There are Israeli reports that the new IDF chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkrot, has sacked a senior officer (Hebrew) for repeatedly leaking sensitive military information over a long period of time to the media. I can’t say why these reports refused to name the officer. But I will: he is Lt. Col. Eitan Ben Gad, the Operations officer for the army Central Command. He was under consideration for promotion to full Colonel and the prospective command of a reserve brigade. However, his history of leaking like a sieve worked against him.
One example of his work is to be found in the reporting of Bibiton reporter Lilach Shoval. In the early phase of Operation Protective Edge, before Israel committed to a ground invasion, an unnamed officer told her that he was distressed by the waffling over what the army should do. He urged the political – military echelon to either invade Gaza and get the job done or sign a ceasefire.
You can imagine no senior commander wants to be second-guessed in this way by a subordinate. Especially not in the pages of Bibiton, the prime minister’s personal media mouthpiece.
Ben Gad, as so many of the army officer corps these days is a child of the settlements. In his case, the most incendiary of them all, Hebron, where 500 settlers face off against 25,000 Palestinians. The Jews goad the Palestinian residents at every opportunity like lions chafing to consume their prey. The Israeli officer is a product of a mechinah program, Beit Yatir. A knowledgeable Orthodox Israeli-American friend described mechinot thus:
Note that it is not a hesder yeshiva but a mekhinah, preparatory school, which is much worse, because it combines a year of religious Zionist indoctrination/paramilitary training with a full three-year regular army service and graduates are often fast-tracked into leadership roles in the IDF…The mekhinot were started in order to take over the IDF from within.
This Christian Science Monitor story goes over some of this ground and reinforces the notion that Israeli settlers have created institutions to infiltrate the army and neutralize it as a force that could oppose the settler agenda. Though of course no settler leaders quoted in the article articulate the mission in this blunt a fashion. A Reuters story quoted army-related internal surveys showing that in 2010 13% of company commanders are settlers and that the level of Orthodox Jews in officer candidate school rose from 2% in 1990 to 31% as of 2007. That number would be even higher today.
As a strategy, this is an exceedingly clever one. The settlers know they are in a minority among the overall Israeli population. But they understand that the army is the one and only national institution that unites all Israelis. If the officer corps is sufficiently filled with settlers and Orthodox Jews, then you don’t need to take over the country to make your point of view dominant. You only need to populate the army with commanders who share your views. Then how will you get the army to evacuate West Bank settlements if that became necessary? How would the army agree to hand over the keys of Israeli settlements to Palestinians? At a crucial moment, the refusal by 20-30% of the IDF officer corps to execute orders could paralyze the entire army and, by extension, the nation as well.
Ben Gad holds another distinction: he’s listed 48th out of the IDF’s “dirty 200” accused of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead.
I do have several concerns regarding cashiering Ben Gad for such offenses: first, every IDF commander leaks to the media at one time or another. They leak to advance their professional or tactical agenda. They leak to gain an advantage over an Arab adversary or an internal army rival. They leak regularly and repeatedly.
So anyone charged with doing what virtually every one else has done is being made a scapegoat. And this is hypocrisy.
The second problem is that media reports accuse Ben Gad of leaking “sensitive security information.” I’ve seen no evidence to support that. He embarrassed his commanders. He pressured them to commit to a plan of action before they were ready to do so. But damaging Israeli security? I think not.
This episode strikes me in some way as a settling of accounts by one party against another. An age-old practice of internecine conflict within organizations.
“The Jews goad the Palestinians every day like lions chafing to consume their prey.” I thought this was a conservative liberal blog not anti semetic drivel…
Otherwise a good article. Probably worth taking out that sentence.
@ Harry Davis: Do you know anything about the situation in Hebron? have you seen the cages preventing settlers from attacking Palestinians? The pictures of settler girls yanking the scarves off elderly Palestinian women? The settler boys throwing liquid in the face of elderly Palestinian men? The little settler girls spitting through the fence at Palestinian passersby? The urine thrown down on the heads of Palestinians walking beneath them in the street?
Have you read of the Palestinian buildings stolen by fraud by settlers?
No, you haven’t seen that have you?
Well, I know something about Hebron.
I have been there few times, each time for few Months. I am no supporter of the settlers (In fact I personally think that the settlements are a political mistake and that some of the settlers have a dubious morality) but they have good reasons to fear the Palestinians there. Each time as was there at least one settler was murdered.
