Not Anonymous

She's a Combat Soldier - no more, no less.

It disturbs me to read about these "extraordinary" women for two reasons: #1 it implies that Feminism has succeeded and that we are now free to rest on our laurels and #2 that joining the "boy's club" is a feminist action.
( Faux Feminism )

I find the callous use of a success story that promotes the false idea of gender equality in this country, while at the same time vilifying "draft dodgers" the majority of them women - utterly utterly disgusting and disturbing.

The other thing I find disturbing is this:
Fundamentalists Tied to Uganda's Antigay Law.
Uganda’s Radical Anti-Gay Measure and the American Religious Right.
Anti-Gay Ugandan Bill Set to Pass. Warren Silent.

Honestly? Is there anything I need to say that makes this picture any clearer.
American Pastors are calling for a genocide of gays in Uganda.
No.
I'm not exaggerating.

These are things I find disturbing.
Do you?

Footnotes
* There's a huge moral panic about the fact that huge swathes of the population are not being drafted. The majority of those not drafted are actually simply rejected by the IDF for various reasons - they are then persecuted for not being "decent citizens" for not serving their time for the country - forced labour, I mention.
Back to text.

Dialogues Against Militarism have arrived to Be'er Shevah and tomorrow they're speaking at the Tel-Aviv infoshop, Salon Mazal.

I'm really really hoping I can make it and not drop dead from my freakishly long day at Uni tomorrow.

First of all Shana Tova! to whom in applies and have a good weekend to whom it doesn't!

( The Shana Tova Video )

And now for the actual post.
Which is about the reckoning of our souls.
We have entered the Ten Days of Repentance, which honestly, mean didly squat to me⁽¹⁾.

It's not about my personal soul (which is an extension of the mind in any case).
It's about the fact that during these days, if I'm going to wax poetry, I can see the way that my country is going to go in the next year.

It is perhaps gauche to talk about politics in the midst of the High "Holy" Days, but this is my connection to being Jewish, which is kind of crummy when you think about it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have about ten tabs open as I write this about the Goldstone Report concerning Operation "Cast Lead", last year's winter assault on Gaza by the IDF.

I'm finding it difficult to come up with words when talking about the report itself. It's nothing we didn't know before, because a few months after the assault we heard the accounts of IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza during "Cast Lead".

Not to mention just the knowledge that before the assault the siege had been going strong for over a year, that along with weapons flour, canned goods and other necessities (like WATER) had been smuggled through the tunnels under the Gaza/Egypt border.
Just to remind, Hamas and other militant groups like Islamic Jihad had been firing at Sderot and the other towns and Kibbutizim surrounding Gaza for nearly eight years (and of course into the Gush Katif Settlements in Gaza itself prior to the Disengagement plan).

All this for a bit of history. And just to make sure everyone knows that Human Rights Violations and War Crimes came from both sides.

A big "however" coming this way; Israel was basically, and please forgive the metaphor, shooting fish in a barrel. Gaza is the most densely populated stretch of geography in the world (as far as I'm aware), using fly over bombs and white phosphorous over that kind of area with the intention of flushing out Terrorists who are hiding among the population, yeah, that's a great way of making sure you're preserving innocent lives.
No, no it is not, though I suppose that goes without saying.

Excuse me, I digressed and began reiterating the points I wrote during the actual assault.

What I really wanted to talk about is Israel's reaction to the report, which is to say, blatantly, "He's lying".
That's it.
Oh, okay, let's add in a few internal Antisemitic remarks like calling Goldstone a "salf-hating" Jew (only Jews call other Jews "self-hating", which I find so insanely irritating and angering. That in itself is Antisemitic of course, that Jews are so deficient in their morality and identification, that they "hate themselves").

I was told that Israel should have been proactive and put together a report of their own countering the UN Fact Finding Mission.
Which, yeah, on a purely rational level that is the thing to do, but honestly, I find it quite repugnant that anyone would suggest any country put together a Propaganda based report aimed at disputing the fact that a sovereign nation committed war crimes on a population that has been deliberately weakened and incarcerated in their own homes.

Hearing the cynical dehumanising discussion of how much better the IDF did in Gaza than in Lebanon two years prior. Saying that more of "Them" died.

Is that the way an ethical people speak and act? Are those the values upon which a democracy is based? Better it be "Them", than "Us".

