How putrid. Take, take, take. It is mentioned that: "What about volunteering and giving back to your homeland, you may ask. Well, since every average strictly Orthodox girl spends quite a few hours a week working for various charities" Great, now how much did YOU volunteer, Tali? Finally, the IDF offers so much more than brute force or mind-numbing coffee. -Why didn't you join IDF Intelligence. Use your brain. -IDF Education Corps. No, of course not. How sad. How selfish.

very very shllow. Try again. Maybe you will make more sense.

...Religious settler that volunteers to fight when crybaby's like this (men & women) are trying to run like cowards from military service for this screwed up but STILL GREAT LAND!

and I didn't go to my rosh yeshiva for an out. I agree with everthing that Craig said; there are considerably more options than bringing coffee to commanding officers. What about my orthodox female friends who led trips in the Negev for underprivileged youths as their service? Tali is so horribly egotistical to shun military service because she didn't like waiting in the recruitment center. Does she think that the soldiers enjoy standing at checkpoints, risking their lives preventing those who would happily blow up the author? If she doesn't think that women should serve in combat units--fine! Help protect our country and our people some other way. Tali, you don't deserve the protection that so many of us serve to provide you with--those you treat with such disdain and unfounded superiority. You embarrass me and yourself as an Israeli and as a Jew.

"If you know how to read, thank a teacher. If you read it in English, thank a soldier." I wonder just how long there'd be an Israel without its military.

no one can be that shallow. If Tali is for real she needs help or should be shipped off to an island someplace.

After only making Aliya just over 3 years ago andhaving been in the army for one and a half years now i must honestly ask you...what planet were you born on? You article show your ignorance of the army and the positions that girls can furfill (both religious and non-religious). Sure getting to the place that you want in the army might be a completly differant story but if you really want it you will push and push until you find a way. As Craig said, there are so many ways that you could give back to the country through the army. One of them being the education corps. when i first entered the army i knew literarlly NO hebrew what so ever and was required to complete a 3 month army ulpan where female soldiers (90% of them WERE religious) gave us lessons daily. Thanks to them I am now in Course Makim. Personlly i think that you are a disapointment.

You surely did. You missed out on dragging those 10,000 poor innocent Jews out of their homes they lived in for the past 30 years and making the rest of their lives miserable. And for this loss, you will never be able to forgive yourself.

Shame on you, Tali Farkash! You say you are strictly observant and Orthodox. Where exactly does Orthodoxy give you any reason not to serve your homeland? What kind of religious Jewish Israeli education did you get? I shudder to think what a terrible student you must have been. You have learned nothing of what it means to love your people and make the world a better place. There are many good reasons people can not serve: physical disability, mental incapacity, emotional or psychological problems, even personal hardships that make serving impossible. Frankly, even a well-reasoned philosophical principle like "pacifism" may be acceptable in the rarest of circumstances. However, you, from a seemingly happy home in the heart of the country, surrounded by loved ones ... YOU can not serve Israel? and your excuse is that you do charity a few hours a week? And furthermore, you BRAG about it? You are truly a big fat Zero in my book, Tali. Too bad you weren't born a boy ... you might have learned better if your buddies had cared enough to beat the wussy out of you. I hope your girlfriends aren't as awful as you. You deserve to be sent to basic training ... Twice! You deserve to have your fingernails broken by the rigors and hardships of basic training. On top of it all, you insult all of the great women who have served Israel. The IDF is blessed to have many amazing women in intelligence, training, logistics, medicine, secret services, even as Air Force Pilots! Thank goodness they are not as gutless, thoughtless and shameless as you. May you reflect upon your selfishness, ask forgiveness from the Universe, and undo the error of your ways, Tali Farkash. Those who refuse to protect their own, and mock their protectors, deserve harsh scorn. You do not deserve any respect from your peers (and certainly not from your readers) who stand in the line of fire to protect our compatriots. Tali, I hope you live a long and happy life, free of any personal experience with the violence we live with here in Israel. And if, God forbid, you ever do witness something as horrible as a terror incident or a battle or a war, I hope you will be physically unharmed, especially so that you will have to think long and hard of what you failed to do in your egotistical pathetic little life. Ynet, shame on you for paying such a loser to write for you. Redeem yourselves, Ynet staffers: Fire and Shame the boastful and offensive draft dodger, Tali Farkash! Chag Sameach Leh Kooooool Am Israel! L'Shanah HaBah Beh Yerushalayim!

