Women?

This is coolbert:

An image that Israel has tried to portray for decades is that women are well integrated into their military and perform jobs, including combat arms, that have been previously the purview of men.

This is just not so.

It was the intention of the founders of men to deploy women in combat roles, as part of their egalitarian, socialist outlook on life. And many of the women from say a kibbutz did have a background that would seem to qualify them for combat arms roles. The women on the kibbutz did do physical labor jobs normally relegated to men, and did play a role that in most societies was normally reserved for men.

However, in Israel, contrary to what is the popular belief, women are not deployed in combat roles.

They do serve in the military, are drafted and play a significant role, but not in combat arms.

This hesitancy to deploy women in combat arms stems from an incident that occurred when Israel was first formed, in 1948. The state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948.

The following day, 15 May, a mixed contingent of men and women was sent on a platoon sized recon patrol. This platoon fell into an Arab ambush and the entire platoon, to the last troop, was killed. What happened next was horrific. The bodies were dismembered and violated in extreme ways.

The very next day, a second combat platoon was sent out to find out what had happened to the first platoon. This second platoon also walked into an identical ambush, but managed to extricate itself, with the greatest difficulty, with the loss of one troop. The day following this second ambush, the word went out that no women were to be sent on combat missions again, and this has been the policy of Israel ever since. Israel does employ women in non-combat roles, and they do serve with honor, but not in combat arms. And for good reason.

coolbert.