera Amalek") - including those Jews who brazenly war against G-d and His Torah - would be likely candidates to collaborate with Gog U'Magog in targeting spiritually susceptible Jews - and perhaps all the others as well, G-d forbid.

Interestingly, as noted in a previous post, the Ba'al HaTurim identifies Gog via the numerical value 12 (alluded to in Dev. 31:29), while the 12th blessing of the Amidah prayer is the "Birkas HaMinnim." That is the very blessing added by our Sages to address what the Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer 2:1) categorizes as the foremost need of Mankind, namely the elimination of the dangers posed by the Jewish Epikorsim (roughly translated as "apostates"). Perhaps the position of this vital brachah alludes to the aforementioned link between Gog and Jewish Epikorsim, as per the Netziv's observation of the role of the latter in advancing the agenda of Amalek, embraced by Gog. In any case, that overlap of the "shared values" of Gog, Zera Amalek and Jewish Epikorsim should serve us well in identifying the agenda being advanced by such elements, despite all their pompous pretenses of helping Jewish children and fighting antisemitism.

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"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

-- Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)
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