The soul searching that we should be doing is coming to the realisation that we, as a nation, must end this debilitating Occupation, because beyond it being immoral to deny basic human rights to a population and keep them under martial law, it is bad for us, for me, as an Israeli, to have the undercurrent of violence and hatred course through the streets.

It will end in tears.

Also, how immature is it to call out to the nations to reject the findings, as though closing our eyes, ears and mouth will some how cause it to disappear.
There is also the implication, by denying the report, that all that happened in Gaza was normal and appropriate for anti-Terror and urban Warfare.

However, despite the growing weariness of Europe against Israel (which is of course completely Antisemitically motivated, duh!) the U.S will not be confused by the facts and will back Israel up.

This is far from over. This is not going to be bring the end of the Occupation. That's, unfortunately, a long way off, because economically speaking there is too much vested interest in continuing the Occupation and letting the Settlements expand, thus furthering the possibility of a two state solution from ever happening.

So, on these days preceding the Day of Atonement (in which I will not be fasting) I'll keep in touch on stuff relating to the report and perhaps tell you what other fun stuff is being said about the report.

Maybe some of it will be marginally entertaining and not cause me to grind my teeth.

Chag Sameach Friends, may this year be the best so far!

Notes:
(1)I'm not a religious person, I never was, I tried to be (both Jewishly and not) and really, in the end, it's all about the fact that I do not want, need or even think much of the authority of either an entity we imagined in order to comfort ourselves or those people who claim to know what the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Deity actually expects from us teeny, tiny humans whose lives are only significant to us and maybe to a few dozen more people.
I'd also like to add that I have nothing against people who believe in a deity, I really honestly do not care. Belief isn't the problem, imo. It's religion.
Back to text

I have a lot to blog about, but this is possibly the most optimistic piece of News that came my way today.

About six or seven years ago I was in England visiting my sister who was living there at the time. One of the weekends I spent there, the family went on a day trip to Bletchly Park.
This was very exciting for me, as the family as a whole are history buffs (to some extent) and if there was something I wanted to see it was Enigma.

I knew who Alan Turing was merely as the genius who cracked the code, as an unsung hero of WWII, I was about to enter my IDF service as an Air-Force Intelligence NCO.
I was excited at being in a place of historical gravitas.

I was unaware of what had been done to that hero and as a young, partially closeted, queer woman, this is not surprising as I did not know the history of my people before me.

For those who do not know, or were only peripherally aware, in 1952 Alan Turing was incarcerated for gross indecency under the same law that put Oscar Wilde in jail half a century earlier. He was given the choice of jail or chemical castration.

This ended his career as a scientists and more than likely brought about the end of his life two years later. He died at the age of 41, from cyanide poisoning.
The death was deemed a suicide.

Why is all this important, you ask?

Last month in Britain, a petition to issue a posthumous apology to Alan Turing was put into motion.
An international treasure was lost due to bigotry and homophobia.
These two blights of humanity are not gone, they still affect our lives and they have affected history. We do not know what Turing could have done in the years he did not live, we can only mourn the life of a man who was persecuted because he did not fit the cultural and societal norms and mores.
Those norms and mores still hold strong and are still lethal.

An international petition has been set up as well (info, links etc).

As long as some people are considered more human than others, simply because they do not fit the little boxes deemed "appropriate", noise must be made about this.

A big resounding shout in the dark.

Thanks to rm for the heads up and the link to xtricks' post on the matter.

A-la the famous 300 scream by Gerard Butler, ya know.

Education minister: More combat soldiers needed, is the title of the article, the sub-title is:
"Sa'ar visits military recruit center, promises full cooperation between education system and IDF".

Jesus fucking Christ, are they kidding!?

Because we need the IDF to venture even further into the brain washing tactics of the Israeli Education System.
The system, from kindergarten to high school, is built to prepare us for the fact that we, good Israeli citizens (so long as we're not Palestinian identified, that is) that we will serve loyally in the IDF.

Over the past few years there has been a huge moral panic regarding the "shirkers", those who through means and ways get an exemption from IDF service and usually go on to do some kind of civilian oriented national service which should (though it isn't) be considered equal to military service.
Conciousness objectors who are 18 are rare. That's why they're the ones spoken about more often than not.
The largest section of the (Jewish) population that do not serve in the military are the Yeshivah (Haredi - the people in shtreimels and black suits all year round) Boys who due to religious conviction do not serve, this is the reason Orthodox girls (not Haredi)
Backfire, is putting it mildly.
Demographically, they are also the fastest growing Jewish sector.
I feel the urge to mock and laugh, but that doesn't do much good, because the people vilified by the witch hunt committed upon the "shirkers" are the ones who do not serve either for physical health reasons or mental health reasons.

