Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held a meeting Tuesday night with rabbis and yeshiva heads from the religious Zionist camp, following the uproar over women’s service in the Armored Corps and the announcement by yeshiva leaders that they would stop sending recruits. Present alongside Zamir were Deputy Chief of Staff Tamir Yadai, Ground Forces Commander Nadav Lotan, Military Advocate General Itai Ofir, Chief Military Rabbi Eyal Karim, and Brig. Gen. Shai Tayeb.
At the start of the meeting, Zamir praised the long-standing role of yeshivas and preparatory academies in education and in encouraging meaningful military service, especially combat service. He said their students had made a decisive contribution and a great sacrifice to the IDF over the years, and even more so during the war, standing among the first ranks of Israel’s fighters. He also briefed the participants on current IDF manpower needs, saying the army still lacks thousands of fighters because of the unprecedented operational challenges and the scale of missions across all combat arenas.
Zamir said one of the foundations for integrating a wide range of populations into service is implementing the “joint service order,” which allows people to serve alongside one another rather than at one another’s expense, while preserving the dignity of all service members. He said he intends to keep strengthening that order and other routine regulations, especially during such a long war. He added that expanding women’s integration into key and combat roles, which he called operationally vital, will continue, and any new frameworks or opened positions will be implemented in full accordance with the joint service order in routine, emergency and wartime conditions, and only within operational needs and professional standards.
The rabbis praised Zamir for leading the IDF through difficult times and achieving important results. They said they would continue educating their students toward meaningful military service as needed, and raised the challenges faced by observant soldiers, stressing that every religious soldier should be able to serve according to his beliefs and values and under the principles of the joint service order. Zamir concluded that Israel has one army, the people’s army, which must contain all its complexities and allow every part of society to serve in a meaningful and contributory way.
