CoS Kochavi, this is the way to denigrate the IDF

The news of Haredi IDF soldiers beating unarmed Palestinian Arabs broke on August 24^th. A TikTok video,uploaded to the social media site on August 15^th, came to the attention of the IDF and Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi’s reaction to it was widely quoted in the Israeli press. The foreign press has apparently not yet caught onto this tasty morsel fit for consumption by Israel haters, but there is no doubt they will. In the meantime, it has provided ample material for debate among Israelis who are quick to denigrate certain segments of Israeli society, in this case, the ultra-Orthodox in general and Netzach Yehuda, the ultra-Orthodox battalion, in particular.

Below, you can find a table I constructed listing the articles published so far in Israel on this topic.

I can summarize it for you thus: Seven articles were published in Hebrew on the morning the news broke and they all focus on Chief of Staff Kochavi’s condemnation of the battalion. The five English language articles published that day emphasize suspension of the combatants from the IDF.

That evening, the Hebrew press alone followed up on the story. One article talks about the failure to prepare the soldiers for combat duty and five present the version of events as told by the combatants themselves.

The next day, one Hebrew article brought the news to their readers (Haredim) with a title showing that they incorporate the “shocking” video together with the version of the story told by the soldiers. The titles of the three other articles relate to the quick-to-judge aspect of the former day’s reporting. In English, only one article appeared and it was a criticism by the soldiers of nighttime interrogation.

Only one article appeared on August 26^th and another on the 28^th. Both were English-language pieces critical of the media slant on the incident.

I do not have a problem with the media reporting here. News sites post the news. My problem is with Chief of Staff Kochavi.

Kochavi’s remark WAS THE NEWS.

He fed the media with his impulsive and unadvised comment that cannot possibly have been based on a thorough investigation of the event. In fact, he does say that his remarks are based on an initial investigation, whatever that means, adding that a thorough examination of the incident will be conducted and the results of that will be made public.

Unfortunately, the public has heard this before: an initial seemingly off-the-hip remark that attacks the integrity and dignity of an entire group of Israelis and the promise of results after an in-depth investigation into the situation. Then, silence.

The public is left with the initial condemnation.

When Kochavi says that the four soldiers’ behavior was not consistent with IDF values, he does not explain. How is trying to overcome potential terrorists not consistent with IDF values? Military law prohibits violence against a detainee who is totally subdued; however, that is not the situation in this case. What message is Kochavi giving soldiers in the field who face similar situations when operating in Judea-Samaria?

Kochavi tells the public that these soldiers have no place in the IDF before a thorough investigation has been conducted, and then some politicians come out with suggestions to disband the entire unit. Yet this year, Netzach Yehudi was given a commendation for thousands of successful operations and just ten days ago a new group of 200 Haredi recruits was welcomed into the IDF. If one 14-second video of four soldiers calls into question the entire battalion, how much does one give credulity to the earlier commendation? Moreover, that same day of the video, the unit conducted successful operations in which 22 terrorists were arrested.

How much faith can soldiers in any unit have that the IDF leadership ranks will stand by them when an edited video serving as anti-IDF anti-Israeli propaganda is seemingly swallowed whole by the top brass?

Hebrew Press

English-language Press

This is an expanded version of an article published in Israel National News.

Feature Image Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit