Israeli Army panel for opening combat roles to women

Jerusalem: An Army-appointed commission has recommended letting women into the military's last all-

male bastions, extending equal opportunities to front-line infantry, armoured corps and special forces, media reported recently. The military said the draft report by a panel of officers and academics was a tool for long term-planning and was meant to "maximise the abilities of the women for the overall benefit of the armed forces." It did not have details of the report's recommendations. Israel Radio reported that the commission, set up by the head of the Army's Human Resources Department, proposed that women no longer be excluded from any unit because of their gender, and that men and women drafted for Israel's compulsory military duty should serve for the same length of time. At present men are usually conscripted for three years and women for two. Arabs and ultra-orthodox Jews are exempted. Retired General Yehudit Ben-Natan, who headed the now-defunct Women's Corps, said she had long championed total integration of women in the military and rejected arguments that women should be kept out of the frontline because they might be hurt, taken prisoner or forced to work in uncomfortably confined spaces with men. "The heart and soul of the Army is combat and if we are in the Army we need to be at its heart," she told the radio. Let there be tanks with all - female crews and all - woman missile batteries, because we can do it and we must stop allocating duties by gender.