Thursday, June 10, 2021

Protests Vs.IDF Show Us the Way

 

BS"D 


Wave of Chareidi-Led Protests for Religious Female Refuseniks Jailed by Israeli Army Show Us The Way

30 Sivan, 5781 °° Parshas Korach °° June 10, '21 

By Binyomin Feinberg

This Sunday, another religious Israeli Jewish girl was arrested in wake of her refusal to enlist in the Israeli military. [Women serving in the Army is prohibited according to all leading Rabbis, from across the spectrum.]   Today, Thursday, she was released, after serving a five day sentence in Military Prison.

Her name is Loren B., known as Loren bas Miriam. She's a 19-year-old Israeli Bucharian Ba'alas-Teshuva*.  She had been languishing in Israeli Military Prison Ten, the newly constructed, one-thousand-bed jail in the Netanya area. She is to be married shortly, G-d Willing.

(* someone who rediscovered their religious Jewish roots)

In the early afternoon of Sunday June 6, the Israeli Army took Loren B. into custody, possibly after tracking her to the home of her future in-laws, whom she happened to be visiting at the time. While Loren was in their home, Israeli Police arrived with a search warrant, found Loren, and took her into custody. Subsequently she was incarcerated in Military Prison 10. Communication with those incarcerated in that jail is quite difficult.*

*(It appears from initial reports that Israeli Military officers involved may have seriously violated her rights to communication with family members, something perpetrated against other draft-refusenik girls.)

It's important to mention that, until recently, the Israeli Army understood that Bucharian girls simply do not serve in the Army, however religious the government considers them to be. Unfortunately, recently, the Army attitude has been changing, along with other forms of Draft Office escalation. This is yet another result of the silence of the political and media establishment of religious communities, in face of ongoing escalation of Army Draft Office tactics and strategies.

The public reaction was fast and furious. Multiple demonstrations were held on behalf of Loren on Sunday night outside Prison Ten, to encourage and strengthen Miss B. - and others being incarcerated there, who endure the additional emotional deprivation of anonymity. Demonstrations were also held on Monday, including by the Tel HaShomer military base and holding facility where she had a hearing.  Furthermore, yesterday, a large demonstration, with hundreds of attendees, was held, with leading Rabbis speaking.

It's known that the emotional support provided by even a small contingent of the concerned public is vitally needed by these girls. The military prison authorities often try to break their will to resist the dictates of the Army Draft Office. The demonstrations often change that.

These demonstrations teach the world a vital lesson. Even when confronted with a dominant leftwing government, and a fraudulent opposition party (e.g., the many RINOs dominating GOP leadership), individuals can and must band together to intelligently take a stand for the individuals suffering the brunt of government- mandated / perpetrated travesty. Evil cannot long prosper when properly exposed.

This protest-benefit phenomenon is a source of potentially immense merit for protesters, as well as a tremendous obligation incumbent on those able to participate in any manner whatsoever. If our own communities can send tens of thousands to Meron, and if thousands demonstrate against antireligious affronts against religious neighborhoods (e.g. the Light Rail in Yerushalayim), why don't we see a hundred thousand Jews standing up against foundational assaults against the next generation of Jewish mothers, or against LGBT parades? ONLY because corruption within political leadership seeks to keep the large majority of the religious and Chareidi public blinded by ignorance, and, perhaps more so, avidly distracted by battles and issues far less important than those two existential threats (the broad LGBT agenda and the female military draft). The past few days, and their vibrant demonstrations for this one girl - and other unknown incarcerated girls languishing in military prison -  highlight how much more the religious communities would protest these Israeli Army outrages if only properly alerted and guided to do so.
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In previous posts we've addressed some specific details of the legal evolution of this particular case.
However, that's all secondary. Fundamentally, the Israeli government has no right to force any girl or woman into the Army, as we explain below. "Legalizing" the mass-travesty of the female military draft doesn't mitigate the decades-long crime-wave involving the IDF drafting hundreds of thousands of potential Jewish mothers -- it compounds it manifold.

In addition, a primary reason that most of the girls that the Army drafts aren't "religious" enough for the secularist Draft Office mullahs is because of the of the educational brainwashing perpetrated by the Israeli Establishment.  The largely antireligious Israeli Establishment rendered the preponderance of these girls "non-religious" - via their flagrantly anti-Torah [nonreligious/ antireligious] Education System - and then proceeds to force these same girls into their immoral "Mizron Tzahali" military paradigm, on the pretext that they're not religious. "Rotzach'toh ve'Gam yorash'toh."
°°
Another issue is: According to the Army, precisely what avenue is available for a non-observant girl to rediscover her religious Heritage - a heritage intentionally stolen by the pervasive, dominant hedonism and secularism of the antireligious Israeli Establishment -  if she happened to have already started the enlistment process, in compliance with Israeli law?

