Dion Nissenbaum who has never seen a rationalization of terror or condemnation of Israel that he hasn’t accepted uncritically wrote about “Breaking the Silence” a few weeks ago. He accepted the view that some soldiers claimed that the IDF operated in a “moral twilight zone.” That’s probably true. As Israel’s investigation into the IDF’s conduct during the war against Hamas earlier this year acknowledged, decision made in a battlefield may turn out to be wrong. But that, by itself, doesn’t prove a war crime.
Calling the theater of war a “moral twilight zone” may not be inaccurate, but in the context it’s used, it is highly misleading. Israeli soldiers undergo training to teach them what is and what is not acceptable in battle.
Interactive software developed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare soldiers for such dilemmas has been called the best and most advanced of its kind by senior officers from many foreign armies.5 The IDF has received numerous requests for the video from other armies. The research for this article involved conversations with senior American, Canadian, and British officers whose comments reinforced those reactions. As more and more nations encounter the new form of armed conflict, they too will have to develop models relevant to their particular needs, rules of engagement, and standard operating procedures. Meanwhile, this author’s research clearly indicates that the IDF has “defined the field.”
However, this does not mean that in the future IDF soldiers will not commit acts that violate both morality and law. Mistakes will occur because eighteen-year-olds, no matter how well trained and sensitized, remain eighteen-year-olds. Over the past few years, the question of how IDF soldiers should conduct themselves toward the Palestinian civilian population has become a major issue among commanders, actively addressed at all levels. This is not to suggest that previously the IDF was immoral, but to note that morality in armed conflict is now a pressing concern.
Every human endeavor is going to be imperfect. And if the endeavor involves the use of force, that imperfection can lead to deaths. But that by itself doesn’t make the endeavor wrong, no matter how much Israel’s detractors may claim. In fact Israel’s imperfections – to it critics and enemies – are treated as worse that Hamas’s purposeful crimes (that HRW has only belatedly and imperfectly gotten around to criticizing.) When will we see more honesty from Israel’s detractors?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
This reminds me of the comments in the Passover Haggadah about Israel being on the “49th level of impurity” and that if they had been delayed even one more day, they would no longer have been able to be redeemed. Rabbi Avigdor Miller points out that from the descriptions that we have (from the Torah, Rabbinic, and secular sources), the Jews of that time were on a much higher moral level than the Egyptions. He uses the analogy of the thermometer scales and the difference between Fahrenheit and Centigrade. Zero degrees centigrade is 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 273.15 Kelvin. This mean that while the Children of Israel were about to fall off the bottom of their moral scale, they would have been considered the best of the Egyptians.
Here, the hypocrites of the world are attempting to hold the IDF to an impossible standard and pretending that they have failed to uphold the Israeli scale, while refusing to acknowledge that the worst level of that standard is at the top of the standard followed by the rest of the world.
“When will we see more honesty from Israel’s detractors?”
A rhetorical question, of course. You’ll see more honesty from Israel’s detractors when Hell freezes over, and not a moment earlier.
Except, according to Dante, the inner (ninth circle) of Hell devoted to traitors IS frozen over and we still have not seen any honesty from Israel’s detractors.