GROWING PERCENTAGE OF IDF IS RELIGIOUS. Arutz Sheva repports that:

Half of the IDF's young combat officers are religious Jews, according to statistics published as the lead story Sunday in Maariv, Israel's second largest daily newspaper. The report also says that about 40% of the cadets of the most recent Officer Course in Bahad-1, the IDF's officer training school, were religious; this number refers to all officers, as opposed to just combat officers.

The author of the Maariv article is a respected secular Israeli, who is publicly agreeing with Religious Zionists who have been making this claim--thus giving it more credeence.

The article also notes one of the implications of these growing numbers is that since many religious soldiers have refused orders to evict Jews in Gaza, Yehudah, and Shomron, with the growing percentage of religious Jews in the IDF, the "refusal movement's" impact on the IDF and the government could grow.

Technorati Tag: Israel and IDT.