The IDF - A Singing or Fighting Army?

Culture and entertainment is nice.

Female talent empowerment is nice.

But at the expense of losing a potential officer who can lead men (and women) into battle?

Read on:

An observant solider serving in the Nahal Haredi infantry brigade, who was dismissed from an officers' training course for insubordination (*), has appealed to Israel's High Court of Justice over his punishment. The cadet was removed from the course after an incident on Monday, Sept. 5, in which a group of nine soldiers walked out of an official IDF event when female soldiers began singing solo.

During the event, which focused on Operation Cast Lead, the nine religious soldiers chose to walk out during the performance since, according to religious law, men are not allowed to hear women singing...The cadet has since appealed to the High Court of Justice over the IDF's decision to remove him from the training course, calling it unlawful....Chairman of the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva Center, Rabbi Haim Drukman, called the soldier's removal from the training course outrageous and said it constituted an immoral decision. Rabbi Drukman added that the "obligation to listen to women singing appears nowhere in the General Staff command, and listening to women singing cannot testify to the cadet's abilities as an officer and commander in the IDF."...

Do you think the IDF should be a fighting army or a singing army?

To me, this effort to punish is so ridiculous.

____________

(*)

Ten religious IDF officers' course cadets left in the middle of a military activity after a female soldier began singing solo on the stage...The incident took place on Monday evening during an event focusing on Operation Cast Lead, which was attended by hundreds of cadets slated to receive an officer's rank in about a month, many of whom are affiliated with the Religious Zionism movement.

At some point during the evening, two female soldiers got up to sing. When one of them began singing solo, dozens of religious soldiers got up and turned to leave the auditorium. "It was spontaneous. We know it's forbidden, but we left quietly without coordinating it,"...But Regiment Commander Uzi Klieger tried to stop them from leaving, threatening to punish anyone who walked out.

^