The "Threat" of "Infiltration"

In the 1950s, the term "infiltrators" referred to the fedayeen, Arab terrorists killing Jewish civilians. It has undergone a rejuvenation as the UPI perceives a threat and, spoon-fed from the most extreme Leftist groups around, presents a prejudicial view, publishing an imbalanced screed with pejorative terminology:

Emerging Threats
Religious groups infiltrate Israeli army

Israel's military, once vaunted as an overwhelmingly secular institution of the Jewish state, is being increasingly penetrated by hard-line religious groups bent on waging a holy war against Arabs, according to critics...An Israeli human-rights group, Yesh Din, said the inflammatory pamphlets contained passages "bordering on racist incitement against the Palestinian people" and could have encouraged soldiers to violate international law. [that reads more like an 'almost']

The pamphlets called for the establishment of Greater Israel, including the occupied West Bank, the Orthodox Jews believe was ordained by God.

...The infiltration of the military by religious zealots has been under way for three decades, and much of the officer corps -- up to 30 percent by some estimates -- now consists of men from religious extremist groups.

Some army units are now entirely [not true ever] made up of religious soldiers, many of them from the settlements in the West Bank.

That has stirred fears that large numbers of soldiers would join the heavily armed settlers, many of them reservists, if some, or all, of the settlements have to be abandoned under a peace agreement in resisting the state. [but this did not happen during the disengagement]

"We've reached the point where a critical mass of religious soldiers is trying to negotiate with the army about how and for what purpose military force is employed on the battlefield," says Yigal Levy, a political sociologist who has written several books on the Israeli military.

..."The national religious are replacing the kibbutzniks in the ranks of combat and command," one senior officer said. [who never ever infiltrated the IDF]

As Israeli society has matured and grown more materialistic than the pioneers who founded the state in 1948, many young people now seek to avoid military service, which is mandatory. The right wing has filled this gap in what many suspect was a systematic effort to dominate the military, particularly in combat units and the command echelon.

The Jerusalem Post reported in June that 60 percent of religious Jews in the air force have requested to attend the military's Officer School.

Since Ariel Sharon oversaw the evacuation of 20 settlements in the Gaza Strip in September 2005, settler leaders have been whipping up their extremist followers against any abandonment of the West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria.

...The activities of zealots like Rontzki "highlight the trend where instead of religious Zionism adopting the values of the (Israel Defense Forces) and the country, the IDF and country are adopting the values of religious Zionism, in its nationalist and orthodox version," he said.

"If this trend continues, the IDF may be transformed from an army of the people to Phalangists carrying religious artifacts."