An Arab association will recruit Jewish, Arab volunteers for Sherut Leumi, for the first time ever in Israel. Volunteers will be eligible for same benefits as IDF soldiers
David Regev
Ynetnews.com 05.28.07, 12:07
In an unprecedented decision, Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog certified Sunday the "Association for Social Equality and National Service for Arabs" to recruit Jewish and Arab volunteers for Sherut Leumi (the National Service).
Many of those unable to serve in the Israeli army choose to join Sherut Leumi. Recruits, including Arabs, and religious men and women, volunteer for a two-year service, making them eligible for all the benefits reserved for IDF soldiers.
Nowadays, Sherut Leumi has some 10,000 volunteers in its ranks, 400 of them of Arabs.
The new association's activities were approved after careful examination by the ministry of social affairs.
"This association has a great challenge ahead of it," said Herzog Sunday. "This is an important step in integrating all sectors of Israeli society."
"This is a big opportunity for us to become a real part of Israeli society," said Ataf al-Krenawi, the association's chairman.
The Association stands to enjoy the same license as any of the other recognized volunteers associations, and plans to offer those who join it their choice of placement, be it in hospitals, public facilities etc.
lundi 28 mai 2007
jeudi 3 mai 2007
Yeshiva boys barred from combat units
Religious leaders clash with IDF's Human Resources chief, himself one of Israel's highest ranking religious officers, after army cancels segregated combat units within top brigades. National Union MK urges chief of staff to 'rein in' his officer but Stern unfazed, insists army must integrate all its soldiers
Hanan Greenberg Yedioth Ahranoth Published: 05.03.07, 20:55
Hesder Yeshivas have long since been considered one of the strongest core groups within the IDF. Hesder, or arrangement, is a unique Israeli creation that allows religious young men to pursue Talmudic studies and later serve in the armed forces.
But their contribution is not without preconditions, and they so far have been allowed to serve in homogenous units comprised of only their fellow yeshiva recruits. Now Human Resources Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern, himself one of the army's top religious officers, aims to put an end to the practice.
New orders issued by Stern will bar hesder yeshiva students from joining the Golani and Paratrooper brigades, two of the most popular combat choices for religious recruits. The army will also change the manner in which it accepts hesder students to elite units.
Combat soldier prays (Photo: AP)
Yeshiva educators accused Stern of having a vendetta against the program. Stern has spoken out against homogenous units in the past. The IDF denied the allegations and said that the hesder recruits "have received preferential treatment for many years and from time to time there are changes that stem from the army's changing needs."
'No room for segregation in army'
A senior Human Resources officer said that the original understanding with the hesder yeshivas stipulated that there be a set number of mixed combat units that their students would join, the rest could go to homogenous ones. But the yeshivas demanded that there only be two mixed units, saying that the vast majority of their students only wanted to serve in segregated ones.
The IDF decided in response to cancel all homogenous units in the Golani and Paratrooper brigades since those divisions are in high demand amongst the rest of the army's recruits and there is no need for a hesder unit to fill in the ranks.
"We respect and appreciate the students of the hesder yeshivas and recognize their great contribution to the IDF. If they are willing to serve in mixed units, we will open the Golani and paratrooper divisions to them as well," said the senior officer. "There's a lot of importance to integrating religious and secular soldiers and we must remember that this is a people's army and a melting pot for Israeli society – everyone should work together and there is no reason to have homogenous units."
MK Ariel lashes out at Stern "Rein in Maj. Gen. Stern," wrote National Union-NRP faction chairman MK Uri Ariel to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi on Thursday following the groundbreaking decision.
"Stern's behavior continues to be aggressive and callous, he establishes facts on the ground, provokes unnecessary strife and continues to force his opinions on the general public and the army.
"Stern has forgotten that he is no longer chief education officer and even as such – it is not his role to teach citizens how they should act and what they should think."
In addition to writing Ashkenazi, Ariel has also asked the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the subject in a special meeting.
