Rabbinical IDF

"I completely agree that today, in the Israeli army, there are two parallel hierarchies – the military and the rabbinical . And as you stated, this situation causes a serious problem for the IDF which is not being properly addressed. However, in my point of view, these two hierarchies are only a symptom of a much bigger problem, which is the vast influence that right-wing-religious parties have over the Israeli Army.
This influence, whose origin can be traced back to a few years ago and which has been growing slowly within the army, has allowed a certain atmosphere amongst soldiers, where it is accepted to express ones political views- these being mostly from the political right. For instance, in many occasions, it is understandable for soldiers to identify themselves with Israeli-settler rioters (towards Palestinians) rather than to stop or to punish them for their violent behavior towards innocent civilians in the West Bank. Furthermore, since Rabbi Avichai Rontzki was appointed the IDF’s Chief Rabbi, right wing ideology has penetrated various branches of the army and today we see (and suffer) the consequences. One of these consequences is the fact that the army has lost its power over right-wing soldiers, who might be willing to obey their rabbi’s will rather than their army officer command. Rontzki has preached with disgust and disdain against anyone who is not religious and does not believe in Greater Israel. He has interfered with education officers’ work and ordered them to disseminate “extremist” views. This is one of the many reasons why today there are two parallel hierarchies which are intertwined between each other and are very difficult to separate. The rabbinical hierarchy does not only come from outside the army, but it is also well sustained within the IDF. Hence, in order for the army to deal with this situation, it’ll first have to deal with the root of the problem which in my view is a politicized IDF."