[maryz]

But in fact, the Israeli military does allow women in the vast majority of combat positions.

Israel at its inception had women in combat positions. But when they realized that the men tended to "look out for" the women, they decided it wasn't a good idea, so they stopped it. Israeli women currently serve in combat positions because of a high court decision -- whatever you call the Israeli Supreme Court, not a decision of the military, the government or the people.

[BerryDingle]

Israel at its inception had women in combat positions.

"Dr. Ruth" Westheimer always comes to mind immediately.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Actually, I recently read, to research for another such discussion on this forum, that Israeli feminist lawmakers are responsible for adding verbiage to a law that states that all opportunities in the IDF are equally open to both men and women. There is even a coed unit that is stationed in their southern desert of Israel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal_Battalion

However, the IDF is taking heat for dragging their feet on further deploying more women as combat grunts. Your larger point that this is being forced on the IDF is spot on. The original coed nature of Israeli fighting forces in 1948 grew out of a far left egalitarian ideal that there is no difference bewteen the sexes. That spirit lives on, at least until the sh*t really hits the fan.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

In addition to your great point about the Israeli military and people not choosing to put women in combat, take a look at the list given of countries with women in “combat” roles:

“A 2010 survey by the British Ministry of Defense listed Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden as countries that allow women in ‘close combat roles....’”

Other than Israel and a slight possibility regarding Poland, which of those countries actually think they will be in a serious conflict? Is there any difference at all between male Dutch, Danish and French troops and female troops of the same countries? These are just civil service employees who wear uniforms. They are not fit to fight, don’t expect to fight, and frankly, most of them won’t fight.

The simple fact is that most of the countries on the list could have entirely female armies and have the same impact if they are ever called on for real “close combat.”