Women trained in tironut and fought side-by-side with men in the Palmach, as one example. Even in the Mossad, women serve in direct action teams. The problem is -- and this is a problem in the IDF -- is how soldiers are selected. So if the IDF wants women to succeed in serving in combat units, then the top brass must ensure that at the selection phase women who are qualified are being selected and not choose soldiers who are unqualified then claim later that the standards have to be lowered. One could write more, but you get the point. The IDF has a well-known history of sabotaging various programs at the selection phases.

flight teams in WWII and that worked out well. Women in male units disrupts male bonding. Male bonding is the single most important factor in the willingness to lay down one's life for one's friends, the greatest love according to Yeshua the Jewish Messiah.