'Daddy come guard me, I'm scared of the dark'

[edu]

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226534

19-year-old S. enlisted in the IDF four months ago and was sent to serve in an army base near Afula. A family member claimed she had been told she would be a clerk but was actually sent too serve as an operations officer in the base and was assigned to evening guard duty at the entrance to the camp. "She told them that she's scared, that it's really dark, that she's scared to use a weapon but nothing helped," said family members to Yediot Aharonot.

S's father Nissim said that she had asked a friend to serve with her from the outset. He added that when an unidentified car went through the fields she panicked and called and asked him to come and guard her in the base.

For a month her father came to the base in civilian clothes and stood guard with his daughter in the evenings. "I have no choice," he explained, "It's very important to me that she does her full army service. I'm against desertions or leaving the base without permission. I want her to serve the country."

Officially civilians cannot enter an army base but the soldier told her commanding officer that if they wouldn't let her father in, she would leave her post, so he was allowed to enter the base.

After a month she was transferred to kitchen duty but was then sent back to guard duty with another female soldier who is afraid of the dark. Her father added: "I love her and I will guard together with her until she finishes her army service but I'm asking the army: find another logical solution."

[edu]

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226538

"The attempts to integrate women into combat units has completely failed," Reserve Colonel Raz Sagi told "Haboker Shel Keshet" on Sunday morning television.

Sagi said the IDF is conducting research which proves the attempt to integrate women into combat units has failed, but ignores the obvious conclusion and continues the integration attempts "as if previous attempts had succeeded."

"They're not giving us the real statistics," Sagi said. "That's very problematic. The real test is in the field, and it's not about pushing gender equality.

"The real purpose of combat is to destroy the enemy in the battlefield.

"16.5 years of working with the Air Force have given us five female fighter pilots. And that's a kind of success. But if we're talking about ground forces, it's completely different. Over 46% of injuries female combat soldiers suffer are just from the training exercises and routine security operations."

The IDF continues to substitute female soldiers for male soldiers in combat units, reducing the units' effectiveness and fighting capabilities. Recently, Arutz Sheva asked the IDF if Hamas would be willing to set up benches to help female combat soldiers climb walls, as the IDF does to enable them to complete basic training.