Stop right-wing indoctrination in IDF officers' training
A new edition of “Pirkei Yoman” (“Diary Entries”), a collection of reminiscences by Meir Har Zion, who is considered a military hero from a period in the 1950s when the Israeli army engaged in a series of retaliatory raids, is the gift that graduates of the Bahad 1 Israel Defense Force officers’ training base are given on their departure. During his own military service, Har Zion was regarded as a brave fighter and was known for developing the IDF’s commando tactics. If his military record had just been limited to that, the commemoration of Har Zion and his legacy among young IDF officers would be entirely legitimate.
When one reads his diary, however, one discovers a large number of disturbing details that make it difficult to understand how they escaped the notice of Bahad 1 commanders who are supposed to be educating those under their charge not only in bravery and determination but also in values such as morality and purity of arms. Har Zion’s diary entries include a large number of descriptions of indiscriminate retaliatory operations, systematic harm to innocent people and even the execution of individuals who happened to have been taken prisoner en route to raids or in the course of the operations.
The book in question doesn’t end in the 1950s and also includes Har Zion’s commentary on current events: “The situation is intolerable. The new, anti-Zionist left wing is what is setting the tone. The right wing, which is afraid of its own shadow, simply lacks a culture of governance,” the author is quoted as saying in 2007 to a right-wing activist who was running at the time in the Likud party primaries. “The right only appears to be in power. In practice, it is the left that is in control. Everything is in their hands — the media, the prosecutor’s office, the top echelons of the police and even the Supreme Court. When it comes to every issue involving the justice of the Zionist enterprise, we are going from bad to worse. [Religious settlers’ movement] Gush Emunim is a ray of light in the darkness. And [when it comes to those] wearing religious skullcaps … without them, we would have already closed up shop.”
Meir Har Zion’s legacy in battle is problematic and may not be worthy of passing on, but the fact that the IDF is choosing to send military cadets on their way with propaganda filled with hatred is simply unacceptable. The IDF is a people’s army and those on the left, as well as secular Israelis, judges, senior police official and all the others whom Har Zion branded as anti-Zionist, also send their children to serve in it. It is not reasonable for the IDF to distribute such inflammatory material that indiscriminately besmirches these groups.
The IDF must not only put a stop to the distribution of the book, it should also thoroughly look into what is going on at Bahad 1 and at the judgment of those in charge there. The base is an officers’ school and not an ideological incubator for the extreme right wing.
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