Israel Gets it and the US doesn't ! Who do you think will fail ?

Israel OKs call-up of 30,000 reservists
AP - 51 minutes ago
JERUSALEM - Israel's government decided Thursday not to expand its battle with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for now, but authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensifies. Lebanese officials estimated a civilian death toll as high as 600.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/mideast_conflict
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Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguist

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press Writer
Published July 27, 2006, 6:17 AM CDT

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 -- less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.
Copas now carries the discharge papers, which mention his awards and citations, so he can document his military service for prospective employers. But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal.
He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, established in 1993, prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members, but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.
The policy is becoming "a very effective weapon of vengeance in the armed forces" said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based watchdog organization that counseled Copas and is working to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Copas said he was never open about his sexuality in the military and suspects his accuser was someone he mistakenly befriended and apparently slighted.
More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year -- an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.
That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.
But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lt. Col. James Zellmer, Copas' commanding officer in the 313th military intelligence battalion, told the AP that "the evidence clearly indicated that Sgt. Copas had engaged in homosexual acts."
While investigators were never able to determine who the accuser was, "in the end, the nature and the volume of the evidence and Sgt. Copas's own sworn statement led me to discharge him," Zellmer said.
Military investigators wrote that Copas "engaged in at least three homosexual relationships, and is dealing with at least two jealous lovers, either of whom could be the anonymous source providing this information."
Shortly after Copas was appointed to the 82nd Airborne's highly visible All-American Chorus last May, the first e-mail came to the chorus director.
"The director brought everyone into the hallway and told us about this e-mail they had just received and blatantly asked, 'Which one of you are gay?'" Copas said.
Copas later complained to the director and his platoon sergeant, saying the questions violated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
"They said they would watch it in the future," Copas said. "And they said, even specifically then, 'Well, you are not gay are you?' And I said, 'no.'"
The accuser, who signed his e-mails "John Smith" or "ftbraggman," pressed Copas' superiors to take action against him or "I will inform your entire battalion of the information that I gave you."
On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military's policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.
But Copas declined to answer when they asked, "Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?" He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.
Copas said he accepted the honorable discharge to end the ordeal, to avoid lying about his sexuality and risking a perjury charge, and to keep friends from being targeted.
"It is unfair. It is unjust," he said. "Even with the policy we have, it should never have happened."

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network: http://www.sldn.org/

Fort Bragg, http://www.bragg.army.mil/

source; http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-gays-military,1,4685745.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
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Effects of Lifting of Restrictions on Gay and Lesbian Service in the Israeli Forces: Appraising the Evidence

June, 2000

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) plays a central role in both the daily life and the identity of the Israeli people. Israelis rely on a strong military to ensure their safety as citizens and as a nation. Since the founding of Israel in 1948, its military has acquired "warfighting experience unparalleled in the rest of the world" (NDRI, 1993: 85).

Sexual minorities were until recently largely invisible in Israeli public discourse, and Israelis have traditionally viewed homosexuality with disdain. For the past decade, however, Israeli sexual minorities have rapidly been gaining legal rights and greater acceptance.

Due to both its sustained personnel needs and a recognition of the importance of military service to full societal acceptance, the IDF has never formally barred homosexuals from serving in its ranks. Before 1980, an admission of homosexuality would likely result in dismissal. In 1983, the military adopted regulations which officially allowed homosexuals to serve in the military. Sexual minorities were, however, prohibited from serving in intelligence positions and made to undergo additional psychological tests.

Improvements in both the legal and social standing of sexual minorities in Israel gave rise to changes within the military as well. In 1993, the IDF repealed the security restrictions against sexual minorities, and it more recently granted a widower same-sex benefits rights.

Security and mental health officials for the IDF have found that sexual minorities adapt to military life as well as heterosexuals. Scholars studying the issue have also determined that gay combat soldiers adopt similar methods of adjusting to military life as their heterosexual colleagues. Homosexuality appears to be peripheral to these soldiers preoccupations, and they reveal few problems associated with their sexual orientation.

Further, there is no evidence that the long-standing inclusion of homosexuals in the IDF has harmed operational effectiveness, combat readiness, unit cohesion, or morale in the Israeli military. In a security-conscious nation, this is simply not a concern among military personnel or the public more generally.

As is true with many militaries, a distinction must be made between official IDF policy concerning sexual minorities and the realities of informal IDF practices and culture. Up until the past decade, the vast majority of gay and lesbian soldiers kept their sexual orientation private, due to fears of both official sanctions and ostracism from fellow soldiers. As more homosexuals have grown comfortable about expressing their orientation, greater openness and tolerance have been found in the military as well.

All available evidence also suggests that the IDF ban on homosexual service in sensitive positions was never fully implemented. Some openly gay soldiers were also allowed to serve in combat units and as officers. Decisions about known gay and lesbian soldiers were largely left to the discretion of individual commanders. This enabled some homosexual military personnel to avoid the restrictions and penalized others in spite of an absence of security or psychological problems.

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II. INTRODUCTION

With a history of more than fifty years of continuous military engagement, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is considered to be one of the premiere fighting forces in the world. The Israeli military maintains a universal conscription policy and has never officially prohibited the inclusion of sexual minorities. Before the 1980s, however, an admission of homosexuality would likely be met with dismissal of the gay or lesbian soldier. From 1983 to 1993, the Israeli military officially approved the inclusion of sexual minorities, but it did implement some restrictions on their placement. In an effort to protect the IDF from the danger of the threat of blackmail, homosexual soldiers were prohibited from serving in security or encryption positions. All known gay and lesbian soldiers were also subjected to additional psychological testing to ensure their fitness. In the wake of public outcry, these restrictions were officially abolished in 1993. Official policy now mandates that homosexuals be subject to the same level of scrutiny for positions as are all other candidates, and cases of possible security risks are to be handled on an individual basis.

This report draws together prior research on homosexual military issues; press coverage; and interviews with scholars, present and former military personnel, and representatives of gay and lesbian organizations to provide an appraisal of how IDF's long-standing inclusion of sexual minorities and the 1993 removal of security restrictions have affected its operations. The available research indicates that the inclusion of homosexual soldiers has had no negative impact on morale, unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or combat readiness. While no quantitative data exists about treatment of sexual minorities in the IDF either before or after the 1993 change in policy, experts know of few cases of either harassment or loss of position because of homosexuality. Changes in the official regulations and in Israel's social climate more generally appear to be resulting in greater comfort in openly acknowledging one's sexual orientation as a soldier. A lack of sensitivity training concerning homosexuality and official IDF policy toward sexual minorities does, however, continue to be a source of concern for gay rights groups.

source: http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/Publications/IsraelPub1.htm