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2021-10-17 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
These women are the first IDF tank crew preventing drug smuggling along Egyptian border
[Jpost] Deep in the Negev sit a pair of Merkava IV tanks, operated by Israel’s first female tank crews. The women, making history, are keeping a close eye on the Egyptian border, ready for any threat that might appear.

The tanks and their crews are guarding one of Israel’s longest borders, and while there has been peace with Egypt for more than 40 years, the 240-kilometer long border with the restive Sinai Peninsula sees almost daily action for IDF troops: regular smuggling attempts as well as terror attacks by the Islamic State terror group’s Sinai Province.

Operating Merkava IV tanks, the company of all-female tank operators are serving under the command of the Paran Brigade and serve as tank operators in the mixed-gender Caracal Battalion.

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The female tank crews are deployed to the border as part of a second pilot program to assess whether or not to integrate women into the IDF’s Armored Corps.

Some 19 women began the second pilot and completed basic training with troops from the mixed-gender Border Defense units. They then completed their training at Shizafon Base in the Negev, home to the IDF’s Armored Corps School, before 10 women were deployed to the Egyptian border to take part in operational duty under the command of the Caracal Battalion, one of four mixed-gender infantry units within the IDF’s Border Defense Corps, which is responsible for defending Israel’s borders with Jordan and Egypt.

IN JUNE 2019, the IDF said that four female soldiers successfully completed a pilot program to train on tanks and become tank commanders. But several months later, it reversed the decision and said that the next stage of the pilot program “would require significantly more manpower and resources to undertake.”

The main focus of the initial pilot was the physical abilities of the female recruits, who are divided into teams led by a male soldier commanding a Merkava Mark III tank. Throughout all phases of the program, the recruits were accompanied by experienced tank commanders, doctors, nutritionists and fitness experts.

In the second pilot program, at least twice the size of the previous one, the military has increased the height and weight requirements of women who want to take part in the program and expanded the time that women will be deployed to carry out operational missions. Hen said that the new requirements are important to prevent harm to the crew, but those in the second pilot were never told why the first was not successful.

One senior officer who serves in the 53rd Armored Battalion told the Magazine in a recent interview that loading shells is only one of several challenges for women to serve in tanks.

Should the second pilot program be deemed successful, the IDF has stated that there would be no mixed-gender tank crews, and female tank crews will not be part of battalions that would operate in enemy territory; they would instead be deployed only to the borders.

While the women are taking part in operational duty, their deployment does not mean that the pilot was successfully completed. According to the military, the success of the pilot will be determined by a number of factors, including long-term operational activity, quality force building and more.

The IDF said that the reason for the decision was the cost-benefit calculations of the separate training and allocation of combat units and not the physical abilities of the female soldiers.

In recent years the IDF has increased the recruitment of women to combat units like the Caracal and Bardelas mixed-gender border defense battalions. Both Caracal and Bardelas serve under the 80th Division’s Paran brigade with their headquarters at Ketziot, in an area that has been marked as vulnerable to threats like drug smuggling due to the settlements in the region. The Paran brigade troops are deployed to protect territory along the border to the city of Eilat, where troops will train and operate as needed.

Cairo and Jerusalem have been reported by foreign press to have been closely cooperating in the Sinai Peninsula in the fight against ISIS militants and smugglers since Egyptian strongman President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi rose to power. Sisi has waged extensive military operations against ISIS in the Sinai, and while the terror group has lost much of its strength, it remains active. Despite its small size, it continues to carry out deadly attacks on Egyptian security forces.

While the Islamic State is not an imminent threat to Israel, smuggling of drugs and weapons by Bedouin from the Sinai Peninsula into Israel remains a major concern for IDF troops stationed along the border. In some smuggling attempts, troops have also been fired upon, leading them to fire back, sometimes killing the smugglers.

According to Lieutenant Danielle Shalom, smugglers use rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and other weaponry against IDF troops.

According to IDF figures, there has been a decrease in the total amount of drugs smuggled across the border, by half, and the total cost of the drugs smuggled into Israel has decreased from $4 billion in 2019 to $1.86 billion in 2020. In 2019, there were a total of 350 smuggling attempts identified with 30 thwarted. The next year, out of a total of 280 smuggling attempts, the IDF thwarted some 60 and confiscated close to 400 large bags of drugs, 20 cars and arrested some 20 smugglers. Since January there have been only 120 smuggling attempts with over 40 thwarted.

The army insists that it is allowing more women to serve in combat positions out of practical considerations, not due to a social agenda, but critics of gender integration in the military say it is a dangerous social experiment with potential ramifications for national security as requirements for female combat troops has been lowered because women tend to suffer from stress injuries at a higher rate than men.

Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) also told the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality he was not against women going into battle, but they get injured far more than men.

He said he went into battle with women and sent women into battle “in the most dangerous places in the Middle East. For me, it’s not an issue. But all the studies show that mixed units do not perform as well, and women tend to get injured 10 times more than men – orthopedic injuries and others. I ask, ‘How many women will have to be severely injured to create this equality?’”
Posted by Skidmark 2021-10-17 08:05|| || Front Page|| [1 views ]  Top
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