Israel is abuzz – at least until the next headline grabs its attention – over a letter. 43 reservists from the IDF's Military Intelligence Unit 8200 published a letter declaring their refusal to serve in the army due to, well, here the complications begin. There is a whole range of reasons the reservists mention – you can read some examples here.
Naturally, such a story is a boon for all opponents of Israel's actions. It legitimizes many of the claims made against Israel. It is also the kind of story that tends to be taken way out of proportion. These 43 reservists serve in a unit of many thousands. It is quite reasonable to expect that within such a large military unit a number of people would become disillusioned with the mission, or with the execution of the mission. It is reasonable to expect that the less these people support Israel's larger policies, the more likely they are to feel uneasy with their mission. Thus, when Israel ponders the evacuation of settler outposts it has to deal with the occasional refusal to serve. And when Israel keeps controlling the occupied territories it has to deal with the occasional refusal to serve.
And the more the refusal comes from high up the echelons of command or high up the echelons of military prestige, the more noise it makes. A refusal letter signed by air force officer-pilots is sexier than a refusal of armored corps lieutenants. A refusal to serve of members of the prestigious unit 8200 is sexier than a refusal of military quartermasters.
Amid all the hype (that will soon abide), here are a few points to consider about the letter:
It is about politics:
Gathering intelligence is dirty, and yet necessary, work. It involves borderline decisions and morally questionable actions. The reservists could not stomach it in this case because they strongly object to Israel's policy. Had they thought there is no other way but to continue the occupation, or had they thought that the territories are Israel's to keep, their mission would have made more sense to them and their conscience would feel less tainted by the type of things that they were asked to do (invading privacy, delivering information about targets for assassination etc). The frustration they feel is understandable: it is much harder to do the dirty work when the objective seems immoral. The damage can be real: it might make some IDF units – not as a matter of policy, but as a matter of we-don't-want-any-headaches pragmatism – take into account the political inclinations of candidates who apply to serve in these units.
It is about the proper use of power:
Some of the claims made by the reservists are troubling. When the military gives a lot of power to 18-19 year old soldiers there is always a danger that these youngsters will use it inappropriately. The reservists claim, for example, that recordings of secretly taped sex acts of Palestinians, to which the unit was eavesdropping, were played for the amusement of soldiers. If that is true, it is not amusing and the people involved should be disciplined. The reservists also claim that Israel uses information about the medical needs of Palestinians or about their sexual orientation to blackmail them for information. This sounds even worse – but is in fact easier to defend as an ugly but inevitable means of extracting crucial intelligence.
It is neither “disgusting” nor “brave”:
Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, who is himself a reserve officer in Unit 8200, used harsh words in his reaction to the refusal letter. “I oppose the refusal to serve and am wholly disgusted by it”. This shows you how far from mainstream Israel these letter-signers are. Yet I don't find the action disgusting. I think it is juvenile and idiotic. It will not do much to advance any of the goals of the signatories – if they even have any goals. Thus, Israel's sane majority should object to the letter without being hysterical about it.
The minority which supports them, on the other hand, can quit calling the signatories “brave” for their action. Whether it was their intention or not, their letter gives fodder to Israel's critics and to its enemies. And in any case, judging by previous such letters, it is doubtful if the signatories are going to pay any price for their act – being discharged from the unit cannot be called a “price” in this case.
It is not convincing:
If the aim is for Israel to end the occupation because of a letter signed by 43 people, it is not quite realistic. If Israelis – for good or bad reasons – believe that their security depends on keeping the territories (or if they believe that the territories are for them to keep) the case made against it was not compelling enough to change their view. The fact that maintaining the occupation is neither easy nor rosy doesn't come as much of a surprise. That Israel uses a whole variety of means to prevent Palestinian terrorism – and possibly also in its political fight against the Palestinian leadership – is also a well understood, if unpleasant, fact.
If the aim is to make the 8200 unit take a better look at its procedures – the letter might succeed, but this could have been achieved in better, more discreet, ways.
That's why many Israelis might suspect that the motivation behind the letter is to smear Israel – and that even if the signatories had other motivations, the most likely impact of the letter is the smearing of Israel.
It kills the Israeli left:
Last week I wrote a lot about the reasons the Israeli “left” has a problem in Israel. Its inability to connect with Israel's majority has been proved time and again in elections and in debates over policies. The refusal letter is both a consequence of this problem – the frustrated reservists felt that they had no other way but to publically refuse to serve – and an incident that will perpetuate the problem – Israelis don't really appreciate calls for refusal. What the letter really says is the following: we, the reservists, no longer believe in our ability to change Israel's policies through the democratic process. Hence our attempt to create a scandal that will make it harder for Israel to keep doing what it is doing. The majority of Israelis who still believe in the democratic process would be right to resist to such an attempt.
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