And do you know there used be Jews living in Hebron for hundreds of years before 1929? That is, before Mob of local Palestinians murdered close to 70 of them, forcing the rest of the community to leave?
And I do not understand the argument that 500 Jews (there are actually more) is an act of aggression because they are a minority. Is it trying to bring back to life the community that was ethnically cleansed a crime?
@ Amico: You don’t support the settlers. You just hate the Palestinians native to Hebron. Do I have that distinction right? But wait, if you don’t support the settlers why do you argue that Jews have an inalienable right to settle in Hebron? I see a problem in your argument…
BTW, can any of the 500 interlopers living in Hebron claim direct descendance from any of those Jews who lived there a few thousand years ago? I didn’t think so. Which means their claims to reside in Hebron are far less strong than the claims of the Palestinians whose clans have lived their continuously for centuries, if not millenia.
So now 1929 is “a few thousand years ago”?
@ Yuval: I have no problem if direct descendants of Jews living in Hebron in 1929 wish to return to live there. As long as they accept the sovereignty of Palestine. I of course have a great problem with 500 deliberately provocative murderous Jews almost all of whom have no connection to those who lived there in 1929.
FYI those “cages” are iron lattice slats on the windows of houses looking out on Zion/Shuhada street in central Hebron. They were put on the windows and cant be opened due to the incessant Molotov firebombs and rocks thrown at Israelis walking or driving past. It’s the only place in Hebron where the Palestinian houses have them.
I don’t pretend that there isn’t massive tension between the two sides there – I’m there about once a month or so visiting my wife’s family – but it’s all mutual. To portray the Palestinians living there as being cowed by the scary settlers is to do an injustice to those Palestinians who give as good as they get.
The amount of Israeli civilians killed in or near Hebron in terrorist attacks far exceeds Palestinian civilians killed by their Palestinian neighbors.
As I mentioned above, I’m visited Hebron about once a month for the past 10 years. When was the last time you were there (or anywhere in Israel for that matter) …? Does your entire “knowledge” of what goes on in Judea and Samaria only come from heavily edited clips on Peace Now, Betzelem, Yesh Din et al websites…?
@ Harry: Liar. I’ve followed events in Hebron for years. The only abuse is from settlers toward Palestinians. And even if there was abuse directed at Israelis it’s to be expected. 500 Jews surrounded by 25,000 Palestinians. That in itself is an act of aggression.
Of course it’s mutual. When you have feces and urine thrown on your head & you’re Palestinian you’ll hate the Jews who do it to you. As for being cowed, Palestinians know that the 500 Jews are backed by hundreds of well-armed soldiers not afraid to kill them if necessary. So yes, they’re cowed.
I think this is an error & you meant to write “Jewish neighbors.” However, the reason Jews aren’t killed is the hundreds of soldiers defending them. The number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israelis in the West Bank far, far exceeds the number of Israeli Jews killed by Palestinians. Overall, including Gaza, the ratio is 25 to 1 over the past year or so.
The fact that you are a settler fellow traveler & spew sympathy for them here doesn’t discredit my perspective. I can sit in Seattle and know perfectly well what goes on in Hebron. In fact, I can know what goes on in Shabak prison cells better than the average Israeli who’s restricted by gag orders & censorship.
Instead of insulting Israeli human rights NGOs you actually might learn a bit about reality by reading & viewing what they produce. Instead, you get your news from Arutz7 & settler media. Worse than FoxNews, if that’s even possible.
… And sniping down a Jewish baby (Shalhevet Pas) is not considered abuse. The revision of history continues.
@ Yuval: This comment is off-topic, a comment rule violation. Make sure all comments are directly related to the post.
Not off topic at all. I was directly addressing your preposterous claim that “The only abuse is from settlers toward Palestinians”.
First of all, let’s review the basic international laws.
The international law says that Israeli settlements are absolutely illegal annexations.
International law says that a people in annexed land have the right to defend themselves and their right to self-determination, using force and violence if they see fit.
When the Native American does it, we make sappy movies and call it DANCES WITH WOLVES.
When the Vietnamese do it, we have a massive anti-war movement that is regarded by history as the correct perspective while the pro-war side is regarded as warmongering lunacy.
But when the Arab does it, it’s terrorism.
Funny how those things work.