ISRAELI STUDY FINDS THAT OPENLY GAY SERVICEMEMBERS DO NOT UNDERMINE MILITARY COHESION

The study can be found here: http://bit.ly/PAxJI3

The presence of openly gay soldiers does not undermine unit cohesion, according to a new statistical analysis of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) sponsored by the Palm Center and authored by Danny Kaplan of Bar Ilan University and Amir Rosenmann of the University of Haifa. “As we reach the one year anniversary of repeal of the United States military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy, this new study responds to the central concern that an integrated military would harm cohesion,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center.

The authors surveyed 417 male Israeli soldiers from 22 military installations. Statistical analysis of responses to the survey indicated that for both combat and non-combat units, the presence of openly gay troops in a unit had no relationship to the cohesiveness of the unit. Israel has allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military since 1993.

Prior to the repeal of DADT in September 2011, some military and political leaders predicted that a policy of open service would undermine unit cohesion in the U.S. military.

The new study of the IDF, entitled Unit Social Cohesion in the Israeli Military as a Case Study of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, appears in the current issue of Political Psychology and is available at http://www.palmcenter.org/. For the Palm Center’s earlier analysis of gays and lesbians in the IDF, see http://www.palmcenter.org/files/IsraelShortOnline(2)_0.pdf



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