Ever since it was established, Israel has been under a state of war with more than one country. As a result, there has always been a mandatory draft in Israel. Every Israeli must join the ranks of the IDF when he reaches the age of 18. Men must serve the IDF for 3 years, whlie women only have to serve 2 years.
When a person is 18, those are his best years. In those years he can have fun, travel, or go to university or college and get some education, in order to prepare for his professional career in later stages of life. So, taking away 1 extra year from Israeli Men in comparison to Women, is a clear discrimination against Israeli men. Men are losing 1 of their most precious year of their youth, while women are free to do whatever they want.
In fact, even women's duty to serve 2 years in the IDF is quite theoretical. Every women have the option of declaring in front of a military represantative that she cannot serve in the IDF for "Religious Grounds". This means that it is enough for a women to go to the IDF, wear appropriate clothing that is worn amont Israel more religious population, say "Hey look officer, I'm religious", and get full exeption from het duty to serve in the IDF. However, men do not have this privilege. The Israeli government is excellent at respecting the religious beliefs and traditions, but then it comes to men, apparently their beliefs or traditions simply don't count.
Many Israeli women who has nothing to do with religion use this excuse to dodge the draft every year. The Israeli military is doing nothing to stop them, or check if the women claims are authentic. One famous case is the case of Maya Buskila, a famous Israeli Singer. Maya Buskila has dodged the draft, using the "religion" excuse. Although, despite the fact that the singer was known to wear skin-baring outfits and to perform provocative dancing on shows nobody in the IDF did anything about it. This is despite the Israeli media making a whole lot of noise about it.
It is not only the length of IDF service that discriminates men, but the type of service as well. Every men who joins the IDF goes through a medical check. Unless they find a really serious problem, they make you join a front-line combat unit, to become a classic Cannon-Fodder in the serice of the Israeli government. Women of course are exepmt from this practice. They can join a front line combat unit if they choose to, but they have the options to choose being behind a desk, or even not serving at all if they choose the "Religion" path.
Now that has just been a bitter comment, I am not trying to say that military service is not important. I hold the opinion that under normal circumstances, it is the duty of all good men to serve their country in times of need. But this is only under normal circumstances. Now mind you, when your government is infected in misandry, I wouldn't define that as "normal circumstances". The Israeli government is discriminating against men in almost every field of life, and as far as I know Israel is the only country that openly admits that it has a special "Men Tax".
Speaking of taxes and financials, it is worth while looking into the financial aspect of this discrimination. The IDF pays every soldier who is under mandatory draft about 100 USD per month. If you are a combat soldier in a front line unit, you are paid a double, about 200 USD a month. The minimum wage in Israel is about 1000 USD! The average salary is about 2200 USD. and the minimum wage is certainly not enough for making a decent living. So, we can actually calculate how much money does this discrimination worht directly. Even if we assume that a soldier can only get a minimum weage salary when he is young, he is losing 900 USD for evey month he serves in the military. so the extra year that is only served by Men is worth 10800 USD! This is without taking into account other various indirect factors.
Another interesting financial aspect of this os the following fact: The Israeli Child Support law says that a father must pay child support until the a child is reaching the age of 18. However, Israeli courts has expanded this to the age of 21, claiming that through the mandatory militray service, the child won't be able to financially take care of himself, and therfore the father has to pay child support for 3 additional years.
I find this amazing. At first the government is making you serve for 3 years, then the goverment avoids paying a decent salary to its soldiers, and then the courts tell the fathers: "You have to pay instead of the government". Court rulings of child support until the age of 21 has now become the standard in Israeli Family Courts.
No comments:
Post a Comment