Sunday, April 24, 2011

Why the IDF doesn't win anymore

Originally posted on JoeSettler.

Why is it that the IDF doesn't seem to decisively win like it used to?

We have an army far superior to that of any of our enemies. Yet in our last few battles and wars, we seem to actually and actively be trying to not win.

David Horovitz of the Jerusalem Post interviewed Professor Asa Kasher, the man who decides what is ethical for the IDF, and what isn't. Having read it, I now understand why the IDF refuses to win.

If only the man understood what is so totally unethical about the position he is taking.

Here are some relevant excerpts.
At the same time, the moral foundation of a democratic state is respect for human dignity. Human dignity must be respected in all circumstances. And to respect human dignity in all circumstances means, among other things, to be sensitive to human life in all circumstances. Not just the lives of the citizens of your state. Everybody.

This applies even in our interactions with terrorists. I am respecting the terrorist’s dignity when I ask myself, “Do I have to kill him or can I stop him without killing him?”
I don't see the morality of letting a terrorist live. Certainly not in the State of Israel where he is likely to be released in a terrorist-hostage exchange and then return to terrorism and kill more people. This is both a highly immoral and short-sighted position he is taking. I'm just at the beginning of the article, and it clear to me this man must be a Leftist.

Two things: First, you decide what is more important in the given situation. And second, you do whatever you can so that the damage to the other side is as small as possible: Maximizing effective defense of the citizens; minimizing collateral damage.

Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah don't operate in a vacuum. They are representative of their people, the governments of their people, elected by their people, and are supported by their people.

I would propose that the reason the wars not only don't end decisively and in fact keep coming back to repeatedly haunt us is because the enemy citizens are not paying a high enough price in the war against us. There's no incentive for them to demand they stop, since they never lose.

I hear the same thing everywhere in democratic states. I’ve been to something like 15 of them, from India to Canada. There is no one who will say I don’t have to protect my civilians and to minimize the damage [to the other side]. There is no one who will say I must not harm the other side and minimize the damage to my civilians. No one will say that. No one. Nowhere.
Of course not, because no other country would put someone like this, with such a twisted ideology, in charge of military ethics. No other country wants an army incapable of decisively winning a war.

Where does this twisted ideology stem from?

But that the Palestinians have the right to be a people in their own state, in their territory somewhere between the river and the sea, goes without saying.

There we have it. Even if he didn't say it outright, I could tell from rest of the interview that he must be a Leftist from his warped worldview and ethics. But he proudly admits it outright.

There's plenty more in this interview that explains how this man prevents the IDF from winning, but you get the point.

If the IDF is to start winning again, the first thing it does is must free itself from the disturbed ideology this man has inflicted on it.

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8 comments:

Nachum said...

The guy is so clueless, he doesn't realize what "river to the sea" means.

Chutznik said...

I wonder what his farher הרב מ״מ כשר would think of him?

Anonymous said...

Is he a leftist or a clueless academic? Or maybe there's no difference between the 2?

Avi said...

Sorry Joe,
I'm no fan of Asa Kasher and he is a leftist but having read this particular piece, you've really taken his words out of context. Kasher came out very strongly in support of the IDF's actions in cast lead, as well as admitting that the IDF was wrong for putting its own troops in harm's way in Jenin during "homat magen" in an attempt to spare the lives of arab civilians. He even went so far as to defend the procedure of "nohal shachen" which was banned by the Israel supreme court. Yes, he states (as you quote) that if I can stop a terrorist without killing him, I should do so (without risking the lives of Israelis). That is perfectly legitimate. Would you really want to live somewhere where every soldier/policeman had a right to also be a judge and executioner?

JoeSettler said...

I disagree. He cames out defending the IDF as a whole because it follows his code of ethics, but criticizes soldiers as "unprofessional" who don't follow his code of ethics.

He compares war to bank robbery which is a completely wrong comparison. A terrorist and a bank robber have very different goals and his ideology doesn't/can't differentiate between the two.

And soldiers are not policemen.

I don't want soldiers taking an extra seconds to decide it they should shoot to disarm a terrorist, or shoot to kill a terrorist (unless the terrorist is needed for information purposes to capture more terrorists).

A soldier doesn't need to be second guessing his decisions, unnecessarily delaying his decision, and a soldier certainly doesn't need to worry if he will stand trial for killing a terrorists because an armchair academic thinks that he could have disarmed him instead - which is the inevitable result here.

He is not the one defending Nohal Shachen, the British officer is the one defending it.

He is admitting post-facto that it was a mistake to send the soldiers in the Jenin alley, but it was actually his philosophy that sent them in there in the first place.

Avi said...

Sorry. You've continued to insist in taking his words out of context and there's more of your interpretation of his views, seen through your viewpoint than his actual views. As a regular reader of the Muqata for many years, one of the things I appreciate about it (as opposed to other news sources) is the impeccable integrity of the blog. This is one of those few times I think you missed.

JoeSettler said...

He lost me at "dignity".

It's your right to disagree, that's why we allow comments. But I think you're wrong here.

JoeSettler said...

He lost me at "dignity".

It's your right to disagree, that's why we allow comments. But I think you're wrong here.

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