Refusing Orders - Left, Right & Wrong

This latest tempest in a teacup about Naftali Bennett supposedly advocating refusal of orders has been badly played by everyone, in my opinion.  Netanyahu, by pouncing on him the way he has, has given the impression that he is, indeed, planning Disengagement II - although I don't personally believe that to be true; rather I think he's just trying to win back some of the swing votes that Bayit Yehudi has been steadily pulling from Likud.  And Bennett himself, by climbing down do hurriedly, left himself looking wishy washy.

Personally I think Bennett could have made a stronger and more principled stand by clarifying a nuance that seems to have been overlooked by pretty much everyone.

There are two types of refusal of orders.  One is where you are second-guessing your superiors, because you think you know better than them.  If your commander screams, "Acharai!" - then you better darn well be there behind him, even if you think it's a foolish move.  Refusing orders under such circumstances is indeed dangerous and damaging to the entire structure of the army.

The other kind is where you are given an order that you believe is immoral.  For example, let's say a commander orders a soldier to drive his fellow soldiers to the beach for a party on Shabbat.  Under such circumstances, the soldier is obligated to say, "I'm sorry, Sir, but I take my orders from the King of Kings, and I cannot do that."  The penalty could be a court-martial, imprisonment, or any amount of money, and the soldier is obligated to refuse orders.

In practical terms, going back to 2005, if a soldier decided to refuse orders because he believed the Disengagement was a foolish mistake and tactically wrong, that it would bring rockets on the whole of Southern Israel and make Israel's geopolitical situation infinitely worse, he would have been wrong to do so.  A soldier's business is not to reason why, but to carry out his orders.

On the other hand, if a soldier saw the Disengagement as immoral and evil, because of (among other things) the injustice it was doing to the families of Gush Katif, then he would have been obligated to refuse to participate in any way, even by taking over the duties of another soldier stationed on the Lebanese border, so that that soldier could go and rip Jews from their homes (מסייע לדבר עבירה).

I believe this is the moral duty of any soldier, anywhere, to be true to his morals - and be ready to pay the price.  This is true also for a leftist who believes it is immoral to serve in Judea & Samaria.  He should refuse orders, and be prepared to be court-martialed and imprisoned for his beliefs.  And if he is not prepared to stand tall, openly refuse orders and take the punishment, that's a good sign that his refusal is not based on moral considerations.

Suppression of the soldier's individual conscience and morality is a very dangerous and evil thing to advocate.  The logical extreme of this attitude is summed up in the infamous excuse:

"Ve vos chust following orders!"

I killed Yasser Arafat!

All this hullaballoo about exhuming Yasser Arafat, to do an autopsy on his bloated, maggot-infested carcass, investigating if maybe he didn't die of natural causes, is absolutely ridiculous.  We all know who they're going to blame when (not if) they "discover" he was poisoned.  Maybe Israel did do it, and maybe we didn't.  All I can say is we should have, and if  we didn't, it is cause for national embarrassment.

Contrast this with what happens when there's a terrorist attack ר"ל, and all the terrorist organizations from the Al Aqsa Martyrs brigade to the Zoabi Zero Zionists League are falling over each other to claim responsibility for the massacre of innocent civilians.  One might think that someone would take some pride in claiming the scalp of that murderous savage.

So if nobody else is going to do it, then I'm going to preempt the inevitable blame with my own claim, and announce for all the world to know:

I killed Yasser Arafat!

(With Polonium-210, in the ballroom.)

Anyone else want to join me in claiming responsibility?  Sign up here.

Livni's most spectacular blunder - ever!

Eeeexcellent!

It really takes a lot to say this, but I think today Tzipi Livni has topped all her previous loser decisions.  Not content with sulkily quitting politics after losing the Kadima primaries to Shaul Mofaz, she recently decided to announce her political comeback.  Having been offered the number 2 slot in both the Labor and Yesh Atid parties, she decided she wasn't going to play second fiddle to anyone else, and today she announced the formation of a fourth center-left party, with the goal of uniting the center left.  If you don't understand that reasoning, you don't understand Tzipi Livni.  For my part, I just keep doing my Mr Burns impression...

But the real kicker, the coup de grace of this new misadventure, is the name she has chosen for her new party:

The Movement

Her political adversaries are stunned.  Where, oh where, to begin?  The possibilities are endless!  Look on the Israeli news sites - the talkbackers are having an absolute field day.  It's open season on toilet humor!

