The organizations are threatening to petition the Supreme Court and to restore their success more than two decades ago in the Alice Miller case, when the IDF was forced to combine genders in air force squadrons by order of former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak.
Among those welcoming the cancellation were former Minister and Brig. Gen. (res.) Avigdor Kahalani, the hero of the Valley of Tears battle who opposed the move from its inception. “The decision not to allow the fighters to be in tanks was clear to me that it would happen two years ago when they started this move,” Kahalani told Arutz Sheva at an event commemorating fallen IDF soldiers at the Jerusalem Convention Center. “It took time for them to internalize and understand what I already knew throughout the years.
“There’s no discrimination against women, I favor them being placed in all positions in the world, but I don’t think they should be at the attacking level, to send them over enemy lines, and to return as my fighters did. We haven’t reached this point and there’s no need for it. The decision is correct and wise.”
“Extreme Left organizations think in their war on Judaism to disintegrate the IDF and bring women into combat units and kill two birds with one stone: Besides harming the girls, this harms the strength of the IDF and realizing its goal of winning at war.”
The Valley of Tears is the name given to an area in the Golan Heights after it became the site of a major battle in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, known as the Valley (or Vale) of Tears Battle, which was fought between the 6th and 9th of October. Although massively outnumbered, the Israeli forces managed to hold their positions and on the fourth day of the battle the Syrians withdrew, just as the Israeli defenses were almost at the point of collapse.
| Strength | |
|---|---|
| Israel
1 armored brigade (~100 tanks) |
Syria
1 infantry division (~500 tanks and vehicles) |
| Casualties and losses | |
| 60-80 tanks and vehicles | 500+ vehicles (260-300 tanks) |
During the Six-Day War, Kahalani commanded a company of Patton tanks from the 79th Battalion.
Of the four men inside the burning M48 Magach 1 main battle tank, only the vehicle’s commander, 23 year-old Captain Avigdor Kahalani, managed to crawl through the flames and escape the roiling inferno that consumed his tank from the inside. Ammunition cooked off and exploded as he was pulled from the wreck, the only surviving crewman from a tank that had served bravely throughout the ruthlessly-bloody Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. Rushed to the hospital, where he would remain for many months, it would require seventeen painful operations and countless skin grafts to treat the massive burns that covered every part of Captain Kahalani’s body. Doctors weren’t sure the young officer would survive, let alone walk or go forward with anything resembling a normal life.