Bluntly, these are the people that the IDF, the system, rejected. Still, they continue to persecute those deemed "lesser" because serving in the IDF is the way you are "made" into a Good Israeli.
A Good Israeli is a Loyal Soldier, willing to Die for Land and Nation.

Whatever.

The State created loopholes through which people can avoid the draft, legally. Then they get their panties into a twist that people use it.

The IDF is supposed to be a defensive army, obviously it acts as a police force over a civilian population and commits as many war crimes as any other army in the world while it continues to chant: "Most Ethical Army in the World".

During my two years of service I'd never received more than a cursory skim over what constitutes an illegal order or command. I know from friends who were in combat units that they first heard of an illegal order during boot camp like everyone else and never heard those words again.
The skim is in a little pamphlet new draftees get when entering the system, reagrding the behaviour of an IDF soldier.

In the article linked above, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar says:

"The Education Ministry regards with great significance the issue of encouraging IDF service, increasing recruits' rate and combat recruits' rate," the minister said.
[...]
"The education system welcomes a full collaboration with the IDF. I feel positively regarding the introduction of officers into schools."

Minister Sa'ar also stressed that "some of the parameters of the success of an educational establishment are matriculation eligibility, social values and dropout prevention. Military service is an important parameter. Schools in which dropout rates are low should allow a special effort for raising recruitment rates."

There you have it. Kids from low socio-economic backgrounds should be encouraged to follow a path in which they put their lives in danger for a state that would rather have cannon fodder than invest in the actual neighbourhoods.

Some of those kids may attain actual life skills that will grant them upwards social and economic mobility, but in the context of the Occupation and the destructive economy in which Capital and Capitol are more intertwined than ever, I find this a very discouraging development in what should be a civic establishment and not a pre-military education camp.

In relation to my two previous posts about the death of Bassem Ibrahim Abu-Rahma, the video below is seven and a half minutes of the events leading to his injury and death.

Two words are repeated over and over in the language that I speak. They are "Regah" and "Katzin".
"Regah" means "Moment" and colloquially means "Wait".
"Katzin" means "Officer".

Over and over they are saying "Wait, Officer!".

Warning, this is a very violent and triggering video, it is in Arabic and Hebrew with no subtitles.

I'm on New Profile's mailing list and they send out quite a lot of informative emails almost everyday.

The one I received today was a round up of links about the IDF soldiers testimonies I already wrote about here and here:
( For your convenience )

Rela Mazali also writes:
Jewish society in Israel has repeatedly produced testimonial collections of this type (the first of which may have been Siyach Lochamim [Warriors' Discourse] published after the war of 1967).
Invariably following this or that military campaign, these have been instituted by now as a cultural-social ritual. While providing important, and in fact potentially incriminating, knowledge, the individual agonizing enacted by these ritual testimonials has equally, I feel, worked to maintain a deceptive façade of morality and decency.
The level of organized violence applied against Palestinians under the auspices of the state (by Israel's military and police, by Israeli settlers, through Israeli courts and legislature) has, it seems to me, increased severely over the decades of, and in parallel with, this recurrent personal agonizing. Apparently, the testimonies have not stemmed the use of violence by soldiers, settlers or state. Neither have they been transformed into incriminating evidence in courts.
On the other hand, while failing to achieve such practical consequences, they may have actually reinforced the imperviousness with which state violence is deployed; in publicizing cases of soldiers' moral deliberation and sensitivity (although always after the violent facts), they have imparted and reiterated an image of Israel's army as, supposedly, highly moral.
There is no doubt that some individual soldiers are deeply troubled by the decisions and actions they have taken and which they report in such testimonies. Overall, however, Israeli militarization has, I think, been served well by the ritual. Its substance has been coopted by the hegemony which, diffusing its critical import, has utilized it to both obscure and enable yet more actions of the kind originally called into question by the testimonies.

