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Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 Hardcover – 18 September 2012
by Breaking the Silence Group (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 67 ratings
"Israeli soldiers speak out for the first time about the truth of the Palestinian occupation, in "one of the most important books on Israel/Palestine in this generation." ("The New York Review of Books"). The very name of the Israel Defence Forces - which many Israelis speak of as "the most moral army in the world" - suggests that its primary mission is the defines of the country's territory. Indeed, both internationally and within Israel, support for the occupation of Palestinian territory rests on the belief that the army's actions and presence in the West Bank and Gaza are essentially defensive and responsive, aimed at protecting the country from terror. But Israeli soldiers themselves tell a profoundly different story. In this landmark work, which includes hundreds of soldiers' testimonies collected over a decade, what emerges is a broad policy that is anything but defensive. In their own words, the soldiers reveal in human and vivid detail how the key planks of the army's ostensibly protective program - "prevention of terror," "separation of populations," "preservation of the fabric of life," and "law enforcement" - have in fact served to accelerate acquisition of Palestinian land, cripple all normal political and social life, and ultimately thwart the possibility of independence.
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Toussi Investment
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent livre
Reviewed in France on 18 June 2015
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C'est un livre troublant et ouvrant les yeux sur une réalité peu connue. Il est très bien écrit et très bien documenté.
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cony loves brown
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent!
Reviewed in Japan on 17 February 2013
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I attended the tour in 2008. it made me change all the view points I'd had.
We can't deny the war crime they have done, but I was sorry for the soldiers who didn't want to do it.
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Alfred H. Kaethler
5.0 out of 5 stars Kafkaesque
Reviewed in Canada on 1 April 2014
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It was with hesitation that I gave this book a 5 start rating, because above those five stars it said "Loved It". You'd have to be an unstable individual to "love" this book. I can only read so much before I enter a state of despondency mixed with outrage. The fact that it is just a sequence of unvarnished interviews lends it power and authenticity. Someone once said, "Good people will always do good things, and evil people will always do evil, but for good persons to commit evil deeds it takes religion." That was the saddest thing. Those IDF soldiers being interviewed came across as normal people trapped in an untenable situation.
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Geoffrey Urch
5.0 out of 5 stars Undeniably, a harsh logic.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 December 2013
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`Our Harsh Logic' is a revealing, disturbing and at times heart breaking account from ex-Israeli soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories of Palestine during the period 2000-2010.
In March 2009 Israel stood accused of committing war crimes against innocent civilians during the brutal assault on Gaza, known as `Operation Cast Lead'.
Despite worldwide condemnation of the Israeli government and their forces at that time, Ehud Barak, the defence Minister made the following statement: "I have no doubt in my heart that the Israeli Defence Force is the most moral army in the World". This book contains some 145 testimonies taken from more than 700 interviews from commanders, officers as well as rank and file and both men and women. It reveals a defence force that is far from moral. The documented confessions reveal a military that is brutal, inhuman and hell bent on making the lives of the Palestinian population intolerable. Israel has every right to defend itself against attacks from Palestinian resistance groups but their policy of metering out `collective punishment' has resulted in the domination and dehumanisation of the Palestinian population.
The bravery and honesty of Israelis who have been prepared to speak out against the occupation should not be underestimated in terms of the effect it has on world opinion.
It would be wrong to condemn Israel out of hand - both sides are not blameless, and both sides believe that they are justified in their objectives and actions. If history repeats itself, the current peace talks are unlikely to resolve the situation. World opinion is gathering in support of the Palestinian cause and this collective pressure may be something that the politicians are eventually unable to ignore. The contents of this book have added another stain on Israel's reputation. One can only hope that international pressure will one day result in the recognition of a Palestinian state and liberty for its people, and also that the unique state of Israel will at last find harmony and be free from conflict.
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Suzanne Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!
Reviewed in the United States on 28 May 2024
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This should be required reading for anyone supporting the Israeli government
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Daniela
4.0 out of 5 stars absolut lesenswert
Reviewed in Germany on 1 October 2013
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Insiderberichte aus einem der ältesten Konflikte unserer Zeit. Israelische Soldaten arbeiten ihre Erfahrung in den besetzten Gebieten auf, beschreiben Hintergründe und Strategien und zeigen mit brutaler Ehrlichkeit, wie in diesem Konflikt jegliche Menschlichkeit verloren geht. Ein must-read, für alle, die einmal die Perspektive wechseln wollen
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Renate
5.0 out of 5 stars No one better than the soldiers can describe the official Israeli policy ...
Reviewed in Canada on 17 July 2014
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All those who are pro-Israeli, especially the politicians, should read this book. The testimony by occupying Israeli soldiers is heart-wrenching. Who would want to endure what the Palestinians are enduring every day in the Occupied Territories? These first-hand accounts are powerful because they are not filtered through the propaganda of any particular group. No one better than the soldiers can describe the official Israeli policy of disrupting and making miserable and hopeless the lives of Palestinians. This book should be in every Israeli school.
