Posted on 08/06/2006 3:13:03 PM PDT by Basel2005
This is apparently first war in which women called up for reserve duty combat – Ynet writer converses with two mortar unit instructors who found themselves on northern border with no prior warning, firing bombs at the enemy. "At first, men degraded us, but soon understood that we are in exactly same situation," they say
The emergency call-ups received by many Israeli citizens did not skip over hundreds of women who have been called up to the war in the north. In the past four years, the IDF has started integrating women into the reserves. In the current war, there are women manning positions such as anti-aircraft officers, rescue officers, fighters in gunner units, snipers, and the list continues.
Of all the women called up for duty in these days, about half are in combat battalions – 14 percent are fighters, 21 percent are medics, 11 percent are combat officers, and the rest are in intelligence. On the northern border, a writer for Ynet met Anat Bershkovsky and Efrat Kaufman, a non-commissioned officer in a mortar unit that is shooting at Lebanon. The two started their reserve duty as instructors for reserve soldiers on a training base, but very quickly found themselves on the Lebanese border shooting mortars at Lebanon.
Bershkovsky tells of the sharp transition from training to the battlefield: "We find ourselves driving north, and more north, and more north, almost to the end, and shooting – shooting into Lebanon and participating in the fighting. Throughout my entire army service I never thought I would be shooting at Lebanon."
The reservists say that their participation in the fighting was at first received with chuckles by their male colleagues, but they quickly earned their respect. Kaufman recounts that their first days on the border were accompanied by many sexist comments: "At first they asked us degradingly – oh, you're reservists? When did you get released, a year ago? And then when they heard we are both 26 years old they started saying – what, you're not married? You don't have kids? What are you waiting for?"
"The moment they hear we are six and a half years after the army, they appreciate us a little more. We are here to give our professional emphasis and they know they need it. They ask for help and also know to say thank you," she said. Bershkovsky explains that the reservists understand that the women and the men are in the same situation: "They know that they also suddenly extracted us from our normal lives and that we are here to help in the fighting exactly as they are."
One of the reservists, Nimrod Ratner, praises the women's participation in the war effort: "Six years we haven't trained. We don't remember how to operate these mortars. Sure we were professionals once and we did it in our army service, but if they weren't here, some of us wouldn't know what to do."
"I'll get up and go even if I'm in the middle of a manicure"
Beyond their professional capabilities, Ratner comes out with additional benefits to have the girls in the field: "When you finish training all sweaty and sandy and out of nowhere they offer you a moist towel, what could be better than that? Only for that it's worth it to enlist women into the army."
Last weekend Bershkovsky and Kaufman spent the last weekend at home – Sunday they return to the border. They are definitely thankful for the short rest at home: "On one hand, all the corniness of 'a mission, people rely on me,' but on the other hand, I want a bath! In some moments I ask myself what I'm doing here, and what is all this black under my fingernails. But I think as soon as the guys call me asking me to come back, I will get up and go even if I'm in the middle of a manicure," says Kaufman.
Bershkovsky also fantasizes about an indulgent beauty treatment – but only after the war: "I have no problem being here for however long they need me. It's a good feeling knowing that you are taking part of something important, that you are doing something for the good of the fighting, contributing. Whenever they need me, I am at their beck and call. Afterwards, I will do a thorough treatment and will return to being a woman."
An attitude sorely lacking among Americans of both sexes.............
There's been a number of articles about women in the IDF today. Whenever I see a topic cluster like this it makes me wonder what the agenda behind it is. Why the sudden interest?
Because they are playing an increasingly important part in combat situations and newspaper editors believe it's about time they got their due. What other agenda could there possibly be?
To heck with any "agenda". Where are the photos?
Check out the video at the link.
For the the best pics of Israeli women in IDF, see this provided by a poster on another thread:
http://israelmilitary.net/showthread.php?t=13
What video?
Yeah, I just saw that link on the other thread, thanks. Muy caliente!
You are correct, sir. Thanks.
Speaking as a man who has been to Israel and seen the female reservists on duty there, I can say without any doubt, that there is nothing hotter than a hot Israeli chick with a M16 at the ready.
this is my rifle,
This is my gun,
one is for shooting,
and one is for fun.
(USMC ANON)
http://img102.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i-24480/loc424/61377_cover_424lo.jpg
http://img45.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61387_idf02et8_577lo.jpg
http://img15.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61392_idf03rq9_444lo.jpg
http://img126.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61397_idf07ts5_490lo.jpg
http://img146.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61414_idf11ha1_357lo.jpg
http://img138.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61430_idf13an6_381lo.jpg
http://img138.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=63051_idf43hc5_441lo.jpg
http://img130.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=63068_idf56jz9_384lo.jpg
http://img24.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=63079_israel59thik1_396lo.jpg
http://img150.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=63056_idf44uf5_400lo.jpg
http://img18.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=63036_idf27zb0_309lo.jpg
A lot of Freeper guys are programmed to look at IDF babes brandishing firearms and find them kinda hot. They can't help it. You know what they say about boys and their toys...
I have no doubt. I have always thought Jewish babes were pretty hot. (I'm a gentile, but I am, shall we say, ecumenical when it comes to babes.) So you add in the youth, the physical fitness, and the outdoorsiness associated with military service, throw on a uniform and some gleaming implements of destruction, and I say (to quote John Kerry quoting Pres. Bush) bring it on!
"What video?"
The video at Ynet where the article is located. Just follow the link!
"I have always thought Jewish babes were pretty hot."
I have always thought gentile babes were very, very hot. The grass is always greener, I suppose.
It actually mucks with the wiring in a guy's head when he sees a woman who is simultaneously vulnerable and deadly, simultaneously playful and dead serious. It makes the photos inherently interesting. I want to protect these women, but they are beyond that. It gives them a bit of a goddess like quality.
If you see a ordinary photo of a pretty woman, you have no idea if she is an airhead or immature or irresponsible or whatnot. If the photo is of a woman in the IDF, a lot of that is resolved, so that makes her more compelling because you already know something about her just from the photo. You know she is a worthy type of woman.
These photos are also life affirming. These women are surrounded by the threat of death, but they refuse to give into it. The spirit of the toast l'chaim is still there. Look at the photo of the women on the beach. Enjoying the sun. Having a beer. Hanging out with a girlfriend. Flying a kite. An ordinary beautiful experience. But the gun is there. And the presence of that gun makes the image bittersweet because all the beauty in it seems to hang by a thread and can't be taken for granted. Kind of a metaphor for the whole Israeli experience. In a way, it's too easy for the artist to come up with a poignant shot.
There is also a certain pride one takes in the utter superiority of Western women. The Islamist yahoos on the other side of the border infantilize their women and don't trust them to walk out of the house without a male relative as an escort. The Israelis turn their teenyboppers into women and trust them to walk around with loaded Uzis and M-16s because their women are so responsible and reliable, and for lack of a better word so damn cool. They are given this huge responsibility at a very young age, and they just deal with it. How cool is that? A photo of an Israeli woman with her gun brings into high relief what the West is fighting for and what we are fighting against.
How cool is that he Jihadists get taken out by this one
Or this one:
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