https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-717262
The killing on Wednesday morning of the deputy commander of the IDF Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion is the latest example of the cost of the Israeli military’s purity-of-arms code. An upstanding officer by all accounts, Maj. Bar Falah lost his life as a result of top brass adherence to “The Spirit of the Israel Defense Forces,” the IDF’s official doctrine of ethics.
The discussion of the danger posed to Israeli soldiers forced to confront enemies with no scruples is not a new one in the Jewish state. Debates about it have been conducted for decades.
But the issue catapulted to international headlines last week when the administration in Washington admonished Israel to rethink its rules of engagement. Of course, President Joe Biden and his team weren’t suggesting that the security of the country with which they claim to have an “unbreakable bond” would be better served by shedding some of its military ethics in favor of self-preservation.
No, the White House and State Department had the opposite idea: that Israel should increase its combat morality. This chutzpah would beggar belief if it hadn’t emerged in the wake of the IDF’s conclusion earlier this month of a probe into the May 11 death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin.
Abu Akleh, a Christian Arab-American resident of east Jerusalem, was struck down while she was covering a clash between Israeli security forces and Palestinian gunmen in what has become a hotbed of Palestinian terrorism. Rather than bemoan the tragedy of a member of the press being caught in a deadly crossfire, the Palestinian Authority and its supporters in the international media promptly accused the IDF soldiers on the scene of cold-blooded murder.
Even PA President Mahmoud Abbas knew this was a lie, regardless of whether the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was from an IDF weapon or one used by a Palestinian terrorist. It was clear to all concerned, other than those whose hatred of Israel outweighs all integrity, that no Israeli soldier would – or did – take aim at a person with the word “PRESS” clearly marked on his or her flak jacket.