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Niklas
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 November 2012
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This book is indescribably important. It is a historical document of how Israeli politics directly affects the common life in the occupied territories, and even within Israel.
After reading this book, you will ask yourself - "how can this go on?" "How can these politics have a public mandate?".
It is difficult to review this book as it is so very overwhelming and I feel I lack the words to actually emphasize the importance of it.
I sympathize deeply with the Palestinians who try to live their lives and I sympathize deeply with the Israeli soldiers who realize that what they are forced to do is such a grave breach of human rights.
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Kevin C. Kresse
5.0 out of 5 stars unimpeachable testimonies paint painful history of colonial rule
Reviewed in the United States on 7 September 2014
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A must read for those interested in the perspective of Israeli veterans who served their country as patriotic soldiers but developed dissident views based on their experiences in the occupied territories. After reading the testimonies it is difficult to imagine how the policies of occupation can continue much longer without Israel destroying itself from within. Colonialism is torture and terrorism. Israel has embraced colonialism and in the process, sacrificed its young and its best and brightest to the "dirty war" logic inherent in its promotion and defense. This documentary history will become an important reference for future scholars, representing an unimpeachable source of knowledge about what Israelis knew and when they knew it, as well as how and why they did it. Unfortunately, too many people refuse to consider systemic human rights violations as a fundamental truth of the Israeli occupation and colonial expansion, even when Israeli combat veterans make the case based on their own lived experiences as front line instruments of Israeli policy.
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J. Butler
5.0 out of 5 stars Israel's terrorism is well documented, including the harm to the Israeli soldiers themselves
Reviewed in the United States on 2 March 2013
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Anyone who has been fooled by generations of Israeli propaganda portraying itself as always the victim, these reports by the Israeli military themselves show that the barbarity and crimes against humanity that they inflict daily on the Palestinians and others not only are deadly to the Palestinians, but are also terribly damaging to the Israeli soldiers themselves.
There are Israeli apologists that claim that not all the reports are first hand observations. Some are not. But the descriptions of the institutionalized violence toward the Palestinians is told so many times in so many ways that especially coming from within the Israeli military, it must be true and most likely just the tip of the iceberg.
In the words of Israel's own military, it is a state sponsor of terrorism that is virtually unaccountable for its actions.
That said, the US seems to be following closely the Israeli model, which is in itself a very tragic issue about which more and more is being written every day.
This is an important book that opens a window into the hearts and minds of the Israeli military in the words of the military itself.
It shows a lot of the reasons why unless there is regime change in Israel, there will never be peace in the region.
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Randall Wallace
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December 18, 2023
“Normally the point of ‘Happy Purim’ is to stop people from sleeping. It means going into a village in the middle of a night, going around throwing stun grenades and making noise.” This is also known by the IDF as “demonstrating a presence”. One soldier said the problem with being out there for four hours throwing stun grenades was “the IDF would run out of stun grenades.” The next time you find yourself whining about your life, remember that sometimes the IDF runs out of stun grenades to keep the occupied properly awake and fearful. “He asked one of the grenade launchers to fire a riot control grenade towards the demonstrators, the children. The grenade launcher refused, and afterward he was treated terribly by the company commander. He wasn’t punished because the company commander knew he’d given an illegal order, but he was treated really disgustingly by the staff.”
Stealing: “We didn’t find any weapons in the end. One person took twenty shekels. People went into the houses and looked for things to steal. This was a very poor village. At one point, guys were saying, “What a bummer, there is nothing to steal.” “I took some markers just say I stole something.” “There was a lot of joy at people’s misery, guys were happy talking about it.”
Pumped Up Kicks: “There’s some law that it’s forbidden to hit a Palestinian when he’s handcuffed, when his hands are tied. When the Shabak guys take people from their homes in the middle of the night, they’d blindfold them and kick them in the stomach while they are handcuffed.” “Here’s this man handcuffed, and they kicked him in the stomach and the head …those guys really liked doing that.” “The forward command team …kept telling us they hit Arabs for laughs all the time.” “The battalion commander gave an order to shoot at people trying to recover the bodies [known in drone lingo as the double tap].” “He definitely gave the order to shoot at people who came to rescue the bodies.” “They told me they did it a lot in Lebanon – you leave a body in a field, and you wait until they come to recover it so you can shoot at them. It’s like you are setting up an ambush around the body.”
“He was happy he killed someone? Why?”
“Because you’ve proved yourself. You’re a man.”
