Israel tells officers to fight ethically

A.P. photo/ Nasser Shiyoukhi

Greeting graduating IDF officers, Chief of Staff Ashkenazi told them to uphold Israel’s high ethical standards of combat.  He anticipates the next warfare would be like that in Gaza, where terrorists fire from civilian facilities.  They must protect civilians, he told them, while fighting.  Let Israel set the standard for the world on this, was his message.  But fight they must, so the terrorists don’t gain from their low ethical standards of combat  (www.imra.org.il, 11/3).

This is the sort of Israeli military training of which Israel’s critics are unaware.  The IDF still has the old Zionist ethos and pride in ethical combat, which it calls “purity of arms.”