Weekly Commentary: IDF COS and PM Bennett Miss The Point - Field Officers
Not To Blame For Hamas Murder of Soldier
Dr. Aaron Lerner 5 September, 2021

Soldier die in service.

They die in training exercises, they die in daily security functions and
they die in operations.

And in a perfect world where every activity is perfectly executed no doubt
many of the deaths could have been avoided.

But we aren't in a perfect world and many mistakes, made in good faith, need
to be treated as such even if they lead to a loss of life.

We need to build tall buildings, long bridges and defend our nation. And we
do all of these things even though in our imperfect world, people die as a
consequence.

But that said, the story of the Gaza line is not a question of how field
officers implemented their orders.

The question here is why the leadership of the IDF and the civilians who
bear overall responsibility for the IDF has allowed for a situation that
hundreds and even thousands of Gazans can storm the line.

The question is NOT how many Gazans have had their legs shot off or died
storming the line.

The question is why the IDF hasn't come up with a way to stop Gazans from
storming the line. Because despite the casualty figures they continue to do
it.

I appreciate that there are some very smart guys in IDF Intelligence who are
convinced that Hamas has absolutely no intention to ever actually cross the
line, so that as far as they are concerned this "game" taking place at the
line is inconsequential besides trying to keep Israeli casualties to a
minimum.

But as someone who has seen just how dangerous these self-serving IDF
intelligence assessments have been over the years I beg to differ.

I am not going to sit in my armchair and suggest HOW to create conditions
that Gazans no longer storm the line. That's the job of the IDF. And I
expect my prime minister to tell his DM and the COS to get this job done.

The same goes, by the way, for coming up with a program which effectively
thwarts the Hamas operation to keep the Israeli civilians living adjacent to
the Gaza line awake all night.

I will go so far as to write a profoundly terrible thing: for all I know
the programs developed to address these challenges risk the lives of Israeli
soldiers.

But that is OK.

One of the costs of having the privilege to live in this new chapter of our
Bible in the sovereign State of Israel is that we risk our lives, our
children's lives and each of the generations to come in the defense of our
country.
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Arab-Israeli relations

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