IDF Humor: A woman walks to answer her door, but soldiers couldn’t wait for her to answer and blew the door open with explosives taking her out instantly as well: “I heard about it during dinner after the operation, someone said it was funny, and everyone cracked up, that the kids saw their mother smeared on the wall. (p.40)”
Q: “Isn’t there any kind of announcement saying stay indoors? A: No. Q: They actually shot people? A: They actually shot whoever was walking around in the street. Whoever you shot in the street was ‘a terrorist’.” “Any kid you see with a stone, you can shoot him. Like shoot to kill. A stone!” “Q: What are the Rules of engagement? A: Whoever is walking around at night, shoot to kill.” “Someone came up with the idea that, wait, maybe they’re hiding things in the water tanks on the roof, you know, they have those big black tanks on every house. So, they turned over every tank.”
Moving Human Shields: IDF soldier testimony: “So he just stopped a Palestinian guy who was passing, forty-something years old and tied him to the hood of the jeep, a guy just lying on the hood, and they drove into the village. No one (of the kids who threw before) threw any more rocks.”
“The soldiers would just spray their legs. It was just appalling. His (the captain’s) one goal was to lure Palestinian children, just to cut off their legs.” Golani Brigade testimony: “We had a commander in the unit who would just say in these words, ‘I want bodies. That’s what I want’.” When asked how many times the commander said that, the soldier replied “I remember ten cases”.
IDF Etiquette:
Q: “What do you mean, ‘looting’?
A: They say, they shat on the …they shat on the couches, they stole.”
Q: “You mean if you come to a shopping center, yell at everyone to go home, and if they run, great, if not, and you think they’re not fast enough, you throw stun grenades? A: Yes, yes.”
Q: In the middle of the day? A: In the middle of the day.”
“We go into the houses of innocent people. Every day, all the time.” “You’re chasing after innocent people. They just want to work.” “If there’s a house where there is a clear security need, it’s the tallest house, then no one cares where the family is going.” “It’s really fun to smash things, …here you are twenty years old and you have your chance to do just that, so you start to smash things …breaking tables and doors, tossing loads and loads of documents…” “Q: Did you see any looting? A: Yes, plenty.” If only Zionists were somehow bound by a moral code.
In an Qalqilya Artillery Unit a soldier was told: “Aim for the eyes so that you take out an eye, or at the stomach so it goes into the stomach.” In the Kfir Bridade in Hebron as soldier said: “There are loads of incidents. All kinds of crap we’d do. We’d beat up Arabs all the time, nothing special. Just to pass the time.” The IDF is SUPPOSED to be about “Purity of Arms” protecting non-combatants or prisoners of war, specifically their “lives, body, honor, and property.”
Imagine this restriction: “a guy in Nablus between sixteen and thirty-five years old, hasn’t left Nablus in the last four years, not even to go to a neighboring village. He can only be in that city.” Q: The Ramallah Checkpoint is popular? A: “Yeah, It’s the yeshiva students favorite spot, that Wild West, they know they can beat people up as much as they want.”
Enlightened Soldier: “You see the poverty, and the checkpoints, and the enormous struggle of a whole city or a neighborhood just to live, all because of a few hundred [settlers]. You see it clearly.” “Yeah, you know, it’s just further proof that the IDF’s job is to make the Palestinians’ lives miserable. Because if you think about it, there is no operational need.”
Q: “The adults cried, too? A: Of course, they did, they were humiliated. The goal was always, ‘I got them to cry in front of his kids, I got him to crap his pants’.” Q: “There were times when people went to the bathroom in their pants? A: Yes. Q: Why? A: From being beaten, for the most part. Being beaten and threatened and screamed at – you’re just terrified. Especially if it’s in front of their kids”
One man tells how he planted a fig grove; it took ten years to bear fruit, he enjoyed it for one year only, then “the IDF bulldozer comes and says: ‘Forget about it’.” “You’re only creating more people who are going to hate you deep in their hearts for the rest of their lives.”
“Seventy percent of the population in Gaza lives on fishing. If there is no fish, there is no food.”
“Confiscating IDs is forbidden, and it’s not supposed to happen.” “It’s not uncommon for IDF soldiers to take a Palestinian’s ID as a punishment; they know Palestinians need their ID for everything” – “it’s like taking complete control of everything. There’s not a thing he can do about it.” “God forbid someone stops them without an ID, forget about it. He goes straight to the Ofer base detention facility or something.” “Soldiers would confiscate loads of ID’s. Loads.”
Settler Violence: Q: “is that how he [the settler] talked to you? A (soldier talking): Yeah, “Who do you think you are? This is my road, this is my town. I do whatever I want”, [a soldier recounting what the settler told him]. “Settlers are protected and anchored in Israeli law, while the Palestinians are controlled by the use of threats and military force.” “Israeli security forces consider the settlers as allies with whom they share a common enemy.” “Settlers are able to act in the Territories as representatives of Israel – as if they were a branch of the security forces.” “Most of the violence didn’t come from the Palestinians, because they didn’t have a chance – there is not much they can do with soldiers in front of them. Rather it was the settlers who were violent.” “Settlers spitting in people’s faces.” “The settlers have weapons.”