You may have some valid reasons for not wanting to serve in the mititary on behalf of your country, but it is my opinion that you are just a selfish prima dona who is not a team player. You just want to exploit your country for what it can do for you...but remember JFK's haunting words...Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.....Obviously, you do not subscribe to this philosophy:

Kohl a kavod Yossi. Thanks God Israeli youths are not like Tali in general. You answered her as she deserved .

It is hard to believe that Farkash is religious. Egocentrism, arrogance, conempt, are incompatible with a genuine religious consciousness. The command echelon are "warmongers" but Farkash who eschews a personal commitment to national service is superior? Only in her well worn mirror.

If the shallow, self-centeredness presented here is an indication of how the Orthodox train their girls, the secular side isn't the only one that needs work. They're obviously not teaching love of land or respect for those putting their lives on the line if she can call senior officers "warmongers". Yet she and her future draft-dodging husband are made safe only by their sacrifice. As others point out, opportunities are there for women other than serving on the front lines or serving coffee to horny male officers. Intelligence and education have been mentioned, communication, translation, and the system development area could be added. If a traditional Jewish woman I know can serve as a senior officer in the US Marines and not be "corrupted", surely an Orthodox woman can survive Tzahal. Yes, the system in Israel needs reform. Deferments for Torah Study should be limited, a thousand seems more than reasonable, rather than the tens of thousands today. (There were about 400 at Independence.) The bureaucratic shuffle she describes is hardly different from its civilian counterpart; both need serious reform. And, it should be pointed out, the Rabbi who goes through the motions of her processing is one of her own. Finally, she defers the suggestion of "national service" by pointing to the "hours a week" the average Orthodox girl performs. But what about the writer? Is only a program sponsored by her own community "kosher" enough to merit doing? Such arrogance.

Dear, Tali, I agree with you : army is not a theme park, there are plenty people who don't wash themselves each morning, many boring things such as waiting 3 hours at recruitment center or being abducted while fighting. But unless you think your country does'nt need an army at all, conscription is a natural obligation for every citizens of the state, men and women alike. Can you explain us why, because it is harder for you than a secular women to go to army ? or may be it is harder for you than a secular women to work ? So wake up, there are things that need to be done, and everyone of us must participate, not always the same people ! The job you could have done in the army will have to be done by somebody else, somebody who is not ultra orthodox, who might hate being in the army but who doesn't know a rabbi to escape it.

Shame on Ynet. You should have thrown this missive out with the garbage when you got the the line about IDF officers being warmongers. Without generations of their sacrifices there would be no Israel. How dare this shallow twitt defame an officer in the IDF. Fire her. an american zionist Christian.

The orthodox spend their time studying the great military exploits of David, Deborah, etc. and then bug out of military service. Her true place is in a Polish shtetl not a free Jewish state that she wants others to defend for her.

Funny how in the guise of having a religious viewpoint here, you manage to have created something so anti-religious and embarassing to religious Jews. This column is obsequious, mocking and tendentious.

First we have to hear you blather on and on about your extraordinarily expensive wig, and now this crap?! Girl, go get a real job and stop cluttering the internet with your banal, sheltered existence. I agree with the poster who thinks you need to clean toilets on a military base somewhere. Modestly dressed, of course. That should address your concerns about your delicate female muscles.

I'm sure you are saying something very important here. I want to understand it so as to see your point of view. To move past my own ignorance as well as your anger and rejection of large groups of people. I'm guessing that it is the stereotypes of the people you are rejecting rather than the people themselves but i can't tell. maybe if I re-read it several times - look up some of your refererences and perform a bit of research I will understand you better. I may not have time for this. Most of us don't make time for this. I am not raised on any religion but confusion punctuated by moments of clarity followed by more confusion. I am just a typically numb american boomer woman who grew up smoking pot and rebelling against war and establishment in america . Now that it seems time to do it again, some of us are realizing, hopefully not too late, that lacking in sufficient motivation and principle we took our feet of the pedal too soon (and also too late, but oil, well that's another subject) and have neither the skills nor the strength to launch an effective effort now that our own sons and daughters are dying and killing irrationally again (as if there is any other kind of killing but there likely is to most and therein lies the rub). praying to anyone's god who'll listen, for peace and love to flourish for you and your sisters and all of us someday soon - even we do not fully understand each other. a sister listening to what you have to say, from where I am to where you are even if only an essence of your anger has filtered through to me - I wish you love and peace.

