Two IDF reservists tell of morality in combat

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO — Two IDF reservists, touring Southern California as guests of the pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUS, described to several audiences the precautions the Israeli military takes to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza and other areas of combat operations.

At the same time, Edan and Gilad (their last names withheld by StandWithUS for security reasons) told how perplexed and uncertain they feel when approached by unknown Arabs during this time in Israel of stabbings, car rammings and shootings by Arabs against Jewish Israelis.

Both young men have family ties to the United States and relish the opportunity to serve as bridges between the land of their ancestry and the land of their citizenship.

In speeches to church and school groups, Gilad tells of an IDF unit responding to a tip from the Shabak (Israeli intelligence agency) that a female terrorist had made arrangements to secure a weapon to use in a planned attack from the West Bank on an Israeli location. “Usually a fast arrest would be a simple procedure,” he said. “However, arresting a woman has important implications. There is no way that a male Israeli soldier would be made to search a woman. Some will tell you that having a male soldier touch her would violate her honor and could end in an infamous ‘honor killing,’ a very dangerous and delicate issue. Personally, I think that the reason is much simpler — the experience of a frisk is deeply uncomfortable for the suspect, her family and the soldier involved. That is why the IDF stipulates that female suspects be searched by female soldiers.”

As it turned out, the unit closest to the scene was an all-male ultra Orthodox IDF unit, which certainly couldn’t supply a frisker, and “the closest female combatant was too far away.” Eventually a decision was made “that one of the control room soldiers, who are mostly women, would take part and perform the search,” Gilad related. “We asked for a volunteer, and everybody raised their hand. A volunteer was chosen and geared up, and I remember searching high and low for the proper helmet and ceramic vest that would fit her.”

The control room monitored the operation by radio, and, according to Gilad “as we tensed up to listen for the arrest confirmation, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of a worried mother vibe from the seasoned officers and Shabak agents in the room. We all knew that there was a 19-yar-old girl in the (suspect’s) house who had volunteered to search a terrorist for weapons. The radio reported mission success, and we all let out a breath.”

Gilad praised the young girl and the brigade commander who made the decision to send her in, notwithstanding her lack of combat experience. “For him, I think that the answer was simple — he wasn’t going to mess with the lives of his suspects any more than he needs to. I don’t know if every commander would make the decision to endanger an untrained soldier in order to minimize discomfort for a woman suspected of terrorism. I just know that for him, the decision was obvious and was reflected in every aspect of our mission.”

Edan told a personal story from “Operation Protective Edge,” in which the IDF responded with air strikes and ground troops to counter Hamas rockets fired against Israel from Gaza. Before such ground operations, Israeli airplanes dropped flyers onto the areas to be attacked warning civilians to evacuate. “It was 1 a.m. on a Friday night, ten days into the operation,” Edan said. A radio message squawked ‘Man down, man down! I repeat, I have at least 10 injured and one down and missing. I need immediate artillery around the entire area.’

Edan said he “ordered my (mortar) squad to prepare the mortars as the picture quickly became clearer. An IDF platoon encountered an ambush by Hamas who shot a direct missile at them, injuring many, with one missing. In such a case, of a potential kidnapping, the protocol is painfully clear-cut: bomb everywhere, including where the kidnapped soldier may be. Protocol is protocol, but this time around we’re playing on different turf. Blindly firing heavy explosives in such a densely populated area such as Bet Hanun would mean dozens of civilians that would pay a deadly price. The dilemma of ensuring the safety of my fellow men at the expense of innocent lives, or whether to abide protocol or not, weighed heavy on the back of my mind. Ultimately I gave the order to fire and to do everything in our power to assist our forces that were under attack. After 7 long hours, our forces prevailed without leaving anyone behind. First Lieutenant Roey Peles was killed in that attack but his body was retrieved due to our help.

“Later that year, after a thorough investigation of that event, we were told that 5 innocent civilians were killed that night,” Edan continued. “I was heartbroken. Not less than I was when Roey was killed. I wish I could also mention their names here to you as well, but I never got to know them. I wish I did. I wish I could reach their families and ask them for forgiveness. Ask them to put all politics aside and find how to live one among the other. Would I make the same decision if I had to do it all over again? Would I risk the lives of my fellow soldiers that were under attack in the sake of hurting innocent civilians? I don’t know.”

Although their experiences were different Edan and Gilad agreed that the IDF trains them to always consider the moral consequences of their actions.

