IDF as the mob
Upcoming evacuation ‘unfair’ to troops ordered to implement it
I spoke with a friend of mine who serves in a Golani Brigade battalion currently securing Gush Katif settlements. He is a commander, and also wants to attend an officer’s course, but he is an emphatic opposer of the disengagement.
How is he supposed to feel knowing that, if he doesn’t carry out the order to evacuate, his chances of going to officer’s school and continuing his military career are slim to none?
What is our army and country coming to?
The phrase “An offer you cannot refuse” is heard in mobster movies. Unfortunately, a large number of Israeli citizens have heard this phrase from local thugs who threatened to burn down their businesses if they would not pay up.
But how is an IDF soldier supposed to feel when he is ordered to evacuate people from their homes? How are elite unit soldiers supposed to react when they are scheduled to participate in the first phase of the evacuation because the chances they would refuse an order are the slimmest?
How is an IDF fighter supposed to place his heart and soul in the hands of his commanding officers knowing they relate to him just as the mobster treats his victims?
Those soldiers have exerted a lot of sweat, pain and determination to attain their current status, and the demand that they participate in the evacuation is unfair.
'Spirit and faith will overcome'
It seems this is a result of the IDF’s “Ethical Code,” as the military constantly deals with treating the enemy in a moral fashion, terrorists included, but fails to look inward.
I know these soldiers: They couldn’t hurt a fly. So the government wants to send them to evacuate us, the people they protect and care for?
Who is the enemy here -- the residents of Gush Katif or the residents of Gaza? If I feel confused, I don’t want to know what must be going on in the soldiers’ heads.
In addition to all this uncertainty, the soldiers are not permitted to operate. Last week, a group of terrorists made it to within nine feet of Kfar Darom's security fence before the troops were given the order to take them down. Is this how an army is supposed to look like?
When I asked one soldier how is it that everyone believes the disengagement plan is terrible but there is no insubordination, he told me, “Don’t worry, if, God forbid, the plan will reach its implementation phase, we will take off our uniforms and join you. We’ll break our own arms, legs; we’ll get out of it somehow.”
I have only one piece of advice to those planning the pullout: Send the psychologists and social workers to treat the soldiers, not us, for they are the ones who will need it.
When the IDF will turn to the politicians and announce that it cannot carry out the expulsion mission - then all the soldiers and officers will regain the trust they are missing.
Spirit and faith will overcome military expertise; then we will be able to say that despite the army’s “mob-like” behavior toward these soldiers, the result is good.
Renana Marmelstein is a 17-year-old resident of Gush Katif. Her regular column appears as part of Ynetnews coverage of the Gaza disengagement plan.
