Anti-Religion in IDF

Anti-Religion in IDF – the Fight Against Religion (and Hashem) by Secularists in the IDF Hierarcy

[ME: So, does this mean the Rabbis are correct in not letting their Yeshiva Students enlist in the IDF? But what about those who seek to join, and want to be a part of defending (on the ground) Israel? I believe that the fight must go on to bring Torah values to all segments of Israeli life.]

Rabbi Yigal Levinstein is a well-known name in Israel’s dati leumi community, a co-founder of the first mechina yeshiva, in Yishuv Eli, over a quarter of a century ago. Standing at the helm of Yeshivat Bnei David along with Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Eli Sadan, Levinstein is also a colonel in the IDF reserves. Being a veteran IDF officer and having dealings with the IDF on a regular basis over the past 25+ years, Rav Levinstein has a finely tuned handle on realities faced day-to-day by dati leumi soldiers and officers. He regularly contacts the high-ranking command of the IDF in dealings with the yeshiva and the thousands of Bnei David graduates, many serving in military’s chain of command.

During an assembly in Yerushalayim last week attended by many prominent leading rabbonim in the dati leumi community in Eretz Yisrael and abroad, Rabbi Levinstein was among the keynote speakers. He spoke of the true agenda of IDF Chief Education Officer Brigadier-General Avner Paz-Tzuk, who is working with tenacity to destroy the IDF Rabbinate while infusing his secular ideology  as a replacement.

Levinstein addressed the growing problem of female combatants alongside male soldiers, from both a halachic perspective and from the perspective that today, a soldier cannot necessarily rely on the soldier at his side.

In his address to the rabbonim, Rabbi Levinstein mentions Paz-Tzuk by name, stating that the Education Corps is doing everything in its power to limit the authority and impact of the IDF, pushing its agenda of recognizing Reform Jewry, women combatants and anything and everything else that is anti-Torah. He explains the attitude in the IDF today is “We love your motivation but we don’t tolerate your religion”.

He explains that was the reason the Jewish Consciousness Unit was taken from the IDF Rabbinate and placed under the Education Corps. Clearly, this move was endorsed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott who appears pleased with the sharp anti-religious turn taken by Israel’s army.

Today, soldiers are fighting for permission not to shave their beards and are being ousted from officers training for refusing to listen to women vocalists.
Levinstein adds “they are scared to open their mouths for they understand if they do, they are marked forever” in his reference to officers speaking about Yiddishkheit and religious beliefs. One premier example is Brigadier-General Ofir Winter, who by the way is a graduate of Bnei David, a decorated officer that has been racked over the coals by Paz-Tzuk and those who support him to make certain Winter and those like him will never reach the General Staff or chas v’sholom be considered for the position of Chief of Staff.

Levinstein also draws an example from the IDF “Witnesses in Uniform”  program, a program in which officers in uniform visit Auschwitz. He laments that while in the past such visits were intended for the leadership of the IDF never to forget the atrocities of the Shoah, today, under the leadership of the IDF Education Corps, they are told to look at what the Nazis have done and to make sure “we do not become like them in our activities throughout Yehuda and Shomron vis-à-vis Palestinians”. He laments that “Palestinians speakers” are now called in to address soldiers to explain their point of view as part of the education program, seeking to influence them to become sympathetic to a left-wing agenda.

Another example is the air force’s pilots course, which took cadets to a to’eva club in Tel Aviv to paint the location as a ‘chessed’. One religious cadet refused, explaining this has nothing to do with pilots training. Levinstein explains he contacted the chief education officer to confirm this, and to his dismay, this is the case as “pluralism is the new flagship of the Education Corps and he thinks the air force program is good and necessary” stated Levinstein.

Today the IDF he explains is willing to forgo on the “extremist soldiers for normal soldiers” making reference to the mechina soldiers who have become the backbone of the IDF fighting force. However, today, with officers like Winter moving up the ranks, those loyal to Torah and Eretz Yisrael, the secularists are fighting for survival and are doing everything possible to keep the dati leumi officers from becoming the future leaders of the military.


See more at: The Real IDF Agenda of Religious Soldiers




UPDATE: MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) –"It's interesting what the knights of democracy and free expression, who now justify the IDF's silencing and persecution of Rabbi Levinstein (and the entire Eli academy), are saying to themselves," he wrote on Twitter.

"Why can the IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, who compared us to Nazis, continue in his position and Rabbi Levinstein can't?! This is hypocrisy at its best."
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This post was prepared several days ago, but due to publishing delays (over 20 hours to see my posts on other bloggers’ blogrolls causing time gaps between news posts and dates they are published) and other matters it is being published now. This should be viewed as a companion piece to Devash’s Rabid Dogs have been turned loose.