Tuesday, August 23, 2005
8/23/2005 01:45:00 PM | 
Posted by
JoeSettler
The more and more I look at our situation, the easier it is to pinpoint our failures.
As I mentioned in the previous blog, we spent hours talking to IDF soldiers.
I feel so sorry for them.
They were deliberately selected.
Soldiers building their careers, boys entering officers school, command school, pilots courses.
Explicit threats to destroy their careers, dreams and goals if they disobeyed, and they wanted to do nothing more than openly disobey.
So many of them cried to us.
So many of them told us they didn’t understand before what they were doing, and they would never do it again if ordered.
Where did we fail?
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that we must now look at this government as the Goyeshe entity it acts like.
The settlements need a program like birthright.
Free trips for every Israeli to see what the settlements really look like. Most soldiers told us they had never been in Gush Katif before (the truth is, most Israelis have never been in Gush Katif).
Why would they protect something they have never seen and only heard negative propaganda about?
We need to go Face-to-Face with soldiers and youth in this country.
Soldiers were at a loss. Those that hadn’t gone through the month long IDF Desensitization Training (brainwashing) were now unable to comprehend and react to destruction they had assisted with.
Long term programs need to be created so that soldiers see and feel what they are protecting. They must be taught Jewish history and values. Government brainwashing must be erased with facts.
The soldiers we met were searching for meaning, not empty slogans and lies.
The Palestinian flags hanging 5oo meters away, and the repeated fall of Palestinian mortars on our position quickly debunked Sharon’s lie of “No Expulsion under Fire”, and ruined the government and IDF’s credibility in their eyes.
Where there is emptiness, it must be filled.
This must be done 1-on-1 with every soldier in this country.
Sharon plans to destroy 60 more communities before the end of the year (you heard it here first). We may not have time to protect those communities, but we must get ready now so we don’t lose Hebron, Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, and even the Temple Mount.
As I mentioned in the previous blog, we spent hours talking to IDF soldiers.
I feel so sorry for them.
They were deliberately selected.
Soldiers building their careers, boys entering officers school, command school, pilots courses.
Explicit threats to destroy their careers, dreams and goals if they disobeyed, and they wanted to do nothing more than openly disobey.
So many of them cried to us.
So many of them told us they didn’t understand before what they were doing, and they would never do it again if ordered.
Where did we fail?
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that we must now look at this government as the Goyeshe entity it acts like.
The settlements need a program like birthright.
Free trips for every Israeli to see what the settlements really look like. Most soldiers told us they had never been in Gush Katif before (the truth is, most Israelis have never been in Gush Katif).
Why would they protect something they have never seen and only heard negative propaganda about?
We need to go Face-to-Face with soldiers and youth in this country.
Soldiers were at a loss. Those that hadn’t gone through the month long IDF Desensitization Training (brainwashing) were now unable to comprehend and react to destruction they had assisted with.
Long term programs need to be created so that soldiers see and feel what they are protecting. They must be taught Jewish history and values. Government brainwashing must be erased with facts.
The soldiers we met were searching for meaning, not empty slogans and lies.
The Palestinian flags hanging 5oo meters away, and the repeated fall of Palestinian mortars on our position quickly debunked Sharon’s lie of “No Expulsion under Fire”, and ruined the government and IDF’s credibility in their eyes.
Where there is emptiness, it must be filled.
This must be done 1-on-1 with every soldier in this country.
Sharon plans to destroy 60 more communities before the end of the year (you heard it here first). We may not have time to protect those communities, but we must get ready now so we don’t lose Hebron, Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, and even the Temple Mount.
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3 comments:
Joe, a friend of mine and I thought of a similar idea to the one you mentioned. It would be a Yesha birthright trip. It would be for students who were already coming on birthright, and then we would have them stay on Israel for a few more days and show them the vitality of Jewish life in yesha - and all of the places that birthright is unwilling or unable to show these Jews...
Well, the idea of a birthright-like program for all of the communities of Yesha is indeed a good educational idea. But the urgent thing now is to OUST Sharon from power. END his regime.
Many Israelies keep repiting the mantra "only Sharon could do it". Very well, let's take him out of power. ONLY THAT will save Hevron, and all the other communities.
The primaries are coming up in the Likud. Now, instead of talking to soldiers, we need to talk to members of the Likud Central Committee (Merkaz HaLikud). The message is simple: JUST SAY NO TO SHARON! -- the slogan worked with the anti-drug campain, it should work now, too.
Joe: I don't think the IDF would allow a birthright program, speficially to avoid what you propose. The secular zionist elite which run the country want no part of additional religion/historical instruction for IDF cadets. If that were to happen, they could lose their religious fanatical grip over these young soldiers (under the guise of "Israeli secular democracy"
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