N12 presenter blasts Israeli war hero for objecting to female fighters in Gaza

Channel 12 News reporter Adva Dadon and Yom Kippur War hero Avigdor Kahalani had an on-air confrontation regarding women’s army service on Saturday. 

In an interview with Kahalani, Dadon showed him a Channel 12 broadcast about female soldiers in tanks who fought against Hamas terrorists during the October 7 surprise attack, and challenged him about his past comments criticizing the role of women in the Israeli military.

“The role of a woman is to be a mother, to bring children into the world,” Kahalani had stated to Galey Israel Radio in 2016. “After the traumas of war, she would be totally different.”

He also told the radio station that tanks were not the right place for women.

אדווה דדון עשתה חתיכת כיפה אדומה לקהלניתותחית על pic.twitter.com/LE4KddfHZm

— ️merav ayalon (@merav_ayalon) December 9, 2023

Female soldiers in Gaza?

Kahalani commented on the confrontation with Dadon in an interview with the radio station on Sunday.

"I do not retract my words: I repeat them and say accept them" he said. "Bravo to the tank women who fought—they sit on the border line, they have a defensive role and that's fine. [But] why aren't tanks with girls currently being brought into Gaza? Everyone understands what I understand.

"I don't think a girl can do less than a man, but I was in Israel's wars, I saw the sights and I know how they return from the battlefield. If she wants [to go], there is no problem: Let the army decide,” the highly decorated war hero said.

“I have been happily married for 57 years to the same woman and all those who try to laugh at me are married a second and third time. I have a lot of respect for women, but don't take it to the misogynistic side," he said: "I have compassion."