It is hard to believe that such a public debate is taking place at all, but it is taking place, and it is worth paying attention to, like a pathological phenomenon. There are people who hurt on the sidelines, it doesn't do them any good to see IDF soldiers running too wild. I won't mention names and places, but I'll list some of the amazing complaints that have been put in writing.
For example, the claim that it is wrong for Hanan Ben-Ari and Lior Narkis to excite the soldiers with nationalist messages and brainwash them with calls for revenge, and it is even more wrong that the soldiers respond to them with waves of hands and roars. It is inappropriate for Narcissus to use blunt language to illustrate to soldiers that they have their backs to give the fait of their lives. What does "go f*** all of them" mean? Let him find a more appropriate expression, preferably one that does not encourage violence, and certainly not against "Kuwwalam."
Where is the Politeness Command General?
It doesn't end there, of course. Soldiers spray proud Hebrew graffiti on the walls of homes in Gaza, promise to "enter them," take pictures (or is it artificial intelligence?) in the living room or kitchen of an abandoned Palestinian family, and they look too pleased, too proud. They probably didn't clean the mud at the entrance either. How inconsiderate, how rude, to display such homeliness. Perhaps we should add to the General Staff a commanding general, manners and manners?
"Revenge", "Christianity", "Nationalism"?! Golani Brigade 2023, Gaza, Photo: Oren Cohen
There is worse: some of them (in fact quite a few) are photographed praying, setting up a mezuzah, hanging or painting Israeli flags, putting on tefillin - and everything is very precise. Why stick a Jewish finger in a Gazan eye? Is it hard to find a hidden corner for prayer? Who gave permission to this religion of the Gaza Strip? And if this faith-based messianism hasn't brought you out of your peace, what will you say about orange ribbons, and orange flags, and Gush Katif signs, and selfies on the ruins of settlements uprooted in 2005, with the promise that "we'll be back"?
And the worst, but worst, is that they also look perverted. They're smiling, and they've got jargon, and vibe, and they're keeping humor, and they're just lovely. But beneath all this wonderful spirit, critics claim, lies messianic, ultra-Orthodox, settler nationalism in a bad segment that is urgent to neutralize. The General Staff is asked to curb excessive enthusiasm.
How ungrateful and impervious one must be, in order to turn up one's nose at the values and beliefs that motivate the fighters, and to question the purity of their intention and fighting ethic
It goes far beyond chutzpah, to complain to combatants in the middle of a battle, to criticize them, to judge them, to gauge the political correctness of their actions and words. It's endless callousness, it's ingratitude, it's lowliness. First of all, because they give their souls, and sometimes their lives, for us, and we have neither the moral authority nor the right to turn our noses up at the worlds of content, values and beliefs from which the never-ending, spectacular motivation of warriors who entered a viper cocoon to save our lives is made.
Soldiers praying at the Evyatar outpost
But even worse, there is a distinct layer of guilt added to these claims: the combatants are labeled as going to war not to carry out a sterile and surgical military mission, but as those who only seek revenge, fundamentalists who are driven by a messianic religious fervor, hot-headed and excitedly excited. What does this imply? That they are not there to ensure the security of the country that sent them, but to vent dark passions. Use arbitrary violence against innocent people. To conquer territory not to them. To demonstrate racial superiority.
All this discourse implies that hidden, unclean, immoral intentions explain motivation, high morale, brotherhood of warriors. The true, deep spirit of the People's Army.
There is a creeping suspicion that much of the opposition to the "people's army" model actually stems from a deep aversion to the character and spirit of the people whose sons passionately fill the platoons, companies and battalions
People who until yesterday wallowed in community shock at the reaction of "our leftist brothers in the world," and were shocked that the liberal West accuses Israel of crimes, are currently busy stitching together the ideological infrastructure for accusing the IDF of war crimes. Here, the world will say, even in Israel they claim that nationalist, messianic soldiers imbued with a lust for revenge are running amok in Gaza. The IDF, it was recently claimed in our country, has already been washed away by a nationalist-messianic wave. This means that the moral validity of his actions must be questioned. The crime graffiti is already smeared on the walls of Gaza. Open the notepad, Judge Goldstone, the flight to The Hague departs.
Simple love of country
There may be people who are threatened by victory – or at least the authentic desire to win this time – by victory. Because suddenly, if we discover that it is possible to win, we will begin to doubt some truths that have taken root here, such as the idea that the IDF has no ability to win at all, and that there is no longer and will no longer be a "military decisiveness."
The Right People, Photo: Ami Shooman Ami Shumen
Some people may be terrified by the thought that in order to win you have to believe in something beyond the basic rationale of survival. Surprisingly, some of them carried flags and swore an oath to the Declaration of Independence only two months ago, and now they are appalled by the fact that there are people whose Jewish identity is explained by the same flag and independence, and also, robbery and fracture, their Jewish identity - explain their willingness to sacrifice their lives for the homeland.
And it is also possible that there are people, especially the kind who called for replacing the "people's army" model with the model of a "professional army," who are horrified to see how even in 2023 the small State of Israel needs a people's army. There is a creeping suspicion that much of the opposition to the "people's army" model stems not only from policy considerations, but from a deep aversion to the character and spirit of the people whose sons passionately fill the platoons, the companies, the battalions.
Nonetheless, it is hard to understand how one can not be filled with pride and love at the sight of the vital and loving character of our soldiers at the front.
May they return safely.
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