The establishment of the haredi units in the IDF's Nahal Brigade sparked a debate within the ultra-Orthodox sector. At the time, it was argued that the IDF was starting out by doing everything possible to accommodate us in order to draft haredim, but when haredi enlistment became the norm, the accommodations would be removed and we would witness the runaway train of anti-religiosity running full-force into our youth. On the other hand, those who supported the project argued that the military was the best place for those young haredim who would join up. The recent controversy over women serving in combat roles has brought me back to the discussion. As I understand it, we are watching a very strange show in which the decision makers in the military and security establishment are trying to expand women's service and force IDF soldiers to go against the Jewish and religious values on which the state was founded, and cynically exploiting military discipline to do so. A military must operate according to orders. There is no democracy in the military and that is the way it should be, but the moment the defense minister takes the liberty of deciding on matters that are above the IDF and have to do with national identity, he steers us toward a head-on collision and prompts and uprising, and who knows how it will end? A haredi youth vacillating about whether to enlist, who looks on from the side at the unchecked diatribe from Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, who taught generations of religious combat soldiers, says to himself, "Why do I need this headache-" If the IDF treats the national religious sector -- the most faithful to the army, with the highest enlistment rate in the country -- this way, trampling its values without any attempt at a dialogue or debate, what will it do to me? Levinstein's outcry is aimed at the upper echelon of the IDF, which has begun implementing an unacceptable norm of men and women serving together to no operational purpose, a norm that creates unnecessary tension. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once hosted a dinner for former Romanian President Ion Iliescu. I was present, along with other government ministers. Iliescu surprised me by saying he saw in Israel the chosen people, simply because there was no reasonable explanation for the country's meteoric success. I thought at the time that if an Israeli official had made the same remark, it would be branded as racist, but when uttered by a foreign leader, it should have woken us up. He went on to say that "what has protected you throughout history is the Bible." It would be nice to think that these compliments were intended to pat us on the back and place us above the rest of the human race. But they weren't. The remark expressed the principle that imposes a different set of values and a special responsibility upon us, one that is based on the values of the Jewish identity. On the surface, it would appear that the matter of the evolving Jewish identity is the subject of deep dispute. Can it be resolved through a military order? Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman thinks so; I'm certain it can't. Therefore, I have reached out to the prime minister and asked him to intervene in the matter that is placing a growing schism between the world of the Torah and our precious army. I am happy that he promised he would take action, and welcome it. Debate is appropriate, and every matter is worthy of being discussed, but there is no place for brutal steamrolling. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit was right in preventing Lieberman from calling Levinstein in for a hearing. There is, however, a place to summon religious Zionist rabbis, talk with them, hear their positions, and then decide.
Eli Yishai is a former Knesset member for the Shas party and a former government minister.