Back to my thoughts on the subject.
Over the week that the testimonies became News and were spoken about the whole time I likened the discourse to listening to a Rapist and disregarding the Rape victim. I know that's a very harsh comparison, but when you give voice to the Rapist, allow them to say "I'm sorry", "It was wrong", etc, one is essentially silencing the very real grievances that the Rape victim has against the Rapist.
Okay, so the family, friends and acquaintances forgive the Rapist, because they show so much remorse and regret and sorrow.
What about the victim(s)?
Do they have no say?
Usually, they are disbelieved if the powers that be chose not to find the evidence of the assault, of the dehumanisation and all the other disgusting stuff that happen throughout as assault of that kind.

I very much doubt Israel will be willing to listen to any testimony the Palestinians give, same with the international community, because now that Bibi is in power (with 24 ministers, most of them with made up positions and no health minister! WTF!!) there will be no interest in what the Palestinian people, the PA or the Internationals that are there have to say.

Add to that the murder and assault in the Settlement of Bat-Ayin in which a 13 year old Israeli boy was killed and a 7 year old Israeli boy (both Jewish of course) were wounded by an axe wielding man (Palestinian of course).

Gaza is now, in Israel's mind, pretty much forgotten. Now there is proof, once again, that the Palestinians want nothing more than to kill Jewish children, they are not interested in anything other than to cause trouble and destroy the Peace process that every single Israeli says they are interested in.

Whenever children are involved it is shocking, because such a short lifetime is now over and it seems all the more tragic, which it undoubtedly is and I truly feel for the families of those two boys.
The children of Gaza are less worthy of life than those in the Settlements in Samaria (that would be the West Bank). That is what we are fed, told and everything like that.
Israel is forced to harm civilians, right? In order to keep safe and secure.
Safety and Security will not be compromised in the name of Peace.
Pieces of humanity.
Oy.

I'll stop.
I had planned to give you more links and quotes regarding Bat-Ayin, but I think I'll just give you the titles and you can click on them if you are interested:
Working out a response by Amos Harel.
Analysis/Settlement attack plays into new government's hands by Akivah Eldar.
Settlers: Ehud Barak, left-wing policies to blame for attack by Nadav Shragai.
Israel fears Jewish extremists will avenge settlement murder by Anshel Pfeffer, Jonathan Lis and Nadav Shragai.

I've been reading the current Ha'aretz, and there are three specific article regarding the IDF that I found very interesting, though not particularly surprising.

You see, the IDF really prides itself with being a People's Army in a Democratic State, an Ethical and Moral Army. As such is of course willing to be put under the harsh scrutiny of the "Free Press"(1).
The IDF censor has obviously approved the following article - IDF killed civilians in Gaza under loose rules of engagement - in which it says:

During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.
[...]
Their testimony runs counter to the Israel Defense Forces' claims that Israeli troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation.
[...]
The testimonies include a description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. "There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof," the soldier said[...]

I am impressed that this is seeing daylight.
Really I am.
I mean, the testimonies one can read at Breaking the Silence are constantly undermined and not taken seriously.
So to see actual testimony about the fact that the IDF was not what it claimed to be on the ground is really refreshing.

This of course doesn't go unnoticed and the analysis, a companion piece to the testimony above, is not particularly deep, but shows an interesting perspective on the issue of soldiers speaking out about the, shall we say, oversights.

ANALYSIS / Can Israel dismiss its own troops' stories from Gaza?

The soldiers are not lying, for the simple reason that they have no reason to. If you read the transcript that will appear in Haaretz Friday, you will not find any judgment or boasting. This is what the soldiers, from their point of view, saw in Gaza. There is a continuity of testimony from different sectors that reflects a disturbing and depressing picture.
[...]

They have no reason to lie?
I don't know about that, despite that what they may have to say goes beyond reflecting "a disturbing and depressing picture". I'd say that their testimony may say that the IDF did bad things.
But what the commentators on said testimonies will say is that it served a greater picture... this article is already doing so:

It's possible that somewhere in the stories there were a few mistakes or exaggerations, because a squad or platoon leader does not always see the entire picture. But this is evidence, first hand, of what most Israelis would prefer to repress. This is how the army carried out its war against armed terrorists, with a civilian population of a million and a half people stuck in the middle[...]

