Last Friday, Israel Hayom's Hebrew edition reported that the IDF team responsible for testing the integration of female soldiers into combat role recommended that the chief of staff open the Israeli Air Force's elite 669 search and rescue unit to women, and allow them to take the tests for potential new recruits. According to the report, the first stage will entail a pilot for women only, and only at a later stage will women be integrated into existing units.
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The report also said that the IDF was expected to announce the pilot of another mixed infantry battalion, a decision taken in response to petitions by female soldiers who want the army to allow women to try out for all special units. The IDF was slated to submit a response to that petition by the end of May, this Tuesday, but has received an extension of a week.
As expected, the report made waves on all fronts. "The 'regressives' aren't stopping," chairman of the far-Right Noam party shouted, and official IDF announcements on various platforms presented it as something historic. But the truth is that alongside the joy at the decision, which was the right one, we need to remember the purpose for which the team was originally assembled and what it can be expected to present by Tuesday.
The answer isn't which units it recommends opening to women, but rather which units it decides the military has no choice but to keep closed. So as gratifying and moving the announcement about the elite 669 unit being opened to women is, this step alone is not enough. The law cannot be interpreted in any other way, and the High Court would do well to demand that the military provide satisfactory arguments for every unit in which it does not allow women to serve.
In the first hearing about the petition, all the judges on the panel called the IDF representative's attention to an error in the army's basic starting point, namely that the team would examine which units to open to women. The representative's only reply was that the team had been appointed and its conclusions would be forthcoming. Based on reports this weekend, we shouldn't hold our breaths for any in-depth explanations.
Moreover, the decision to go with a trial rather than opening the unit immediately, allows the IDF to drag its feet and dawdle for its own convenience. There are grounds for this suspicion. When the IDF team summed up its decisions, the chief of staff was supposed to assess the pilot that tested women's service in tanks. At first, it was deemed a success, but then the military decided to freeze it. Then it decided to expand it, and four years after it began, there are still no final decisions. It's hard not to assume that aside form technical and professional questions, the avoidance of an explicit decision on the matter stems from sociopolitical worries, as well, especially over the responses.
In his book, former IAF commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Eliezer Shkedi writes that when he was in charge of the air force, he recommended all IAF units to women, including 669 and the Shaldag commandos. Shkedi was also the one who put effort into integrating Haredi soldiers into important IAF service roles and insisted that the best and brightest from that sector be drafted. This should teach us that aspiring for equality is not a political position, it is simply the right thing to do.
Therefore, along with the understandable excitement about the decision, it's even more important that we ask – why is the unit still closed, and how many other units remain closed to women? Why, in 2022, does the IDF still sort candidates by sex rather than professional qualifications, and how many petitions will it take before the obvious happens?
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