Invariably, some will argue that the Army Draft Office must ferret out "fakers," who "falsely" claim to be religious. Firstly, even according to the religious Zionism to which the government pretends to pay a veneer of homage, the Israeli government has no right to draft ANY girl into the military - religious or not.

In truth, the very establishment of a religiosity criteria for exempting women from the Israeli Army is an incontrovertible abomination from a Torah standpoint. Additionally, from a pragmatic perspective, the very compromise of allowing the Army to prey on non-religious girls poses the gravest threat facing religious girls now. That's because the Army has been carefully escalating its assault against traditional - and even very religious girls - precisely by exploiting and abusing the religiosity criteria established in the draft law for girls.

Furthermore, it's a travesty of justice even from a secular perspective (Le'hav'dil) to draft any female into the military. One needs to go no further than the February 16, '21 report by Lilach Shoval in "Israel HaYom" (a venue not known for "ultra-Orthodox" tendencies). She writes about the IDF's own report on an alarming jump in reported cases of sexual harassment and abuse in the military over the past year. By what right does any government arrogate the license to force any women into an Army, which by nature subjects innocent women and men to a multitude of hazards of illicit relationships?

Secondly, even assuming for arguments sake the mythical "right" to draft non-religious girls, who precisely is to determine religiosity of a girl?  The antireligious Army Establishment? Secular and secularist draft officers? Self-hating "religious" officers? "Open-Orthodox" types (a-la "Yamina" leftist Naftoli Bennet), who see no incompatibility between their imagined contortion of Judaism and the promiscuous Army environment?

Thirdly, by what right does the Israeli government have to argue against "fakery" in claims of religiosity - while the entire female draft is predicated on one massive fraud after another? These frauds include the myth of the "need for women," while the true goals of the female draft have more to do with immorality than any national security need.*

(* unless, of course, we are unaware of the threat to Israeli national security posed by the apparent deficit of Bucharian girls in the IDF, in which case we apologize to the esteemed human-trafficking professionals of the Israeli Army Draft Office)

Remember, the Brisker Rov OB"M was even more opposed to the drafting of non-religious girls than religious ones, inasmuch as the former were in jeopardy of falling further and faster than the latter.

~~~~~
“Nothing is to be more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.” — John Adams, 1812

° Some of these girls are being or had been blackmailed into submitting to a "Rayon Dat," a Religiosity Interview/ Interrogation. For these girls, that's not only prohibited by Torah Law, and practically hazardous; it's also inherently self-contradictory.  For girls who follow the historically mainstream Rabbinic position that a Rayon Dat is prohibited, the Army forcing them into one (a) constitutes antireligious coercion, and (b) is also legally incoherent - if not downright Orwellian --demanding these girls "demonstrate" their religious values by contravening them.
~~~

°  We ought never forget that the merit of these heroic souls, and those who assist them, is truly incalculable - "Le'fum tza'arah agrah" (Avos 5, end). And for that reason it's all the more incumbent on us to raise awareness to stand by those noshim tzidkaniyos (righteous women), in whose merit so many Jews are very possibly being saved from missos meshunos and untold tzoros.

See futher:


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Background:

The Israeli Army forces its female draft-age citizens to serve in the military. It's been doing so in flagrant violation of Torah law, for about 70 years. All leading Rabbis from across the spectrum prohibit girls and women from enlistment in the military. Leading Rabbis have even deemed refusal to enlist as "Yai'ho'raig v'Al Ya'avor," a prohibition we're obligated to sacrifice our lives to avoid.