"Maj. Gen. Stern must be put in his place and allow the recruits to join hesder only units, there is no room for this arrangement to change," said Ariel.
Hanan Greenberg Yedioth Ahranoth Published: 05.03.07, 20:55
Hesder Yeshivas have long since been considered one of the strongest core groups within the IDF. Hesder, or arrangement, is a unique Israeli creation that allows religious young men to pursue Talmudic studies and later serve in the armed forces.
But their contribution is not without preconditions, and they so far have been allowed to serve in homogenous units comprised of only their fellow yeshiva recruits. Now Human Resources Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern, himself one of the army's top religious officers, aims to put an end to the practice.
New orders issued by Stern will bar hesder yeshiva students from joining the Golani and Paratrooper brigades, two of the most popular combat choices for religious recruits. The army will also change the manner in which it accepts hesder students to elite units.
Combat soldier prays (Photo: AP)
Yeshiva educators accused Stern of having a vendetta against the program. Stern has spoken out against homogenous units in the past. The IDF denied the allegations and said that the hesder recruits "have received preferential treatment for many years and from time to time there are changes that stem from the army's changing needs."
'No room for segregation in army'
A senior Human Resources officer said that the original understanding with the hesder yeshivas stipulated that there be a set number of mixed combat units that their students would join, the rest could go to homogenous ones. But the yeshivas demanded that there only be two mixed units, saying that the vast majority of their students only wanted to serve in segregated ones.
The IDF decided in response to cancel all homogenous units in the Golani and Paratrooper brigades since those divisions are in high demand amongst the rest of the army's recruits and there is no need for a hesder unit to fill in the ranks.
"We respect and appreciate the students of the hesder yeshivas and recognize their great contribution to the IDF. If they are willing to serve in mixed units, we will open the Golani and paratrooper divisions to them as well," said the senior officer. "There's a lot of importance to integrating religious and secular soldiers and we must remember that this is a people's army and a melting pot for Israeli society – everyone should work together and there is no reason to have homogenous units."
MK Ariel lashes out at Stern "Rein in Maj. Gen. Stern," wrote National Union-NRP faction chairman MK Uri Ariel to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi on Thursday following the groundbreaking decision.
"Stern's behavior continues to be aggressive and callous, he establishes facts on the ground, provokes unnecessary strife and continues to force his opinions on the general public and the army.
"Stern has forgotten that he is no longer chief education officer and even as such – it is not his role to teach citizens how they should act and what they should think."
In addition to writing Ashkenazi, Ariel has also asked the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the subject in a special meeting.
"Maj. Gen. Stern must be put in his place and allow the recruits to join hesder only units, there is no room for this arrangement to change," said Ariel.
Robert Fisk: Olmert undone by the militia he said he could destroy
The Independent Thursday, 3 May 2007
So it has come to this. All those bodies, all those photographs of dead children - more than 1,400 cadavers (we are not including the 230 or so Hizbollah fighters and the Israeli soldiers who died) - are to be commemorated with the possible resignation of an Israeli prime minister who knew, and who cared, many Israelis suspect, little about war. Yes, Hizbollah provoked last summer's folly by capturing two Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese-Israel border, but Israel's response - so totally out of proportion to the sin - produced another debacle for the Israeli army and, presumably now, for its Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.
Looking back at this terrifying, futile war, with its grotesque ambitions to "destroy" the Iranian-supported Hizbollah militia, it is incredible Mr Olmert did not realise within days that his grandiose demands would founder. Insisting the two captured Israeli soldiers should be released and the militarily powerless Lebanese government should be held responsible for their capture was never going to produce political or military results favourable to Israel. One would have to add that Tzipi Livni's demand for the Prime Mnister's resignation sits oddly with her support for this preposterous war.
A close reading of the interim report of Judge Eliahou Winograd's report on the summer war - to which Mr Olmert himself only granted the title the "Second Lebanon War" a month after it had happened - shows clearly that it was the Israeli army which ran the military, strategic and political campaign. Again and again in Winograd's report it is clear that Mr Olmert and his Defence Minister failed to challenge "in a competent way" (in the commission's devastating phrase) the plans of the Israeli army.
