Female pilot to become IAF combat squadron deputy commander

ANNA AHRONHEIM

N. will be promoted to the rank of Lt.-Col. when she takes up her role next year.

An Israeli Air Force soldier looks on at an Apache helicopters belonging to the Israeli Air Force 113 Squadron Unit (also known as the Hornet Squadron Unit) at an airforce base in Southern Israel. The unit was formed on October 4, 1955. The Hornets were the first squadron to fly 24 MD450B Dassault / (photo credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)

Another woman has broken the glass ceiling in the Israel Air Force and has been appointed deputy commander of an IAF combat squadron.
She was appointed by IAF Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin on Tuesday night.

Norkin appointed Maj. N. (her name is withheld due to security reasons) as commander of the 119th “Bat” Squadron, which flies F-16s out of the Ramon Airbase in the south of the country.

ISRAELI F-16 takes to the skies (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

N. completed the pilot’s course in 2015 and was trained as a navigator. The 28-year-old from central Israel is currently serving as head of the IAF Commander’s Office. She will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel when she starts her position next year.

She is the latest woman to get promoted to a senior role in the IAF, which along with the entire military is working to have more women in senior positions.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi has stated that he plans to see the number of female senior officers rise by 50% within the next five years, especially in technology and cyber roles.

Nevertheless, the number of women promoted to top positions has fallen dramatically in recent years, with, according to a report by Haaretz, only 19 women being promoted to the rank of colonel out of 200. There are only six women holding the rank of brigadier-general and only one who is a major-general.

Norkin has stated he believes that “it is our duty in the Israel Defense Forces to fulfill the inherent potential in women. We are still far from this goal, but I am sure that this process will continue and that we will appoint female commanders and soldiers in a wide variety of positions in the air force and in the IDF in general.”

In 1949, Israel’s army became the first in the world to introduce mandatory military service for both men and women, and in 1951 Yael Rom became the first graduate of the prestigious pilots course. But shortly after that, women were once again barred from combat positions, including from becoming pilots.

In 1993, South African immigrant Alice Miller successfully sued the military for her right to enlist in the air force. While she was declared medically unfit for the role of a pilot, her actions shattered the glass ceiling in the IAF and opened up the pilots course to women.

In 2000, Lt. Roni Zuckerman, the granddaughter of two leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, became the first woman to graduate as a combat fighter pilot.

In 2017, Capt. Y., an F-15 navigator, was appointed deputy commander of the 116th Spearhead combat squadron, which flies F-15 fighter jets out of Tel Nof Air Force Base in central Israel.

Two other female officers were appointed that year to serve as deputy commanders of a squadron of remotely piloted aircraft at Palmahim Air Force Base.

In 2018, Norkin appointed two women to senior positions. Maj. G. became the first woman to command an aviation squadron of Nahshon (Gulfstream V) aircraft from Nevatim Air Force Base, and she participates in intelligence and aerial reconnaissance missions; another woman was promoted to lead the IAF’s operational command and control unit.

Maj. G. was the highest-ranking woman in the IAF when she was deputy commander of the Nahshon Squadron in 2014.

Last year, Capt. S. became the first woman in the IAF to fly an F-35 fighter jet in the 116th Squadron, nicknamed “Lions of the South,” also based out of Nevatim in southern Israel.

Gov’t Runs Out Of Ways To Explain Ban On Temple Mount Jewish Prayer Without Phrase ‘Scared To Enforce The Law’

By PreOccupied Territory

Temple mount / Police Spokesperson

Jerusalem, August 24– Enforcement officials acknowledged Tuesday that their supply of euphemisms, excuses, and blather aimed at obscuring their fear of upholding freedom of worship for Jews at Judaism’s holiest site has now been exhausted, and further discourse on the subject might soon require those officials to make open statements about their unwillingness to perform the role the public has assigned them.

Police and government figures who make and enforce policy, and whose primary function involves combating violence against law-abiding citizens, disclosed this morning that with the terms “status quo,” “provocation,” “order,” “maintain calm” and others no longer available in the face of an impatient public, they will now be forced to state outright that they are afraid to refrain from preventing Jews from worshiping on the Temple Mount because of the violent reaction by Muslims there, and instead of protecting those whose rights are curtailed, they choose to side with the mob.

