In the beginning of March, the Israeli air force posted a promotional video it called “Feminine Power” to Facebook. The video, a little over a minute long, showed women in various roles in the air force, from operational officers, mechanics and war room commanders to navigators and combat pilots. Over the action, a narrator hinted at criticism of anyone who tries to distance women from combat roles in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). “They say,” goes the narration, “that women can’t be fighters, they’re not built for it, are not physically suited to it, and they should stay at home with the kids. They say that women can’t serve in operational roles. Her poor kids. Her poor husband. You can’t really do it, and women don’t have what it takes. So they say.” 

The video quickly went viral and sparked a public uproar in Israel before it was taken down. It turned out that the video was produced and posted without coordination with the IDF. It was viewed as arguing against religious and conservative forces that have in recent years waged a rearguard battle against opening many combat roles in the IDF to women. In light of this sensitivity, the IDF decided to simply remove it from the web. But the structural tension between the two poles won’t be resolved by the video’s removal.

The IDF is a reflection of Israeli society, and it too is torn between two opposing poles: Western liberalism still sets the tone in Israel and has turned Tel Aviv into one of the global LGBT capitals and produced an impressive number of women pilots, navigators and combat air crew members. At the beginning of the year, a woman pilot was appointed to command an air squadron for the first time. The air force already has a woman combat navigator who serves as a deputy squadron commander and many other women in senior operational roles. 

On the other side are those who oppose women’s combat service in the IDF. Leading them, of course, are rabbis of the religious Zionism stream who have waged all-out war against the phenomenon in recent years and have called on IDF chiefs to stop integrating women into senior roles. Leading Zionist rabbis have been quoted as railing against women’s military service in sermons that sound as though they were delivered in an earlier time, when women were more relegated to staying at home, raising children and caring for their families. The influence of these rabbis on the IDF is significant, as graduates of religious Zionist institutions make up a substantial portion of the IDF's combat officers and about 40% of those who finish officer-training courses.