The Israeli Army is also known for its flagrantly anti-Torah, exploitive and abusive treatment of women and girls, for decades (e.g. see Sexual Exploitation - Via Escalation of Religiosity-Interrogations: 
(11 Shvat, 5780 °°  Feb. 6, '20)).

~~~
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Some may try to dismiss the facts of the Israeli Army crusade against religious girls by pointing to the almost total public silence of some ostensibly Chareidi political interests within politics and media, who only speak up about the female draft on rare occasions (usually in the wake of an arrest of a girl from their types of social circles). To the extent that their overall silence plays a role in enabling the Israeli Army to continue to draft more and more girls, the following holds true:

"Simply put, thousands of Jewish girls are being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, and otherwise engaging in prohibited immoral acts in the Israeli Army, in great measure due to ostensibly Chareidi political "leaders" enjoying government power and money."

Self-focused "leaders" like these (exemplifying Yechezkel 34) never belonged in the Israeli government to begin with. Perhaps one lesson of the devastating Meron tragedy is that these ostensibly Chareidi MK's must go. The mantra their defenders employ - that the Army isn't targeting "our girls" (namely, girls from families within their social circles) - is antithetical to the Torah. In fact, according to the aforementioned, world-renowned "Brisker Rov" OB"M, the very prioritizing of saving religious girls over non-religious girls is incorrect, inasmuch as non-religious girls are at greater risk in the immoral Army environment than are religious girls (see sefer "Yeled Sha'ashuim," p. 350).

The aforementioned faux-Chareidi stance of silence, enabling the drafting of traditional girls, and religious girls on the social/ political periphery, is reminiscent of the dark era of the Russian Czar, when young, pre-teenage boys were drafted into the Russian Army - for decades at a time. Some wealthy and influential families used to exempt their own boys from this horrific draft by arranging for the boys from poor / peripheral families to be taken away instead. The same dynamic is at play now, but in a more organized manner, led by false leaders in our midst, who seek to vindicate their evil by a transparent veneer of religious rationalization.
°°°
Another Wake-Up Call from BDS?

We all know that G-d isn't happy with our communal stance of overall apathy toward the ongoing drafting and persecution of girls, religious and otherwise, by the Israeli Army. We continue to live our lives and make money as if all is business as usual. Well, apparently it's not business as usual for everyone.

"Hundreds of anti-Israel BDS protesters prevented the unloading of an Israeli container ship from Asia at the Port of Oakland on Friday, with the cooperation of the local longshoremen's union, which refused to unload the vessel. The protest was sponsored and organized by a pro-Palestinian BDS group." (VINnews, June 6)

Is THIS new development about the ongoing economic war being waged internationally against Israeli businesses perhaps a wake-up call on this issue? I really don't know. It may be a wake-up call regarding other issues perhaps more specifically reflected in that BDS situation, as per Rashi on Brachos 5a.  Regardless, the aforementioned communal iniquity in ignoring the plight of all of the Israeli girls languishing in military prison is one that cannot ever be ignored. Further delay in repentance certainly won't gain us Heavenly protection from Divine Retribution. On the other hand, sincere repentance, even by individuals, and even if very limited, has a broad positive impact. May we all merit it soon.
~~~

feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com

"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

--  Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293, writing on Pinchos, and those who follow his lead)
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Previous Posts of Interest:


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For another view, we copy an edited form of a report from "The Sentry," of June 7:

"In the summer of 5773 the government passed a “Hachlatas Memshalah” ["Governmental Decision"- BF] (#638, paragraph 64), which is a form of law, that demands of the Military to increase the enlisting of religious girls. And ever since, the military has tightened its scrutiny when issuing religious exemptions. Sometimes they refuse an exemption based on a microscopic legal snag. Other times they refuse the exemption without any legal basis, betting that many girls won’t have the strength and resources to fight the military’s bureaucracy. While many times, the fallout of this law goes unknown, here is a current story.

On Sunday afternoon, a group of military police descended on the town of Yahud. They were on a mission to the home of a bas Yisroel who was susceptible to the army draft. When they did not find her at home, they continued on their “vital mission” until they found and arrested her. Loren [bas Miriam] is a nineteen year old baalas teshuvah, who is engaged to be married in two weeks. The army has been hounding her for the past while, and now came to arrest her. 

The Ga'avad of Chug Chasam Sofer Rav Yosef Meir Altman shlit"a traveled with a group from Bnei Brak, to stand outside jail #10 and protest the incarceration. Just a few months ago, a chareidi girl from Beitar was arrested at the airport on her way overseas. [BF: The Israeli Army claimed then, apparently quite falsely, that her paperwork to receive an exemption was never filed.]  When protests were quickly held outside the jail, and threats were issued over additional massive protests, she was swiftly released. An officer revealed [what has become obvious to many -BF] that it was the protests that were indeed responsible for the release."

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-sentry/CA%2BLbpguhe-nZE5euXgpBynXsT84ty8jDY1dD1b6YYJwV3jXWrw%40mail.gmail.com.
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