Emphasis mine.
And indeed the repression will continue without so much of a petition against violence towards civilians.
Why?
Because this is a confession spectacle.
Bad things happen and there is a need for them to be purged and once they're out in the open... what happens?
Do they disappear? Arguably yes, because when you confess, you want to be forgiven. And we are so very good at forgiving (and forgetting) our own sins.
These testaments are True because they were witnessed by Good Soldiers who did Bad Things.
Any testimony spoken by a Palestinian is dismissed:

When statements came only from Palestinian witnesses or "the hostile press," it was possible to dismiss them as propaganda that served the enemy.

Our own propaganda of suffering will continue to blind us to the fact that this didn't occur in a vacuum. Which every one known, but no one counts.

The same issue in which these two articles appear, another, so called, optimistic article appeared. Showing the positive side of Operation Cast Lead (OCL).
Breaking the Mud Ceiling. Apparently, OCL was a land mark in Women's inclusion in the battle field!
Now, from a purely Liberal Feminist point of view this is a good thing, the equalisation of women in the IDF should promote equalisation in civilian life(2).
Here's what the article has to say:

Without our noticing, in the middle of Operation Cast Lead a milestone was passed in the integration of women into combat in the Israel Defense Forces. The Gaza war was not the first in which female officers and soldiers were present on the battlefield. It happened during the Second Lebanon War[...]
This meant that if all those with a certain job are supposed to accompany the combat forces into the Gaza Strip, gender became irrelevant. Female munitions officers with whom we spoke say that they, and their male colleagues and subordinates, accepted the change naturally, while acknowledging the novelty of the situation.
[...]
The change reflects not only a spirit of feminism in the Israel Defense Forces, but also the difficulty of recruiting personnel into the various technical units. While the motivation to serve in elite combat units remains high, young men are less enthusiastic about serve in technological positions, partly due to the steady decline in the number of trade schools and of high school students who opt to study technological and technical subjects at a high level.

Emphasis mine.
Yup, assimilation into a militaristic mind set in which you conform (willingly, of course) to ideals of power through violence and in which you only got the job because not enough boys are willing to "tinker".
I'm feeling the equality.
Or not:

While female munitions officers in combat battalions are no longer an unusual sight, Ben Aderet and Cohen [Two Munition Officers being interviews[ still feel they're under a magnifying glass. Not only because of their participation in the fighting but also because of prevailing beliefs in "civilian life," such as women's lack of technical awareness.

"It's not self-evident," Ben Aderet said. "When I come at 2 A.M. to rescue a vehicle, they first see a girl who has come to take care of a patrol that got stuck. I feel I have to prove myself each time. My soldiers already know that and they come to work, but when I work with companies from other units my soldiers prepare them and say, 'She's not a girl like the kind you know.'"

"It really is a man's job," Cohen said. "It's dirty and there's tank grease and they still raise an eyebrow when they see me for the first time, but it doesn?t last too long. There are still nasty comments. Soldiers ask me, do you even know the difference between a Merkava 3 and a Merkava 4 tank?"

The spirit of Feminism.
Gotta love the regular every day sexism, though.

As for what they saw in Gaza (like the soldiers testimony above)... not much, apparently:

They are also reluctant to comment on issues relating to the Gaza operation. Aloush [another interviewy] says she saw no [Palestinian] civilians or demolished houses inside the Strip, "but I did see the launching of missiles at Israel, just 300 meters from me." Ben Aderet says that she did see the suffering of the Palestinian population. "You go home after a month, everything seems very strange and you don't take in where you are. It was not so pleasant."

Amazing what they put together in one Newspaper.

Notes
(1) This "Free Press" writes articles about the censorship it undergoes through the IDF censor: This article has been approved by the censor.

(2) Though I think we all know that this is really not the case, seeing as the power a women soldier has in her unit does not get translated into civilian life. Not to mention that as long as boys serve more time than girls and that jobs continue to be gendered... the IDF really isn't a platform for equalisation.

A critical article regarding Waltz with Bashir called When Israel accepts the war waltz and when it doesn't which was brought to my attention by shelestel via esizzle.

As some of you know Waltz with Bashir won the foreign language Golden Globe which aired during the second week of operation "Cast Lead" a.k.a the Israeli War on Gaza.
To say it was apropos would be an understatement.

Reading this very interesting article, few things popped out and made me think of something I hadn't actually considered before.

"It is a completely apolitical film. It's a personal film. If it were a political film, we would have dealt with the other sides, meaning that we would have interviewed the Palestinian and Christian sides. And it does not. It's a very personal film," Folman told France 24.

