It's Clear Where the IDF Chief's Conscience Lies. It's Time He Put a Stop to This Madness - Opinion - Haaretz.com
Those leaked (never mind by whom) performances of bravery in the security cabinet are not going to do Eyal Zamir any good – those venomous squabbles with Bezalel Smotrich, those harsh admonishments from Benjamin Netanyahu: This is not the kind of chief of staff who preserved the lives of his soldiers and ensures that every dangerous mission he assigns them will be militarily and morally worthy.
So far 26 Israeli soldiers have died since Operation Gideon's Chariots began in May, all in vain. Merely to facilitate the prime minister's political survival, in part by preventing a hostage deal.
These goals are neither militarily nor morally worthy. On the contrary. Zamir has no plausible defense narrative in this case. Gideon's Chariots, the expanded offensive in Gaza, is his plan. It was supposed to grow out of the ceiling of his predecessor, Herzl Halevi, which in the eyes of the regime that appointed him had become a floor.
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That floor collapsed; on the soldiers who have been killed and wounded, on the hostages, on the disintegrating families of reservists, on the exhausted soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; on Israeli society, which has forgotten what normal is.
The funeral of Sergeant Asaf Zamir, 19, from Dimona, earlier this month.Credit: Ilan Assayag
What will Zamir say in his defense? That he was only following the orders of the government? That he is subordinate to the political leadership? It's true, he is subordinate to the political leadership.
Therefore, when the political leadership orders him to carry out wrongful acts he must refuse, even at the price of resigning. No one can force him to work for this government. That's his choice. He has the right to resign. He still has this freedom, he can still do that.
And as long as he is not using his right, he is responsible for the ongoing deaths of innocent Gazan civilians, including children, every day, and for the injuries and deaths of soldiers. Because he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing and declare that he will no longer be a partner in this corrupt madness.
It can be assumed that the chief of staff gets little sleep. He has a lot on his mind. But it's hard to understand how he manages to sleep during the few hours that he does so. How is he not haunted by images of the civilians he is killing in Gaza, including children, and of the young, obedient soldiers who are killed and wounded as a direct result of his orders? Where is his conscience?
At the beginning of his term there was a sense that, since Operation Gideon's Chariots was his plan, he simply has no conscience, at least not as people with a liberal worldview understand it.
IDF troops operating in Gaza earlier this year.Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit
That he is a Kahanist, happy to harness the Israel Defense Forces to realize the vision of population transfer and Jewish settlement in Gaza, or at least indifferent to the despicable political goals of his military actions. In the wake of his disputes in the inner cabinet, he seems to have a conscience, seems to realize that his soldiers are getting killed for nothing, that civilians and children are getting killed for nothing and that an Israeli military administration in Gaza is a nightmarish idea.
But Netanyahu appointed him precisely because he does not let this conscience disrupt the unconscionable warfare that he conducts. Zamir does as he's told. Just imagine getting up every morning from those stolen hours of sleep and discovering that Defense Minister Israel Katz is still your boss.
These are the mental powers that Zamir possesses. He is what is known as someone who thinks small, who follows orders and doesn't think about the big picture. And that's without mentioning his support for the criminal apartheid in the West Bank, that is destroying Israel as a democracy.
Zamir wakes up every morning to a position the job description of which is to do evil. Knowingly. Perhaps, in his heart of hearts, he is praying for Donald Trump to save him from himself.