This attitude is so typical. She's right, she is the average orthodox girl. And isn't that a shame?

for a country that has so little to offer? I know many young Israelis who left Israel because they couldn't find a decent paying job after completing their military service. Why should she risk her life to a country that has one of the most corrupt governments in the western world? The Israelis themselves call it a Mafia government; and that government is only concerned about itself, and not the people. And why should Tali risk her life for a country that cares little about the environment. The streets are dirty and filthy with garbage everywhere; buildings are not maintained and poorly constructed; trees are not properly cared for; the land is polluted, the air is polluted, the water is polluted and even the food is polluted with harmful pesticides. So why should she risk her life for that mess?

How Tali Farkash can think all that trash to herself, let alone reveal the weak person that she is to the general public.

Of course, of course. Go home, lit the candles and let the others do the dirty job. You are so pure... Disgusting and repulsive. Israel has to change this and send all this lazy hypocrites to the IDF or to some obligatory community work.

very nicely said. and everybody else who criticizes this article...will you please wake up?

Utter disgust. It is your duty as an Israeli citizen to serve your country and protect it in its most vulnerable days. I say this as an Israeli American citizen who is putting a six figure income on hold for two years and leaving my condo in california paradise to join the ranks of my country. By choice. IT IS YOUR DUTY. the very fact that you question it is disgusting. You orthodox are the masters of double standarads. take take take. if you wont defend your jerusalem.. who will?

B"H Is the Jewish army secular or religious? If it religious, it keeps the women out of battle if at all possible. And if secular, it keeps the religious out of battle, who have no real influence in the government that leads the army anyway. An army run by brute force (as all armies are run in modern times) are going to have the characteristic of the state and the religion of the state with some small variation, because the army does not practice freedom but rather defends it. On the other hand, when a man leads a group of women in close-quarters, he is going to feel like a man responsible for several women under him. We know where that goes typically in all armies. Tali calls it sexual harrasment. It is a man forced into a situation that is not "snius" and it has consequences for him that he has the responsibilities of a husband with multiple wives but none of the benefits. So instead of having to face harrasment for religion, for gender, for wearing dresses, Tali is out of the army. It seems like a reasonable solution to me. But forget integration with the secular. Either one is in or one is out, and the army is a social integration tool as well as one that defends Israel. YNET is a secular integration tool also, but not anywhere on the level of the Israeli army which determines career ties in the secular world. Everyone is granted their blessing and curses that they must deal with. Tali is out of the army and for some reason writing on YNET. As someone "religious" I sometimes raise eyebrows in the mirror when I consider that I write for YNET which is a secular paper. It may be a sign of things to come. You might take that into consideration, Tali, too. Your hate for the army service seems a little too strong in the way it is presented here. Why would it need to be presented in YNET, a secular forum, if there were really so much dislike for the secular and the way the secular society runs Israel and the army? Who are you looking to convince?

I have fought three wars in combat and in two of them 1967 and 1973 I shared the water from my canteen with Egyptian deserters, while they were still wandering in the Sinai and before they were taken into protective custody by MP units. Let me tell you Ms. Tali, If I ever met you in the desert in similar circumstances I would pass on by and from my canteen you would not drink. You are a disgrace to your People and Country and you should have your citizenship revoked. And that goes for any Haredi, female or male who refuses to contribute and hides behind lame duck excuses like modesty and service to God. Service to your People comes before service to God, it is called pikuach nephesh in our present day circumstances of Tkumat Zion. Hang your head in shame and do not bother writing any more articles. We have no interest in your egocentric approach to life in our wonderful country. I hope you read this and the other posts and I hope you cry when reading them.

There's nothing wrong with Israel that can't be fixed with what's right with Israel.

the fact that tali is writing about this on ynet seems to imply she is boasting. hey tali, when was the last time you ever did something good for all of am yisrael? shame on you yaffa