IDF not innocent

Those top officials refuse to internalize the fact that they are the ones who bound the two, settlers and soldiers, together. In addition to their war on terror, IDF soldiers and commanders have become a part of the settlement enterprise in the Territories, some of them while showing complete solidarity with it and most of them involuntarily, as a result of the weakness of mind and shortsightedness of those who bear the responsibility.

In the first group, we'll skip the generals who in the past recommended the "settlement enterprise in Gaza in order to cure its Arabs of the illusion that we'll be withdrawing," and those who swore before the Supreme Court regarding the "temporary security need" to establish the West Bank settlement of Elon Moreh, even though the settlers themselves admitted it was set up for ideological reason and that the settlement's existence is eternal

We'll therefore focus only on the current military leaders, those who forbade the Palestinians to harvest their olives at groves that are near settlements and illegal outposts, claiming that they would not be able to defend them from settler abuse.

Those who did not launch an investigation when the groves were cut down or olives were stolen and "Jewish trees" were planted in their place; those who appear "in the name of security" and the separation fence at the Supreme Court, deceiving and hiding from the judges the truth uttered by Israeli government ministers; those who declare that they do not create roads for Jews only, yet in practice guide their soldiers to do so.

In the same group we'll also find the military leaders that control dozens of permanent and mobile roadblocks across Judea and Samaria that oversee that movement of millions of Palestinians, yet they are "unable" to prevent the transfer of dozens of mobile homes to the illegal outposts; also those who are able to safeguard 250,000 settlers in the West Bank but do not prevent attacks on Palestinian children making their way to school on roads that circumvent illegal outposts and in the town of Hebron.

Those who trample over 35,000 Palestinians – block the doors to their homes, ban their movement in the streets of their city, close their stores to the point of removing them from their homes – so that a handful of settlers who seek to inherit the City of our Forefathers instead of being part of it can move freely.

Israeli public must wake up

In the second group we can find the "obliged," those who believe in a different IDF but are forced to act differently in a reality forced upon them by the politicians known as leaders.

Those know about the illegality of the outposts but keep them because the right of every Israeli for security in the Territories is entrenched by law; those who prevent Palestinian movement without a decree or permit because they were told that "separation" of movement is part of the "thwarting" of terror; those who believe in Jewish solidarity and are forced to wash their bodies after their brothers hurled various substances on them; those who disconnect east Jerusalem from its natural Palestinian environment, because the ministers repeat mindlessly that our capital is "united" under Israeli sovereignty forever.

If the Israeli government ignores those sobering up, in the form of "Shovrim Shtika", (a group of combat soldiers who testify to injustices done in the Territories) and refuse petitions by the Association of Civil Rights and similar organization, it should at least listen to the attorney general, who recently declared that "the state of law enforcement in the Territories is at a very mediocre level. This is first of all a matter for the army, and the army has priorities and missions that it sees as more urgent."

The government must realize there is no "Green Line" for breaking the law, turning a blind eye, the moral and social failure - and to violence. The doubletalk and the winks undermine the IDF's strength and its ability to fulfill its genuine function when it's called upon to do so. Declarations and the establishment of committees of inquiry to look into what is already known for years is not more than an expression of a lack of the leadership and determination needed for a clear policy of respecting and enforcing the law.

The Israeli public should wake up and demand this. Ignoring these abscesses, which come on top of others from the country's early days that we still have not found the courage to drain, will not be boosting the spirit of the current generation serving in the Territories, Israeli society's morality, and the country's image.

The writer served as the Gaza Brigade commander and today is a member of the Council for Peace and Security management team