Spare us your criticism
Op-ed: Radical Left’s automatic condemnation of IDF is cheap substitute for honest criticism
If only we listen to the radical Left, the vision of our prophets shall come closer to being realized. Hence, this “moral elation” naturally prompts an effort to seek where we went wrong. And so, with no connection to current events, fatalities and threats, far Left groups mark the IDF as the ultimate guilty party.
Forget about different versions, and explanations, and apologies – without the occupation and the uniforms, the roadblocks and the arrests, everything would have been resolved a long time ago. In a democratic state criticism is an important thing, yet the radical Left’s automatic condemnation of everything the IDF represents or claims is demagoguery and a cheap substitute for honest criticism.
War is a dirty business, regardless of which side you look at it from; human folly that prompts hundreds of small tragedies and the loss of life. Humanity has yet to come up with a patent that resolves all conflicts via good will alone, and if someone is working on it in Switzerland, a few generations will likely pass before the solution gets here.
World’s most moral army
The IDF must fight because “good neighbors” filled with good will are still nurturing their dream to harm Israel. Regrettably, wars are not what they used to be. There is no longer a front that is detached from the home front, but rather, a deliberate mixture of civilians and terrorists. For terror groups, civilians are the enemies just like they are the best line of defense. The implication of this is complexity and operational dilemmas that present the risk of hurting human beings. This is reality and there is no other.
As opposed to other armies, the IDF educates every soldier from his first day in the military on the values of purity of arms and safeguarding civilian lives, even if they belong to the enemy’s camp. The IDF does it not because of the next Goldstone Report, but rather, because this is the Jewish army’s moral code.
There is no perfect army, and Israeli soldiers are no angels. Mistakes have happened and will happen – this is the nature of war. The IDF is the world’s most moral army because this is the target it works towards achieving; the ideal. And when leftist groups make their charges, we must remember that what we have here is not a trigger-happy army, but rather, people who too happily fire off their words.
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