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|  | Central Command Chief Gadi Shamni Photo: Gil Yohanan
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Nation of citations
Aviad Kleinberg disturbed by citations given to IDF soldiers for avoiding innocent casualties
Aviad Kleinberg
We recently found out that that IDF Central Command Chief Gadi Shamni presented an officer and three fighters belonging to the Duvdevan unit with a citation for avoiding innocent casualties in two clashes with wanted Palestinians in the West Bank.
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In the first incident, the four raided a home in Nablus’ Old City. The soldiers wounded the wanted suspect, but reportedly refrained from hurting his wife, who was also present at the apartment. In the second case, the team raided an apartment where the wife and young children of a wanted suspect were present. Although an M-16 rifle was also found in the apartment, the fighters overcame the suspect without firing at him, thereby sparing the lives of innocents. For these operations, the troops won a citation.
Very nice. All of us can feel very good about ourselves. Again it turned out that our army, as the defense minister and chief of staff declare regularly, is the world’s most moral military. It is so moral that a failure to kill innocents is perceived as such an unusual and surprising incident that it deserves a medal.
We are implicitly led to believe that a regular IDF soldier would have opened fire on the unarmed women and children, just to be on the safe side. However, the Duvdevan officer and his three soldiers overcame this IDF instinct, and therefore they deserve a citation.
I have great respect for soldiers who are given citations. Anyone who saves a soul, even if it isn’t a Jewish one, saves a whole world. Yet I have a problem with the normative expectations that the cited soldiers contradicted. It appears that the IDF’s amazement with the conduct of the four troops tells us about the norm more than a thousand denials by the chief military prosecutor ever could, and more than the thousand commissions of inquiry that all found that our arms are pure and our soldiers are pure and their intentions are pure.
Moreover, the Duvdevan unit gave rise to an amazing, unusual, and unique team that in two separate and well-documented cases did not hurt innocents. Yes, hard to believe.
Once upon a time, refraining from shooting at innocents was the norm. Those who deviated from it were punished. Those who acted in line with it were simply alright. There were times where integrity was the norm and an honest person was taken for granted. Today, we have professional honest people (such as Benny Begin and Tzipi Livni); politicians whose claim to fame is their integrity. They deserve a citation.
Yet not only they. A whole world of moral distinction and citations has been opened up to the Middle East’s, and possibly the world’s, most moral nation; citations that we can throw in the faces of our anti-Semitic critics.
For example, the “he didn’t steal too much” citation. We can show that some of our elected representatives, despite being given the opportunity to plunder the public coffers, only took little, in order to guarantee their children’s future.
And what about the “he promised but didn’t deliver, because it was the right thing for the nation” citation, which can be given to Ehud Barak and Avishay Braverman, for example, who truly risked their lives for the sake of the State and the coalition?
And what about the “he has super-talented children, who earn millions under dubious circumstances” citation, which can be given to Ariel Sharon and Avigdor Lieberman?
And what about the “killing themselves studying Torah while sending others to be killed in the army” citation to the ultra-Orthodox parties, which also deserve, of course, the “choke the seculars and live off the public coffers, yet preach constantly” citation? The possibilities are incredible; absolutely incredible.
What wonderful country we shall have then, one graced with numerous medals. And if we find an honest person who does not seek a reward for his integrity, we shall not make do with a citation; we shall send him straight to the museum.
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