In a meeting with religious Zionist rabbis, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir stressed the military’s need for both male and female combat soldiers, calling the integration of women into such roles a matter “of tremendous operational importance.”

The Tuesday meeting came after the rabbis threatened to stop sending their students to serve in tank units due to a pilot program integrating women into the Armored Corps. Their concern is that the students, who observe religious strictures around modesty, would serve too closely with female recruits.

In a statement on Wednesday, the IDF said Zamir told the rabbis that the military “is still short thousands of combat troops and needs every male and female soldier in order to fulfill its missions and consolidate the campaign’s achievements.”

Zamir’s remarks came following repeated warnings by the IDF that it is facing an urgent manpower shortage after years of fighting wars on several fronts. The IDF has said it needs 12,000 additional recruits.

The debate surrounding those needs generally focuses on the blanket exemption from military service long given to yeshiva students — which itself will be the focus of a mass ultra-Orthodox protest due to take place on Wednesday. But the threats from the religious Zionist rabbis could present an added challenge for the IDF.

Facing those threats, Zamir told the rabbis that the military would continue to expand the integration of women into “key positions and combat roles” in the military, which the IDF sees as a matter of “tremendous operational importance,” according to the military.

He added that the opening of additional units and positions to women would be conducted in “full accordance” with the........

© The Times of Israel