Holy Hesder
Elazar Stern is hated by many for his central role in perpetrating the Expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, but other reasons exist, as well. His integration of Hesder students into the regular army platoons (around the same time as the Expulsion, too) wasn’t appreciated by many in the Dati camp.
The best story in Elazar Stern’s autobiography, “Struggling over Israel’s Soul: An IDF General Speaks of His Controversial Moral Decisions” is on p. 244.
Assuming Daddy got permission to tell the following cheery anecdote:
One Saturday morning, my daughter Adi was the officer on duty on her base, and she went to pray in the synagogue. When prayers ended, the soldiers sat down together to eat breakfast, and at the meal, Adi met five yeshiva boys from the settlement of Peduel. The boys asked her what her name was and where she was from. She answered, “My name is Adi and I’m from Hoshaya.” The soldiers responded immediately, “The village where that filthy Stern lives?!” and they proceeded to curse me out.
Adi asked them calmly if they had ever learned any manners or a least not to gossip. Then she cut them off and said, “You didn’t ask me what my last name is. It’s Stern. Now, thanks to you, there is another issue on which I disagree with my father. He should have kept the Hesder students in separate units, so that I wouldn’t have to be around any of you.”
Do all Hesder youth chat with girls so freely?! And yet, to take the lady at her word, would a non-promiscuous woman in the army truly prefer non-Hesder soldiers (ceteris paribus)?
Throughout the book (p. 268, 289) Stern describes his daughters as religious (well, as much as he himself, anyway!).
Meanwhile, Stern himself suppressed serious complaints of sexual abuse when approached for help by women under his command…