Before I entered the army I used to always throw around something I had heard from Israeli advocates. They like to say that Israel is one of the most humane armies in the world, despite what anti-Israel crowds may say. That crowd says that we kill innocents, that we beat the Palestinians, that we do everything possible to demean the humans living in Gaza, the West Bank, and within the borders of the State. I knew it wasn't true, so I followed the pro-Israel declaration of humanity.
However, I didn't really know what it meant for the IDF to be "humane." I knew that Israel gives free medical care to Palestinians with serious problems, including allowing women in to give birth in Israeli hospitals. I knew that we take religious Muslim laws seriously at checkpoints, especially in terms of male soldiers not touching female Muslims. I knew that we take the utmost care to protect the dignity of the Palestinians. I guess I didn't know how we got to that point, to the point of knowing how to be humane, what being humane meant.
I finally figured it out when we were taken into an auditorium on base recently to receive a lecture about "The Spirit of The IDF," or Ruach Tzahal in Hebrew. This was actually the second time that I was formally taught the ethical code of the IDF, the first being in Michve Alon. We took our seats in the large auditorium, and at the podium stood the Company Commander, the commander in charge of all the new recruits in my battalion. After we got situated he started.
The rest.
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2 comments:
I had the chance to work in the vicinity of the IDF in the Golan Heights (Syria) - first rate people IMO. It was very strange crossing over the line of separation to Syria proper; if the Syrians found so much as a gum wrapper in the ashtray with Hebrew writing on it you were in for a "complicated" time. Barry6176
I can only imagine, Barry. We need more first-person accounts getting out - the MSM will skew the stories to fit their bias-of-the-day, and as I saw cynically - and likely accurately - noted elsewhere, Israel is likely getting a pass on their current campaign against Hamas simply because it's not yet know what Obama's take on the situation will be.
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