Jerusalem News (6 October, 2013, Cheshvan 6, 5774)
Contents:Â
1. European Atheist Anti-Israelites Against Circumcision
2. Canada and Israel have Highest Percentages of College-Graduates
3. Women Soldiers in the IDF are Dangerous and Endangered!
(a) Cover-Up of Health Damage to Female Soldiers Alleged by Gil Ronen
(b) 'DANGEROUS IDF EXPERIMENT' ON FEMALE SOLDIERS ALLEGED by Maayana Miskin
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1. European Atheist Anti-Israelites Against Circumcision
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-slams-racist-eu-rights-resolution-circumcision-142853309.html
Extracts:
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel labelled as "racist" and "anti-religious" Friday a resolution of the pan-European human rights body calling for regulation of circumcision practices.
The Council of Europe resolution urged its 47 member states to ensure the latest medical and sanitary conditions are met during ritual circumcisions, which are often performed on boys at an early age in Judaism and Islam.
It called for "dialogue between... medical doctors and religious representatives, so as to overcome some of the prevailing traditional methods, which do not take into consideration the best interest of the child and the latest state of medical art."
Ritual circumcisions in Judaism, Israel's dominant religion, are usually carried out by a religious official specialised in the practice.
The Israeli foreign ministry criticised the resolution, which passed by 77 votes to 19 with 12 abstentions on Tuesday, saying it fostered "racist trends".
"After the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution against circumcision, Israel calls on the Council to rescind immediately the resolution," the ministry said.
"Claims that circumcision harms young boys' health and body are false, and do not rest on any scientific evidence," it added.
"This resolution casts a moral stain on the Council of Europe, and fosters hate and racist trends in Europe."
Israel took particular exception to PACE's adoption of a single resolution dealing with both female genital mutilation and the circumcision of young boys on religious grounds.
"Circumcision of male children is an ancient religious tradition.... Any comparison of this tradition to the reprehensible and barbaric practice of female genital mutilation is either appalling ignorance, at best, or defamation and anti-religious hatred, at worst," the ministry said.
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2. Canada and Israel have Highest Percentages of College-Graduates
And the World's Most Educated Country Is? by Samantha Grossman
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/09/27/and-the-worlds-most-educated-country-is/
Extracts:
Based on a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 24/7 Wall St. compiled a list of the 10 countries with the highest proportion of college-educated adult residents. Topping the charts is Canada, the only nation in the world where more than half its residents can proudly hang college degrees up on their walls. In 2010, 51% of the population had completed a tertiary education, which takes into account both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Canada commanded the top spot in the last study in 2000, but even still has shown serious improvement. A decade ago, only 40% of the nation's population had a college degree.
Snagging the number two most-educated spot was Israel, which trailed Canada by 5%. Japan, the U.S., New Zealand and South Korea all ranked with more than 40% of citizens having a higher-education degree. The top 10 most-educated countries are:
1. Canada
2. Israel
3. Japan
4. United States
5. New Zealand
6. South Korea
7. United Kingdom
8. Finland
9. Australia
10. Ireland
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3. Women Soldiers in the IDF are Dangerous and Endangered!
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(a) Cover-Up of Health Damage to Female Soldiers Alleged
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149820#.UlGHtCT8IdU
Forum for a Strong IDF: women's groups mislead public about "an epidemic" of hip stress fractures, ruptured discs and uterine prolapse.
By Gil Ronen
First Publish: 11/16/2011, 11:46 PM
Extracts:
A group of high ranking reservist IDF officers and civilians says that there is "an epidemic" of hip stress fractures, ruptured discs and uterine prolapse among women serving in the IDF's combat units.
They claim that this rash of injuries, some of which have permanent effects and can affect a women's chances of bearing children, Â is hidden by militant feminists for political reasons.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Col. (res.) Raz Sagi, spokesman for the Forum for a Strong IDF (FSIDF), explained that the IDF's ongoing experiment in placing women in combat units has had terrible consequences for a relatively large percentage of the female soldiers, who suffer worse injuries than young men, and are also more likely to be injured.
Sagi was referring to injuries incurred in training and the routine of service in combat units, not injuries from actual combat or enemy fire.
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Sagi noted that he is not a religious person at all and that the problem has nothing to do with religion. "Statistically," he explained, "women are shorter, their bones are weaker, that is how they were born, it is nothing to get angry about."
In 2011, he added, a joint study by the IDF and the US Army determined that women cannot be placed in combat roles because of physiological differences between men and women.
IDF combat units go out of their way to reduce physical demands for accepting women into their ranks and keeping them there, Sagi revealed. Despite this, the injuries continue. Whereas men are more likely to suffer stress fractures in the shin bone, women are more likely to suffer them in the pelvis, making for a more serious injury, he said.
"The campaign by women's groups notwithstanding, only 3% of women who enlist opt for combat," he said, "and those who do so often drop out along the way. There are entire battalions that fall apart in mid-track because of physical damage to the girls."
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(b) 'DANGEROUS IDF EXPERIMENT' ON FEMALE SOLDIERS ALLEGED
by Maayana Miskin
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172549#.UlGHHST8IdU
Extracts:
The IDF"s mixed male-female combat units are causing permanent damage to many female Israeli soldiers, says Col. (res.) Raz Sagi, head of the Forum for a Strong IDF (FSIDF).
"We interviewed dozens of young women, and we did not find a single one who didn"t complain of injuries suffered during military combat service which prevented her from living a normal life," Sagi told Arutz Sheva. "Unfortunately, the IDF is conducting a dangerous experiment on these girls in the name of feminism."
Common injuries include hip stress fractures, ruptured discs and uterine prolapse, he said. "Combat service just shatters them," he concluded.
The IDF lowered the physical requirements for female soldiers to allow them to join combat units, "and still, twelve percent suffer injury, compared to zero percent of male soldiers," he reported. Those injured include former female athletes, he added.
Sagi has made similar claims in the past. He challenged the IDF to release its data, which he said will prove him right.
"I demand that the IDF be required to reveal the percent of women who suffer life-long injuries, compared to male soldiers in combat roles. When it is published, there will be a public outcry and committees of inquiry," he accused.
Sagi took part last week in Knesset discussions in the Equal Share of the Burden Committee, which is weighing the issue of hareidi-religious army service.
His goal, he said, is to keep the IDF strong and to make sure that combat ability remains the foremost goal. "I"m trying to protect the backbone of the IDF from bizarre decisions that have nothing to do with state security," he explained.
"The idea that men and women should be equal when it comes to military service is an absurdity that has been disproven in every army on earth," Sagi continued. "It"s evolution, there"s no way to change it."