“You have to understand, we’ve been reluctant for decades to acknowledge this fear openly,” explained former Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh. “If we admit we can’t do our job, that undermines public confidence, and we could end up losing our jobs, which would be the biggest tragedy of all. On the other hand, if we do our jobs and have to face the violent mob, people might get killed and we might lose our jobs, which would be the biggest tragedy of all.”

Government officials echoed the theme. “We always try to kick the can down the road,” allowed Minister of Public Security Gil’ad Erdan. “No one wants to seize the hot potato of the entire political-religious conflict. But the consequences of inaction, of maintaining the ‘status quo,’ are that when action finally becomes unavoidable, the resulting explosion will be too much for the police to handle. But we want everyone to believe the police can handle anything. It appears the time has come that public confidence will erode if we continue to adopt the violent-threat-accommodating posture, now matter how nicely we dress it up rhetorically.”

Observers predict that with police having already established their unwillingness to suppress violent Arab riots earlier this year, but who will arrest Jews who defend themselves and others during such riots, Jews will soon adopt the proven approach of threatening violence unless they get their way, and spark the formation of a group or groups to protect Jews where the governing authorities refuse to do so, perhaps with the name “Haganah” – “Defense” – or “National Military Organization” – aka “IZL – Irgun Tz’vai Leumi” or “Etzel.”

News From Israel- August 24, 2021

ILTV Israel News

We can no longer ignore anti-Zionist Jews – opinion

ELCHANAN POUPKO

Young anti-Zionist Jews have a straightforward question: Why can’t we have Judaism without Zionism?

AN ANTI-ISRAELI Jewish Orthodox activist wears a face mask with the Palestinian flag during a protest near the Israeli Consulate following a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Manhattan borough of New York City in May. / (photo credit: EDUARDO MUNOZ / REUTERS)

Who has not seen the PLO flag-wearing Neturei Karta Jews at the Israel Day Parade or any other pro-Israel rally? For decades we either laughed, nodded, dismissed, or were enraged by the anomaly of Jews publicly taking sides against the Jewish state. Yet, at no point did we need to address anti-Zionism in our community as something serious.

That has all changed over the past year. No. It is not just Peter Beinart saying Kinot on Tisha Be’Av for Palestinians displaced in 1948. A growing number of young Jews who have gone to our day schools may sit next to you in shul or be sitting at your Shabbat table. They deserve a thoughtful response from all of us.

Young anti-Zionist Jews have a straightforward question: Why can’t we have Judaism without Zionism? Fair question. Why can’t we have a day school education with no “Hatikva,” synagogues without Israeli flags upfront, rabbis that are not busy leading AIPAC missions to DC or trips to Israel, Hillel on campus without speakers coming to defend Israel, young Jews going on trips that are not Birthright trips to Israel, and Shabbat dinners that are not all about Israel-related content?

IN 2015 my wife and I began hosting Shabbat dinners. Since then, we have hosted more than 500 guests, most of whom we had never met previously. Most often, we did not know who our guests were until they walked through the door, nor did they know us. We had young Jews aspiring to become rabbis in Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College and JTS. We welcomed guests from all various professional backgrounds, orientations from different countries and even had some non-Jewish tourists who wanted to see what a New York Shabbat table looked like. We had guests from across the political spectrum, some of whom worked professionally for non-profits from CAIR to AIPAC, Zionists, anti-Zionists, often people who cared for neither option – all were welcome.

This kind of big-tent Judaism is one that I passionately believe in, one in which all are welcome, and we create a space that is welcoming to all. That is the kind of community structure we should have. All must be welcome – Zionist or not. If there is a Jew who happens to have the opinion that Jews don’t necessarily need to have a state of their own, they must remain a welcome part of our community.

The new wave of anti-Zionist Jews changed this all.

The new anti-Zionist Jews are not like members of the Satmar Hassidic community who hold the theological belief that Jews should not have a state of their own until a miraculous messianic era. The new anti-Zionist Jews are Jews who have decided to wage war against other Jews. They are Jews who advocate for economic boycotts of Israel, which will rob other Jews of their means of livelihood; they are Jews lobbying to limit weapons sales to Israel, choking the Jewish state’s ability to defend itself, they are Jews seeking to tilt public opinion against Israel and seeking to diplomatically isolate Israel. This is not about Israel being in the land of Israel with all of the historical and religious meanings that might have; this is about waging war against the largest Jewish community in the world. It is about taking an active role in seeking to harm other Jews.