I'm sure her focus groups had something else in mind when they came up with this name.  But there was clearly a lot of groupthink at work here from the yes-men with whom she has surrounded herself.  Didn't even one of them think of the other connotations of the word?  And yes, before you ask, it's the same idiomatic expression in Hebrew: תנועת מעיים is a bowel movement.

I, for one, was literally ROTFL today, like I haven't been in months.  Maybe years.  Tzipi Livni, you have made so many people happy today.  Your movement has brought relief to the entire country - albeit of the comic variety.  Today you have justified your existence on this planet.  We love you!

Letter to Mr Netanyahu

I just posted this letter to the Israel Prime Minister.  I'll update if I get a response.  Meanwhile, what are your thoughts about this?

------


Dear Mr Netanyahu,

Firstly, I commend you on your masterful handling of diplomacy in conducting this war in Gaza.  When even Catherine Ashton finds herself forced to issue supportive statements of Israel, one has to say that you are doing things really well.  In the age of Twitter and Facebook, international diplomacy is no less important than the actions of the troops on the ground.  Kol hakavod!

As an Israeli citizen (and, I might add, a Likud branch committee member here in Beit Shemesh), I would like to understand, though - what is your goal in this military operation?

I ask, because I remember Operation Cast Lead not so long ago, when our forces went in, dusted up a few terrorist hot spots, and then left.  At the cost of a miraculously small number of lives, and a huge amount of defence budget.  Now, 6 years later, Hamas is stronger than it was before Cast Lead, and our position in the international community is weaker than ever in our history.

Is this going to be Operation Cast Lead II, where we go in again, dust out a few more terrorist sites, and walk out again, so that in another 5 or 6 years we can do it all over again, but perhaps next time against a Hamas armed with "dirty" nuclear bombs?

I trust that you are in the best position in the country to judge our strategic position, and I do not presume to say that I could make better decisions from my armchair than you do.  But from my limited perspective, I cannot understand why we would bother wasting our resources on a military adventure of this scale of risk and expense, and putting the entire country through the trauma of war, if we do not intend to prosecute it to its logical conclusion: vanquishing the enemy outright and reconquering Gaza.  I don't care how much the world would condemn us for it; their condemnations are worth nothing against the hundreds or thousands of Jewish lives it would save, and the million people living under constant threat of attack.

So I would just like to understand from you: what is the goal of this operation?  And if you do not intend to re-take Gaza, then how are you planning to prevent this situation from happening again after the "ceasefire", once Hamas has had time to re-stock their arsenal with the best of Iranian and North Korean weaponry?

May the G-d of Israel bless you and your ministers with wisdom, so that you may guide us to a resounding victory over our enemies!

Sincerely, and with best wishes,

Shaul B

Misconceptions about who is the enemy

Here's a little aphorism I made up several years ago, but I thought I'd share it with the world in general:

The Israeli Left operates under the misconception that its most dangerous enemy is the Right, rather than the Arabs.   

The Israeli Right operates under the misconception that its most dangerous enemy is the Arabs, rather than the Left.   

The Arabs operate under the misconception that their most dangerous enemy is the Israelis, rather than their own leaders.

What do you think?

Kli Yakar on giving tzedaka to freeloaders

I saw this Dvar Torah several months ago, but I think this is as good a time as any to make this more public knowledge, being that it is a very relevant topic.

The Kli Yakar on parshas Mishpatim, commenting on the mitzva of helping someone unload his donkey buckling under its load, states the following:

"עמו" - ומכאן תשובה לקצת עניים בני עמנו המטילים עצמם על הצבור ואינם רוצים לעשות בשום מלאכה שבה יכולים להביא שבר רעבון ביתם, וקוראים תגר אם אין נותנים להם די מחסורם. דבר זה לא ציוה ה' כי אם 'עזב תעזב עמו' 'הקם תקים עמו' (דברים כ"ב), כי העני יעשה כל אשר ימצא בכוחו לעשות ואם בכל זאת לא תשיג ידו, אז חייב כל איש מישראל לסעדו ולחזקו וליתן לו די מחסורו אשר יחסר לו ו'עזב תעזב' אפילו מאה פעמים".

My translation:

"With him" - hence an answer to some impoverished people of our Nation, who cast themselves on the community, do not want to do any work to sustain their households, and raise a stink if people don't give them enough to meet their needs.  This is not what Hashem commanded; rather "you shall surely help with him", which means that the poor man must do everything in his power [to earn a living], and if he nonetheless does not manage, then every Jew is obligated to help and strengthen him and cover his shortfall, helping him even 100 times.


