Israel Matzav

IDF to recruit violent kids - exclude right-wing protesters

In a post I made earlier this morning, JPost columnist Caroline Glick noted and I commented:

UNFORTUNATELY, a recent report indicates that perhaps Russo's mission is a mere feint. According to Middle East Newsline, a news service that specializes in coverage of the IDF, Stern recently revised the IDF's guidelines for recruitment. In light of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's intention to expel tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in Judea and Samaria, the IDF no longer believes that soldiers from the national religious camp are trustworthy. So, according to an officer in the Manpower Division quoted in the report, the IDF will now limit the recruitment of religious soldiers. The shortfall will be made up by juvenile delinquents who are currently barred from serving in combat units. [You can imagine what this will do to the quality of officers in the army and to the willingess of religious soldiers to serve as officers. Regardless of their willingness to expel Jews from their homes. CiJ].

Here is the item we were discussing:

The Israeli military plans to significantly revise recruitment policy that would accept youngsters deemed as violent while exclude right-wing protesters.

Military sources said the army's Manpower Division [which is under the command of Elazar Stern. CiJ] has drafted new standards for recruitment, particularly in combat units, in wake of the Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in September 2005. They said the withdrawal has spawned a resistance movement against similar military operations in the West Bank that has been joined by hundreds of Jewish youngsters.

"We are expecting to turn away many people who are deemed unreliable and accept others who need a second chance," a military source said. "It a very controversial decision that even proponents say could backfire."

The sources said the new standards were meant to avoid the prospect that Israeli soldiers would refuse orders to destroy Jewish communities in the West Bank. They said the military would play the key role in the policy of Israel's new government to withdraw from at least 90 percent of the West Bank over the next three years.

So now we're going to be defended by a bunch of punks who 'need a second chance'? (Yes, obviously we are defended by God, but what we have we done to deserve God's helping us, and how will we look in God's eyes if we disdain religious soldiers and give preference to a bunch of punks instead)?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:52 AM