“Every IDF soldier receives a small blue card,” Gilad related. “On it is the Moral Code of the IDF. One of the first things written on it is the principal of Tohar Ha’Neshek — The Purity of Arms. This stipulates that a soldier cannot use his gun, tank, fighter, jet, submarine — the power given to him as a soldier — impurely. We knew we had to stop this terrorist, but we also knew that we had to do it in the right way.”

Said Edan: “The IDF, my squad, and I follow such a powerful ethic and moral code that not many do in the world. We need to cherish it and set it as an example for others in our region.”

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In an interview with San Diego Jewish World, the two reserve soldiers were asked to switch gears. They had described the rules they must observe when their units are on the offensive. But today they are civilians. Edan is a PhD fellow in biotechnology engineering at Ben Gurion University and also the coach of a joint Arab-Jewish baseball team of children aged nine and under, who are just learning the American game. Gilad is a student at Hebrew University in the Asian Studies program where he studies the Japanese language and history. He currently leads a student program to build career skills for the Asian business world. So, given the spate of attacks by Arabs on Jews — especially in Jerusalem — how do they size up the situation? How do they react when they see Arabs who they don’t know personally approaching them?

“It is a very difficult question to answer,” Gilad responded. “It is a situation that people in Israel don’t know how to deal with yet. There is a lot of controversy over what is going on. Should people be armed? Should there be more lenient gun control laws? Should there be separations? People are throwing a lot of possible solutions into the air. You’ll see in Israel that bus stops have been barricaded. There are large cement blocks to stop car ramming attacks. There will be much more heightened security — these are defensive measures. We are thinking what can we do to stop this from the outset and that is something we absolutely don’t have an answer to. There have been different things that have been tried concerning passages and connections between populations but I don’t think there is an answer.”

Edan pointed out that the Arab terrorists “not only attack Army personnel but also civilians — mothers, children, no matter who they see. The minute they know it’s an Israeli, it’s a Jew, they attack him. We as a society, on the one hand we want to protect ourselves and it is difficult because you can’t judge someone who is under attack, if he made the right decision by killing the attacker or by running away. It is very difficult to judge someone when you haven’t been in that situation yourself.”

After the many attacks in the previous months, Edan added, “you are much more suspicious of the people around you. You wonder and look around to see if someone around is suspicious or not, much more than in the past. It’s very stressful.”

Gilad added that the attacks have prompted changes in daily living. “I don’t take the bus to school anymore; my wife doesn’t walk to work — as we used to. We drop each other off in the car. Standing in line, I am much more aware of what is going on. I don’t think people like to admit it so much, but you are aware if someone from the Arab population is near you– there is a certain human reaction to that. Having said that, we understand, of course, that the vast majority don’t pose a threat. But you can’t help it, in a situation where people are getting stabbed every week…”

Edan said “where I live in Beer-Sheva, there is a beautiful co-existence. My neighbor is an Arab. if he needs an egg, I give him an egg; if I need a lemon, he gives me a lemon. We share things and we trust each other. The school where most of the teammates (on the junior baseball team) come from is a school for both Arabs and Jews. They are learning Arabic and Hebrew as well. They are learning how to live one with the other.”

Gilad lives in Jerusalem which has been the focus of the recent wave of violence. “At Hebrew University, there is a large population of Arab students and obviously we come into close contact all the time. Arab populations– I think they are suffering a lot from this wave of violence and you can see it because they know that their communities and lifestyles are being associated with that sort of thing and that the Jews in Israel are very alert. I think a lot of them also want this to end and understand the negative impact this has on their lives.”

Both Edan and Gilad have American roots, and are able to interpret one culture to another. Gilad has an American mother and an Israeli father. Born in New York, he was raised in Ra’anana. Edan was born in Israel and spent three years in Miami Beach, Florida, where, he says, in addition to baseball, he “fell in love with the wierdist American things such as English muffins, Wendy’s chicken burger and Skittles.”

“That’s who I am,” said Gilad. “I’m somebody who is Israeli, who has strong roots in the United States and I’m always going to be a bridge between the two cultures. I have been blessed enough to be given the opportunity to act on that calling. The truth is this kind of tour is like a huge kind of mission, something you do for an altruistic purpose…”

Edan added: “I’m privileged to speak okay English and I have an understanding of the culture of America… I think every Israeli can consider himself as a bridge between America and Israel, and it started to burn inside of me after the last operation, Protective Edge, what I went through there, and watching and seeing what is on the (American) news hurt me so much that I decided that the real war was not in the fields of Gaza but the propaganda war in the media. I’m here because I want to tell the story, to make things right, and to cut out the {mainstream} media middle man.”

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)