The Israeli military’s chief rabbi (yes, they have one) has already come out swinging against the gays, is also being accused of hating on the ladies, too.
Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki got very upset when IDF’s official magazine Bamahane profiled out gay soldiers, writing military leaders that highlighting homos in uniform is a bad idea. Especially when they’re Jewish!
This upset civil rights types, who are calling for his ouster. Boosting their argument? They say Rontzki has also spoken out against women serving! He denies this!
Rontzki has been accused of speaking out against military service for women — he denies it — and after Bamahane, the army magazine, profiled a homosexual major, Rontzki wrote to several senior officers to protest.
Israel’s army is proud of the opportunities it provides to women and openly gay soldiers. “A senior IDF officer who believes that it would be better for women not to be drafted and that homosexual soldiers should be erased from official army publications … does not deserve to serve in his position,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel wrote to the military chief of staff.
And while the IDF previously told Rontzki to shaddup about his anti-gay rhetoric, it’s now basically saying the same thing to his critics.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The military responded that Rontzki was expressing his personal opinions. It declined to let Rontzki be interviewed, but Maj. Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman, said his actions were in line with military orders.
“The jobs of the rabbinate have not changed,” Leibovich said. “The rabbinate is not supposed to be a substitute for the commander on the ground, but to give a spiritual boost to a religious soldier who might need it.”
Now how does that prayer for the souls of gay soldiers go again? Baruch atta Adonai Eloheynu melech ha-olam …
Chance
He’s a rabbi. What do you expect? Have you READ the book? I wonder what he thinks about slavery…
ThinkRealHard
Religion speaks again.
TikiHead
He looks like a paramilitary Santa Claus.