Day after day, for 34 days after 12 July, the Israeli air force systematically destroyed the major infrastructure of Lebanon, repeatedly claiming it was trying to avoid civilian casualties while the world's press watched its aircraft blasting men, women and children to pieces in Lebanon. Israelis, too, were savagely killed in this war by Hizbollah's Iranian-provided missiles. But it only proved the Israeli army, famous in legend and song but not in reality, could not protect their own people. Hizbollah fighters were told by their own leadership that if they would just withstand the air attacks, they could bite the Israeli land forces when they invaded.
And bite they did. In the final 24 hours of the war, 30 Israeli soldiers were killed by Hizbollah fighters and their land offensive, so loudly trumpeted by Mr Olmert, came to an end. During the conflict, a Hizbollah missile almost sank an Israeli corvette - it burnt for 24 hours and was towed back to Haifa before it was able to sink - and struck Israel's top secret military air traffic control centre at Miron. The soldiers captured on the border were never returned - pictures of them, still alive, are flaunted across the border at Israeli troops to this day - and Hizbollah, far from being destroyed, remain as powerful as ever;
And so one of Washington's last "pro-American" cabinets in the Middle East is now threatened by the very militia which Mr Olmert claimed he could destroy.
So it has come to this. All those bodies, all those photographs of dead children - more than 1,400 cadavers (we are not including the 230 or so Hizbollah fighters and the Israeli soldiers who died) - are to be commemorated with the possible resignation of an Israeli prime minister who knew, and who cared, many Israelis suspect, little about war. Yes, Hizbollah provoked last summer's folly by capturing two Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese-Israel border, but Israel's response - so totally out of proportion to the sin - produced another debacle for the Israeli army and, presumably now, for its Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.
Looking back at this terrifying, futile war, with its grotesque ambitions to "destroy" the Iranian-supported Hizbollah militia, it is incredible Mr Olmert did not realise within days that his grandiose demands would founder. Insisting the two captured Israeli soldiers should be released and the militarily powerless Lebanese government should be held responsible for their capture was never going to produce political or military results favourable to Israel. One would have to add that Tzipi Livni's demand for the Prime Mnister's resignation sits oddly with her support for this preposterous war.
A close reading of the interim report of Judge Eliahou Winograd's report on the summer war - to which Mr Olmert himself only granted the title the "Second Lebanon War" a month after it had happened - shows clearly that it was the Israeli army which ran the military, strategic and political campaign. Again and again in Winograd's report it is clear that Mr Olmert and his Defence Minister failed to challenge "in a competent way" (in the commission's devastating phrase) the plans of the Israeli army.
Day after day, for 34 days after 12 July, the Israeli air force systematically destroyed the major infrastructure of Lebanon, repeatedly claiming it was trying to avoid civilian casualties while the world's press watched its aircraft blasting men, women and children to pieces in Lebanon. Israelis, too, were savagely killed in this war by Hizbollah's Iranian-provided missiles. But it only proved the Israeli army, famous in legend and song but not in reality, could not protect their own people. Hizbollah fighters were told by their own leadership that if they would just withstand the air attacks, they could bite the Israeli land forces when they invaded.
And bite they did. In the final 24 hours of the war, 30 Israeli soldiers were killed by Hizbollah fighters and their land offensive, so loudly trumpeted by Mr Olmert, came to an end. During the conflict, a Hizbollah missile almost sank an Israeli corvette - it burnt for 24 hours and was towed back to Haifa before it was able to sink - and struck Israel's top secret military air traffic control centre at Miron. The soldiers captured on the border were never returned - pictures of them, still alive, are flaunted across the border at Israeli troops to this day - and Hizbollah, far from being destroyed, remain as powerful as ever;
And so one of Washington's last "pro-American" cabinets in the Middle East is now threatened by the very militia which Mr Olmert claimed he could destroy.
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)