In the 1980s, John McEnroe was one of the world's best tennis players and arguably the best in history at displaying anger and arguing with referees. A few years ago, McEnroe was asked about tennis player Serena Williams and replied that she was the best female tennis player in the world. When the interviewer asked why he specified "female," McEnroe said that if she were to play against men, she would be ranked around 700th. "She's an amazing player," he complimented, but men's tennis "is a completely different story."
These comments caused a major uproar, and McEnroe was roasted on the grill of political correctness. But reality is on his side. Venus and Serena, sisters and rare athletes who dominated the sport at their peak, claimed they could beat men ranked 200th and below in the world rankings. In 1998, they were challenged by Karsten Braasch, a 31-year-old German player past his prime, known to smoke and drink, who was ranked 203rd. The sisters accepted the challenge and lost 6-1 and 6-2.
After the match, Braasch estimated that they would lose to a man ranked 500th and above, and the sisters updated their claim to 350th in the world and below. Serena even said in an interview: "The truth is that these are completely different sports. Men are much faster, they serve harder, they hit harder. It's just a different game."
The "woke" gender agenda tries to blur any sexual characteristic, including biological ones. But the truth is self-evident: women have many qualities and advantages, but there are objective physiological differences between the sexes. Modern science confirms this from every angle, and today it characterizes in depth, at the genetic and hormonal level, even the extreme cases where biological sex takes on atypical characteristics.
These extreme cases have contributed to individuals with male characteristics being identified as women and competing against women in various sports. For example, Caster Semenya from South Africa, a world champion runner and gold medal winner, sparked controversy due to her ambiguous gender. Similarly, at the last Olympics in France, Taiwan and Algeria won gold in women's boxing, with boxers who had previously been disqualified on the grounds that they had a Y chromosome and high testosterone levels.
In response to the public outcry, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said there is no clear scientific test that determines whether these boxers have a physiological advantage and that their gender is unclear. But this is a poor excuse, as it is clear that there is a biological and physiological difference between them and the women they defeated. These women are being harmed in the name of the "woke" agenda of sports organizations, which deny reality and accordingly hide the results of medical tests.
In fact, this issue has long since ceased to be scientific, as in other Western sports competitions, it is enough for a man to define himself as a "woman" and he can compete against women and even freely use their locker rooms. Progressives support them and punish women who dare to claim that this is unfair competition and that they deserve privacy in locker rooms.
Sports has become the end station of comprehensive progressive sexual indoctrination. Is it beneficial? The data show that the "woke" declaration of war on biological reality has led to a social epidemic of gender confusion, especially among teenage girls. "Gender-affirming treatment" (some of which is medicinal and irreversible), along with diagnoses of "gender dysphoria," have skyrocketed in the United States by hundreds of percent in just a few years. The number of young people experiencing depression has also risen sharply, again, especially among teenage girls. Progress promises paradise, but in practice creates an unprecedented epidemic of depression and sexual confusion.
Where does Israel stand on this issue? There is cause for concern. Government bureaucracy is the main stronghold of indoctrination in the West, and so it is in Israel. The number of sex change surgeries performed in the country rose from just 4 a decade ago to 64 in the previous year. Small numbers, with a clear trend. The Health Ministry does not even track hormonal treatments for minors, a controversial treatment that is now banned in several Western countries.
The education system in Israel, certainly the secular one, also adopts and transmits all the progressive gender messages to students. So does, as usual, the justice system. Our government bureaucracy is captive to the agenda, and the gender fashion is spreading here. According to data from the rest of the world, we can expect damage to the mental health of the younger generation.
The military is also a clear target for progress, probably because if the institution most identified with "masculinity" becomes "woke," no fortress will remain standing. The Americans, for example, have put the military through a full, publicized, and marketed process of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Since then, wonder of wonders, they have been suffering from an ongoing recruitment crisis. While the number of women enlisting remains constant, the number of men has shrunk significantly, and the US military is far from meeting its recruitment goals. The number of women who manage to complete a combat track is small and far from compensating for the number of men who don't want to serve in the "progressive" and "woke" military.
In Israel too, the reality-denying "wokeness" is trying to take over the IDF, which under Supreme Court supervision has been conducting an experiment in recent years integrating women into elite units. In practice, even most men do not meet the requirements for fighters in these units, who are at the peak of physical capabilities. Let's compare this to tennis: according to the optimistic assumptions of the Williams sisters, if we line up the elite soldiers in a sequence of abilities, a woman would arrive at the 350th place, being the first of her kind.
So, this is the benefit of the expensive experiment: the 350th fighter. As a woman, her achievement is impressive, but relative to her brothers-in-arms, she will not stand out in her abilities. What's the damage? Here are a few aspects to consider. First, the army invests significant resources in identifying the 350th fighter. Second, it invests enormous resources in integrating her with men. Third, among the 349 fighters, there are those who find it difficult to serve with a woman in the required proximity conditions. Fourth, the risk of severe medical problems is greater for women. Fifth, in the reserves, women are less available (due to pregnancy and childbirth) and lose fitness faster. Sixth: The "value-based" pressure to successfully integrate women leads to lowering criteria and hiding the truth. And lastly, for many reasons, mixed forces tend to be less competent and efficient.
In other words, the costs and damages of integrating the 350th fighter, impressive as she may be, outweigh the benefits. She deserves special and fulfilling service, but "full integration" is an idea detached from scientific and military truth, just as a boxing competition between men and women is detached from scientific and sports truth. The military is a war machine, not a "values" machine. Its purpose is victory, not artificial "equality." It needs to fight the enemy, not reality.
While these trends are spreading in Israel, including in the IDF, Western countries are already recognizing their damages and have begun to contract them. We should "wake up" in time this time.
