No sooner did the Bibi-Yvet show give us the public defenestration of Uzi Arad, whose appointment to be Israel’s next ambassador to Britain was confirmed and rejected all in leaked news stories within a single week, than Bibi has given us an even better show. While Arad was the real thing, a genuine Mossad spy who’d run spies and been instrumental in the Rosen-Aipac spy episode, Amidror seems a parody of Dr. Strangelove; a Maj. Gen. who’s never had a field command, and who sees the troops as little more than ideological cannon fodder.
Peace Now’s Ori Nir calls him an “ultra-hawk” and “National-Religious icon.” It’s hard to believe that anyone can be worse than Arad, but Amidror really and undoubtedly is:
Amidror…told a conference last year that soldiers should kill anyone who gets in the way of completing their mission – and that soldiers who refuse to attack should be shot, too.
“A soldier who won’t attack when they tell him ‘forward’ because he says, ‘Two soldiers to my right and two to my left have been killed, so I won’t move’ – any normal military system should put a bullet in his head, and a liberal system should put him in jail,” Amidror said, speaking at a conference organized by the Israel Democracy Institute on “National Values in the Israel Defense Forces.”
“The education we give soldiers is an education of risking or being willing to sacrifice one’s life … of knowing that some of the soldiers won’t return, but still, everyone goes. And anyone who doesn’t go should get a bullet in the head or be in jail.”
…When journalist Haim Yavin, a fellow panelist, noted the army’s orders during the first Lebanon war were to “fight carefully,” Amidror responded: “That’s a totally illegal order. What should be said is ‘kill more of the bastards on the other side, so that we’ll win.’ Period.”
He also criticized the IDF code of ethics drafted by Prof. Asa Kasher. “I said this should remain unwritten, so there wouldn’t be anything written, as [then] it would become technical,” Amidror said.
…Yesterday Amidror…told Haaretz that in some countries soldiers who won’t attack are executed…
This guy would’ve been right at home at the Wansee Conference. You’ll recall that’s where the Nazis devised the Final Solution, while writing down almost none of their plans because they were wise enough to understand that if they did and anyone found out about it they’d be in mighty hot water. To be clear, I’m not accusing Amidror of planning a genocide against anyone (expect perhaps Arabs or Palestinians if given half a chance). But I’m noting an absolute similarity of thought and mindset.
As Bibi prepares for his ersatz peace offensive, let the world keep in mind that his incoming top security advisor said the following about the peace process:
Earlier this month, Amidror wrote that “negotiations with the Palestinians and even an agreement with the Palestinians (…) will not benefit Israel in any way…
Ori also notes the ultra-hawk’s “vicious attacks on the New Israel Fund.” He has derided the Obama administration’s “naive” policies. Politically, he was the public face of the far-right religious, Jewish Home party. He’s not just a settler, but a supporter of the most radical and messianic among them. He believes, in other words, that Israeli sovereignty over the entire greater Land of Israel will hasten the coming of the messiah.
Amidror espouses a stridently anti-Arab strategic doctrine which attributes annihilationist views to all Muslism and Arabs. Further, his own views are completely out of touch with the developments of the Arab democratic revolutions sweeping the Middle East:
His approach to Israel’s national security attributes little value to political accords between Israel and its neighbors. In Amidror’s view, Israel’s chief national security asset in its relations with its neighbors is deterrence…Amidror wrote that…the Arab world “does not accept the very presence of a sovereign and independent Jewish state in the heart of the Middle East and will do its best to annihilate it.” Any other basic assumption, Amidror wrote, is “self deception.” Amidror repeated…that Israel’s goal should not be to change the minds and hearts of its Arab neighbors – such attempts would be in vain – but to deter them by force. “The processes taking place in the Middle East are leading it toward becoming more fundamentalist, less tolerant and less democratic.”
…[In his recent essay] The Chief Lesson – Security is Preferable to Peace…Amidror argues that because Israel lives “on the edge of a volcano,” it must always be ready for the worse. “The main lesson is that we must emphasize Israel’s security needs and its ability to defend itself over any other requirement, including the lofty dream to reach political agreements [with its neighbors].
This guy is a troglodyte. A Curtis LeMay. A Gen. Jack D. Ripper. Is this what Israel and the Middle East needs right now? An ideological flamethrower who wants to cast oil on the fire that is the Israeli-Arab conflict?
Clearly, it seems that Amidror’s appointment is meant to be red meat to those coalition partners farther to his right (yes, there are, I know it’s hard to believe). Perhaps Bibi means for the arm-chair general to be little more than a figure-head with no influence over policy. But the guy scares me and should scare anyone who has even a scintilla of faith that the conflict can and should be settled sometime by someone.
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- Yaakov Amidror – in his Own Words (peacenow.org)
