Rabbi Opposes Tank Pilot and Women in Combat Units, Citing Military Purity and Victory

In an opinion piece, Rabbi Dror Aryeh argues against the tank pilot program and against integrating women into maneuvering combat forces, saying the issue touches on the sanctity of the military camp, IDF values, and battlefield decision-making. He says dozens of heads of yeshivas and preparatory academies have already spoken out clearly against the pilot, in what he describes as broad agreement from religious-Zionist and more hardline rabbinic circles.

Aryeh says their position aligns with hundreds of yeshiva and pre-army academy students who recently sent a letter to the chief of staff warning that they would not serve in the armored corps if the army bowed to what he calls radical feminist organizations and brought women into combat maneuver units. He praises the rabbis and the students for standing firm and says the army should not be allowed to be “destroyed,” because, in his view, the overriding value is victory.

He rejects the IDF spokesman’s wording and the chief of staff’s argument about operational necessity and a people’s army, calling them polished language for surrendering to the High Court and to forces he says are acting against Jewish law and military orders. He then presents several religious and moral objections, including concerns about seclusion between men and women, distraction in combat, sexual harassment, the degradation of women’s dignity, and what he says is the removal of the divine presence from a mixed camp.

Aryeh says the war has shown that “conceptions” must not be allowed to silence clear thinking, and he claims that silence has already cost blood. He frames the current stance by heads of yeshivas and academies as a message for future generations, saying the army has stopped keeping quiet and restored sanity and modesty to the camp. He ends by declaring that a progressive army loses, while a Jewish army wins.