Peter Beinart could have taken whatever position he wanted on what the meaning of Zionism is. Joining Ben and Jerry’s campaign to actively boycott other Jews, whether they live inside or outside the Green Line, in Uganda or Iran, crosses a red line. It is the kind of behavior we cannot contain as a community. This brings us to why it is that Zionism plays a role in our communities when not religiously mandated or inspired.

Two things that have always brought together Jews regardless of place or ideology have been the concept of arevut – a commitment to the well-being of fellow Jews – and a shared belief in the need to secure the future of the Jewish people. Jewish institutions in America did not just pop up. They were built with immense sacrifices.

I think of my grandfather Rabbi Bernard Poupko who miraculously fled the Soviet Union in the 1930s just to come and help build Hillel Day School and much of the Jewish communal structure in Pittsburgh, or of my friend and hero, Rabbi Joseph Polak, who survived the Holocaust to become the Rabbi of Hillel in Boston University and raise funds to build one of the most beautiful and successful Hillel Houses in North America. They sweated and bled because of their commitment to the Jewish people and our shared future.

PASSIONATE ANTI-ZIONIST Jews are entitled to their opinions, but factually speaking, they have prioritized the cause of Palestinian nationalism over that of their fellow Jews. You can agree with them or disagree with them, but the fact is that they have abdicated one cause for the other. They have chosen to harm their fellow Jews in favor of advancing the Palestinian cause. They are entitled to that position, but by doing so, they have taken the exit door to our shared peoplehood.

Inclusion of anti-Zionist Jews is not about Zionism; it is about our shared peoplehood. When Ben and Jerry’s announced they would be boycotting Jewish communities beyond the Green Line, New York State Senator Simcha Eichenstein and many other hassidic store owners were the first to condemn the policy and announce a counter-boycott on Ben and Jerry’s products. These hassidic Jews may have never been in the Israel Day Parade and likely never sang “Hatikva,” but they knew that an assault on one of us is an assault on all of us. They knew what was behind the singling out of the Jewish State and that it was not about Achad Ha’am or the occupation – it was about being Jewish.

Finally and very sadly, being an anti-Zionist Jew can no longer be defined by Jews alone. We have seen over this past year increasing incidents of Jewish communities being attacked under the guise of the “Free Palestine” movement. Synagogues were vandalized, Jews of all ideologies have been attacked, and Jewish students on campus have been intimidated. Whether we like it or not, many antisemites and racists use the Palestinian issue as an excuse to physically and verbally attack Jews. Consequentially, anyone lending a hand to the Free Palestine Movement is lending a hand to a movement used to target Jews wherever they are – and that is the crossing of a red line – aligning oneself with organizations and individuals that are harassing Jews on campus, beating hassidic Jews on the streets of New York, and stabbing rabbis in Boston.

With COVID restrictions I don’t know when we will be hosting large Shabbat meals again. While I do not believe we will be able to share a space with anti-Zionist Jews, I do think they deserve answers and explanations to the real questions they have. I hope this is the first of many.

The writer is an 11th-generation rabbi, the president of EITAN – The American Israeli Jewish Network, a teacher and an author. He is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and a member of its executive committee.

Palestinian killed in armed clash with Israeli security forces

JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Palestinians opened fire at IDF soldiers who entered Balata to arrest a suspect.

A Palestinian gunman holds a weapon during the funeral of Palestinian Yazan Abu Tabekh, who was killed during an Israeli raid, in Jenin in the West Bank February 6, 2020 /  (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)

A Palestinian teenager was killed in an armed clash between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Balata in the West Bank, east of Nablus, on Tuesday, according to Palestinian reports.

Imad Khaled Hashash, 17, joined a number of other Palestinians in a firefight against Israeli security forces who entered the town in order to conduct arrests. It is unclear if there were other injuries.

The IDF stated on Tuesday morning that Palestinian terrorists opened fire on soldiers from the roofs of buildings and that the soldiers responded by shooting towards the shooters.

As the soldiers prepared to leave the town, a disturbance broke out which including rioters throwing blocks and objects at IDF soldiers from the roofs of nearby buildings. One suspect was noticed attempting to throw a large object from a nearby roof on a soldier below him. One of the soldiers responded with fire and hit the suspect.

No soldiers were injured and the suspect the soldiers had entered the town to arrest was caught.