But in being apolitical, Waltz With Bashir also fails to provide context.

The film's narrative begins as Folman, the main character, travels to Europe and around Israel speaking with fellow soldiers who fought in Lebanon. He eventually begins to piece together what happened during his time in Beirut, which he had erased from his memory.
[...]
Maybe it was too much to ask Folman to reinterpret the entire historical accounting of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in one film. But if the Israeli public is able to swallow the sensitive nature of Waltz With Bashir it is precisely because it stays away from treating the Israeli state as a long-time political actor in the systematic, ongoing violence in Lebanon.

Thus, there is no overt questioning of why Israel was in Lebanon in the first place. Israeli military actions are validated under the guise of "fighting terrorism," and this is poignant when considering how the current Gaza war will be viewed in hindsight.

Also, Waltz With Bashir fails to present Israeli soldiers as direct participants in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila. Israeli soldiers were only following orders so any responsibility lay solely with the chain of command.

Emphasis mine.

I have to say... this wasn't something I had considered before. Quite simply, because I am ignorant of Israel's role as a political entity within Lebanon's inner politics.
I consider myself a pretty well-informed individual.
I knew of the massacre.
After the second Lebanon war I took the time to read about the first Lebanon war and "discovered" the massacre in which the IDF is complicit.
Before 2006 Sabra and Shatila was just something that happened to the Palestinians in Lebanon. I had no idea who or why or even what was committed.
For over 21 years a portion of history - mine and theirs - was unknown to me.
This is not something strange, I know a few others to whom this movie was the first time they were confronted with the fact that the we, Israel, helped commit a crime... no "war" prefix needed in my opinion.

This article is correct in stating (not directly) that Israelis in general do not ask "Why?", "For what reason?", "How does this serve us?".
We [the collective] take for granted, in this very militarist and nationalist inclined society that everything done, even if it's "bad" is for the good of Israel and Jewish people.
In Sabra and Shatila there was senseless murder.
Ari Folman shows that very well.
What isn't asked is "Why were we even there in the first place?", now I don't know what Ari Folman's thoughts or opinions on that are, but I do know that for the "average" Israeli the question doesn't even enter our minds.

We are not encouraged to ask these questions that may undermine the hegemony of citizen loyalry to the Zionist collective.
We are not encouraged to ask questions period, we are either stupid or provocative, and who wants to be regarded as either stupid or provocative.

Every war is a war for the continued existence.

Even though every war, since the 1982 Lebanon war, has brought about internal protest.

This war, on Gaza and against Hamas, has brought a wave of right wing nationalism and extremism. The political discourse may be saying "Left", but facts on the ground (a saying we love so much in this part of the world) is screaming "Right":
During "Cast Lead" over 700 Palestinian-Israelis (colloquially known as Israeli-Arabs) were arrested and brought in for questioning for demonstrating against the war.
The two Arab parties Balad and Ra'am-Ta'al were stricken from the ballot (the Supreme court will reinstate their place, no doubt).
The Israeli media did not do it's job by asking the tough questions that great Free Press Journalism makes, we can always blame the IDF censors, but I think a certain ideology runs through Israeli media.

The biggest questions the no one asked was "what good will this war bring? will it actually stop Hamas from firing rockets? and if this is for the people of Sderot and the rest of surrounding towns why was this not dealt with before 2005, before the IDF left the strip?".

Same with Lebanon 1982... no one asked why. Not the soldiers who were only following orders like all the soldiers in the world who do not want to consider what they do to be inhumane. Not the home front who wants to believe that what is happening is done for their own protection.

No one asks.
No one answers.

It's a point that is, I think, brought across quite poignantly in Waltz with Bashir.

Every week, every day, there are demonstration over in the West Bank against the Gaza assault.
These demonstrations are nothing new, as they have been protesting against the building of a fence, a wall, which continues to usurp land from people whose land is already tenuous in their grip.
These demonstrations have been going on for years, since 2002.
That's eight years.
How many years has Southern Israel been under rocket attack?

A worrying trend has been showing over the past week.

There have been numerous Anti-Gaza assault demo's in the West Bank since the operation began.
Today, during such a protest, a Palestinian man was shot by IDF forces, this is the third casualty in as many days.
A soldier was wounded by rock throwers.

So... yeah.