MK (Kadima) Nachman Shai, a former IDF spokesman, addressed the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee regarding military service for children of families that lost a child in military service.

Today�s regulations demand that parents sign, giving their permission for a child to serve in a combat unit if another child of the family fell in the line of duty. Shai wishes to change this, to prohibit subsequent children from serving in combat units.

In his letter to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gabi Ashkenazi, Shai explains that military�s commander will have to present the military�s position to the committee, explaining he feels it is ill-suited to place the burden of such a decision in the hands of parents, who must face their children�s wishes on the one hand, against the fears of losing another child on the other.

(Yechiel Spira � YWN Israel)