Slippery Slope

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz placed a flag on the grave of Lt. Col. (res.) Shlomo (Mony) Nitzani instead of on the grave of the last soldier to have died in the serve, Yevgeny Tolotzki, because his Jewishness is in doubt. (Times of Israel)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The office of IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, has stopped recording conversations conducted on land-line telephones, contrary to the norm during the tenure of his predecessors Dan Halutz, and Gabi Ashkenazi. In deliberations in which sensitive or controversial items are discussed some of the general staff members are asking that the operational system that records the discussions be turned off for fear that their statements will be used against them in the future.

(Hebrew – Walla!)

Students and soldiers from the Hesder Yeshivas [?] have called on IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to reconsider his order to forbid religious troops from leaving official ceremonies which include women singing.

The IDF and Ministry of Defense tried to prevent the broadcast of a video clip, in which Defense Minister, Ehud Barak and Chief of General Staff, Benny Gantz, are seen making jokes about female soldiers who participated in an IDF drill.

(Hebrew)

Outgoing IDF Personnel Directorate head Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir sent a farewell document to Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. According to the document, the IDF has gone too far in responding to the demands of rabbis, and that for this reason it is excluding women from high-ranking position. Examples cited in the document include a battalion commander refusing female staff officers, the decreasing number of training posts for female soldiers, and combat troops refusing to accept female sharpshooting instructors.

Deans of education colleges wrote to the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, that “the change of wording of the military memorial prayer (Yizkor) might be another step down the slippery slope, which turns National to Nationalism, and Democracy to Theocracy.

(Hebrew)

The office of Chief of General Staff, Gen. Benny Gantz, determined that the prayer of “Yizkor” (Hebrew for “In Memoriam”) in military memorial ceremonies shall open with the phrase “God shall remember (his) sons and daughters,” instead of the phrase “The People of Israel shall remember its sons and daughters.”

(Hebrew)

In a session of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the IDF Chief of General Staff, Gen. Benny Gantz, said that “any public debate regarding the way to bring Gilad Shalit back is improper; discussions regarding this must remain in closed forums.”

(Hebrew)