Hanoch Daum
Post-traumatic refusal
Latest case of IDF insubordination result of disengagement trauma
At the moment of truth they lost. At the moment of truth two years ago the plan collapsed. Despite the many preparations, despite several petitions by rabbis, and repeated calls to refuse orders en mass in an attempt to sabotage the disengagement.
Despite the grand plans for a sweeping refusal that would topple the army like a pack of cards, religious soldiers did not refuse military orders, and with the exception of a few isolated and negligible cases they participated in the disengagement process.
The latest case of insubordination, more than it serves to prevent the evacuation in Hebron, serves to rectify the past and sound a warning for the future: Here we are, say the yeshiva boys, refusing orders. We are not as innocent as we were in the past, and what was easily lost in Gaza will not necessarily succeed in Judea and Samaria.
The current refusal to carry out orders is not isolated. It is a monument to the memory of another, mass, significant and strategic refusal that never happened and a warning of what's to come.
The scars left by the disengagement on religious Zionism are far deeper than they appear to the Israeli public.
Masters of their destiny
This is not just about uprooting settlements, but also about the ease with which the evacuation was carried out, the resolve, and the speed with which the opposition collapsed.
What we are now witnessing in Hebron – is a psychological attempt by yeshiva students to restore some of the energy to the defeated camp, to show – to themselves and to the public to which they belong – that they are still in control, that they are still the masters of their destiny, that they are not afraid of anything.
The insubordination we are witnessing now is a post-traumatic refusal. It's a serious incident, but not because of the evacuation in Hebron, but because of its systematic nature. This is a refusal by yeshiva students, who are trying to restore a sense of initiative, it is the refusal of soldiers attempting to restore the pride that was trampled on during the disengagement (an act that more and more people now believe was wrong – which increases the frustration and feeling that perhaps more should have been done to prevent it).
This is insubordination that serves to shirk the obedience of the past and to warn against the mass refusal that is expected to take place here in the future.