What else is there to say?

Political predictions

Mr 180 IQ shows his mettle

Please allow me the opportunity to gloat a bit. Today's political bombshell came as a huge surprise to most of the world, but not to me. I regret now that I never wrote it on my blog, but I have witnesses that I've been calling this practically since the results came out of the previous election.  This situation whereby the largest party in the Knesset constitutes less than a quarter thereof, and therefore it will be minority even within its own coalition, is utterly ridiculous.  The big parties know this, and despite their other political differences, they have one confluence of interests, which is the reform of the electoral system such that 3- or 4-seat splinter, sectoral-interest parties are either eliminated or neutered.  I predicted that 6 months to a year before the next elections came due, Netanyahu (with his estimated 180 IQ) should have enough sense and foresight to band together with Labor/Kadima/Yisrael Beiteinu (or whatever configuration thereof would get him a Knesset majority) and in one signal act, they would jointly nail the smaller parties and institute a major electoral reform to benefit the mainstream parties, before dissolving the Knesset and going to elections under the new rules.  When all this talk started about dissolving the Knesset already and going to new elections, I was sorely disappointed.  And then this morning - I was vindicated!  Bibi has been listening to me all along, and this whole spiel about going to elections now was just a clever ruse to catch everyone else off guard.  A brilliant ploy, indeed.

Mofaz - is he really a winner from this?

Now let's look forward.  Today everyone is lauding this as the largest coalition in Israel's history.  Personally, I don't give it a month in this configuration.  The main "official" reason given for Kadima entering the government at this point is to draft a replacement to the Tal Law, which gave automatic exemption from conscription to Charedim, and effectively prevented anyone who didn't go to the army from getting a legal job.  The other, less touted reason is, as I mentioned above, is electoral reform.  Other than that, there is very little in common between the main coalition partners - from security to social policy, Kadima (at least under Livni) was reflexively opposed to anything the Likud said or did.  Even assuming they have no actual principles other than the pursuit of power, and being in government is currently in their interests, they are not going to give an easy rubber stamp to anything Bibi wants, because they need to distinguish themselves before the next scheduled elections, and somehow do something that will reverse their current abysmal showing in the polls.  If they go quietly to the next elections as acquiescent enablers for Bibi, Labor will eat them alive.  They will have to manufacture some "principled" reason to walk out of the coalition before the next election. Which makes Bibi's pre-condition to Mofaz that Kadima will stay in the coalition to the bitter end all the more ingenious.  If Mofaz complies, without achieving anything for the Left, Labor will have him for breakfast.  If Bibi plays his cards right, he will keep Mofaz on a short leash, but not violate any of today's agreements, so if Mofaz decides in 9 months' time to bolt the coalition for some contrived reason, he will look like a whiner who doesn't honor agreements.  Granted that this is still a better scenario for Mofaz than going to elections now, but still his only hope is that in the next year Bibi gives him substantial grounds for quitting the government on principle and looking like a hero.  And Bibi has a 180 IQ.

Now, given that Kadima and Likud's only real shared interests are (a) replacing the Tal Law, and (b) electoral reform, where is that going to leave the smaller parties in the coalition?  Mafdal (Bayit Yehudi) might be game for a new Tal Law, but Shas will squirm and UTJ will vehemently oppose any change to the current situation, whereby Charedim are prevented by social pressure from joining the army, and therefore by law from joining the workforce, which leaves them no alternative but to stay in the Beis Midrash (and incidentally, in near-guaranteed lifelong poverty).  And as for electoral reform, which is totally against their interests, all of them will try to block anything new.  But now, with Kadima in the coalition, Netanyahu can (and probably will) simply throw them out, and railroad the electoral reform without them.

Nachal Charedi soldiers

Once the Tal Law replacement and electoral reform have been legislated, I believe the coalition with Kadima will have served its purpose.  Being that Likud and Kadima are such bitter rivals, the coalition will anyway be unmanageable, and for Netanyahu's next trick, he will dissolve the Knesset then and there, catching everyone else flat-footed.  He will look like a genius, having deftly manipulated Kadima in and out of his government, Mofaz might be able to claim some credit for showing some national responsibility, and the small parties will get the short end of the stick.  The next government, led again by Likud, might even get an outright majority, once the right-wing splinter parties realize their interests will best be served by joining up with the Likud.

All in all, kudos to Netanyahu for bringing about what I think will be a very significant and beneficial shakeup to the Israeloi political landscape.