Alone in this battle
By Ze'ev Schiff
Haaretz, December 3, 2004
The words of High Court Justice Edmond Levy testify to the public atmosphere in the wake of what is called "the crisis of moral values" in the Israel Defense Forces. Levy and two other justices are discussing a petition that calls for revoking the appointment of Major General Dan Halutz as deputy chief of staff, because of what he said about harming innocent civilians when Hamas leader Sheikh Salah Shehadeh was assassinated in July 2002 (Halutz was commander of the air force at the time).
"I have an uneasy feeling about his words, to put it mildly. It's difficult for me to accept, particularly since Major General Halutz has no reservations about what he said. His moral stand is important to us," said Justice Levy. The court is now awaiting explanations from Halutz, who is considered a candidate to succeed Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon. Ostensibly, one harsh statement by the High Court of Justice is enough to derail Halutz's candidacy.
Halutz is remaining silent at present, and therefore, in many ways, Ya'alon is alone in this battle. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refrained from any response to what is happening in the IDF. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who broke his silence when he appeared two days ago at an internal conference of the General Command Staff and defined the serious incidents as "weeds," didn't say anything at all to the general public. It is clear that Ya'alon is worried. He devoted two sessions of the General Staff's forum to the subject. In addition, he held meetings with senior officers and even made a speech to about 1,500 senior officers in the regular army and the reserves at a conference.
The occupation has existed for decades, but the present violent conflict has exacerbated the situation. At the beginning of the present conflict, then-deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh wrote to Ehud Barak, who was prime minister and defense minister at the time, that there should be a focus on the brigade commanders, because the behavior of some of them was causing the soldiers to be "trigger happy."
The more civilian losses were suffered on the Israeli side, the worse the behavior in the army became. This fact cannot be ignored. That doesn't detract from the conclusion that the occupation is very destructive. The war, therefore, is not only against Palestinian terror, it is also confrontation with the moral corruption caused by the occupation. And to preserve the IDF's morality, the occupation must end.
The chief of staff's message to the senior officers is: Speak to the soldiers! The problem is that the company commander, the sergeant and the squad commander are the ones who are dealing directly with the Palestinian population. More could be done if half the checkpoints, those that are located at the crossings into Israel, were to be manned by civilians. The behavior of the soldiers is not uniform. There is a substantial difference between the affair of "confirming the kill" of a teenage girl by the company commander in the south and the publication of photographs of corpses of Palestinians being abused by soldiers.
In the affair of the company commander, the soldiers spoke. And because their testimony was not accepted in the investigation, they justly leaked their testimony to the press. That was an immediate draining of the pus from the wound. In the case of the corpses, this is photographic evidence that was saved for a long time, until the photographers were discharged from the IDF. They weren't interested in prevention and punishment, but only in the scoop, long after the incident. They should have broken silence immediately. Despite that, the Military Police Detective Unit has already managed to gather initial details about one of the incidents.
The false reports that were revealed in the Southern Command are an entirely different matter. We are referring to the widespread destruction of homes in two major operations. The investigation is in full swing, and if things are verified, we are no longer talking about "weeds" but about poisonous plants.
The war is at its height, and it's hard to know what the morrow will bring. We should remember what the head of the Central Command, Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, said to his soldiers: "We have to fight, to win - and to remain human beings."
