Gay religious soldiers slam IDF chief rabbi

A group of religious homosexuals serving in the Israel Defense Forces sent a letter of protest to IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Rontzki yesterday over his statement that it is inappropriate for the army journal Bamahane to run articles on homosexuals in the IDF.

The statement, which was reported in yesterday's Hebrew edition of Haaretz, "gives us the feeling that we, religious homosexual soldiers and officers, have no place in the army," the soldiers wrote.

"As religious men loyal to the path of religious Zionism," the letter continued, "we view military service as a duty and a privilege. With God's help, your words and your effort to prevent articles in Bamahane will not succeed in harming our integration into and advancement in the IDF."

The soldiers, all graduates of hesder yeshivas or religious pre-army academies, said they "believe it is everyone's right as a private individual" to hold racist or homophobic views. "But because you are an IDF officer and serve as the IDF's chief rabbi ... we expect you to be the rabbi of all IDF soldiers, including religious homosexual soldiers," they wrote.

They also noted that there are homosexuals at the Itamar yeshiva, which Rontzki headed before assuming his IDF post.

The IDF, for its part, issued an official response to Rontzki's comments yesterday, in which it said that the rabbi's letter of protest, expressing his "personal views," was sent to only a few officers directly involved with the issue and was never meant to become public.

In public, Rontzki "has never expressed disagreement" with official IDF policy, which was and remains to make no distinction between homosexuals and heterosexuals, the response stressed. It was sent to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel by the secretariat of the army's high command, in response to a complaint from ACRI about Rontzki's remarks.

Several officers noted that many Western armies have a far less liberal attitude toward homosexuals than the IDF. In the United States, for example, declared homosexuals are not allowed to serve in the army at all.

"You shouldn't get excited every time Rontzki expresses an opinion on a matter that is none of his business," one senior officer added. "That's already become a habit with him."