Settler Kid Demons: “Eleven-, twelve-year-old Jewish kids beat up Palestinians and their parents come along to help them, set their dogs on them – there’s a thousand and one stories.” “A Jewish kid – no one would ever shoot at him.” “The Jewish kids throw rocks at them when they pass by. The Jewish parents don’t say a word.” This stuff is perfect for the Hallmark Channel. “I remember one time settlers burned down a Palestinian house on a Saturday. A house right across from the cemetery. I remember that kids, twelve years at the most, totally burned down the house.” [And I thought Grand Theft Auto was violent] Q: Are settlers violent with the IDF? A: “Yes, in Hebron I was hit with rocks, eggs, certainly, of course, sure. Racist comments, everything.”
This book was a lovely ad for Israel: Come to Israel – It’s like the Jim Crow South - if it were massively funded by US Congress and Taxpayers. Come be complicit in crimes against your fellow man. Settler-colonialism can’t just occupy itself; we need YOU to cheer on our war crimes through continued silence and cowardice.
What this book really helped me with was to see the huge amount of checkpoints and their combined role in dehumanizing the occupied, in giving them no hope, in service of unchecked settler-colonialism. After reviewing a dozen books [and over two dozen left] on Israel/Palestine I believe the religion of most Zionists can’t be Judaism, it’s settler-colonialism. Following the basic ruthless tenets of settler-colonialism is WAY more important to a Zionist than following Judaism, international law, or basic morals could be. It was great to read so many testimonies of so many soldiers, and learn that many ex-IDF soldiers (just like in the US) were disgusted by what they were told or made to do in the name of patriotism. You can’t trust a twenty-year old to turn the lights off, or clean the kitchen, yet Israel daily totally trusts a bunch of 20-year-olds to sit at a checkpoint all day bored with loaded guns and stun grenades to not manufacture daily more blowback against Israel’s brutal 75-year occupation. TV Ad we will never see: This Christmas Give the Gift of Violence – Say Yes to Everything Israel does that Jesus would Never Do. Great book, so glad I read it; you’ll like it too.
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William Bentrim
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January 8, 2013
Our Harsh Logic Compiled by Breaking the Silence
When I was asked if I would review this book, I said, “It doesn’t sound like a book I want to read but it does sound like a book I should read”. This book is a compilation of testimonies by Israeli Soldiers from the occupied territories 2000-2010.
I’m still not sure of the motivation of the organization Breaking the Silence. This book details many incidents that portray the Israeli army, police and settlers in a decidedly negative manner. The Palestinians are portrayed as victims. The bias of the book is definitively against the Israeli government. The government is portrayed as fractured and confused. The army gets conflicting directions form different governmental bodies.
The testimonies are moving and often sad. The young people of Israel found themselves in situations they felt they were ill equipped to handle. Many of the testimonies reflected the immaturity of the soldiers and their reflections from the perspective of later years where they second guess their prior behavior.
I can’t recall one incident in the book where Palestinians were seen as the cause of the soldiers’ behavior. In my opinion the book ignored why the issues of security were mandated in the first place.
From this book’s point of view a pattern of behavior by the Israeli army, settlers and government is creating a culture of hatred in the Palestinians. The term ghetto was used several times in the book as was reference to Nazi behavior. Harsh is aptly used in the title of the book.
I suspect that many of the stories in the book could be ascribed to American troops in their battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conflicting rationales for their missions has to been depredating to the morale and general well being of the troops regardless of nationality.
Considering the overwhelming support for Israel in the United States, this book provides a thoughtful counterpoint. However is does seem decidedly skewed in viewpoint. Read it but read it with care.
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Stew
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October 27, 2012
While I'm admittedly not extremely versed on Palestinian-Israeli relations or the occupation, I was interested in this book because I thought it might give some light to the side of the story we don't often hear. To be fair, I suppose the book is exactly what it claims to be - testimonies of Israeli soldiers who provide "shocking" information about the things that are actually going on in the occupied territories. Violence and discrimination and abuses of power galore.
The problem is that none of this information is extremely revealing or shocking. Quite honestly it is the same types of stories you'd imagine hearing from any soldiers gloating about their warring in any war that has ever existed. In fact we hear these types of stories in America when soldiers make the mistake of getting caught such as those at Guantanamo Bay. Beating up people who probably didn't deserve it, intimidating the "enemy" civilians, etc. While surely it is sad and disgusting, it provides nothing more than a superficial complaint about the state of war, not the conspiratorial expose that I was expecting.
No one will get a better insight into the war by reading this book. After reading not even half, I was bored and done. It was depressing but not at all inspiring or thought-provoking. It's a shame that Breaking the Silence didn't put this information into a format that inspired action.
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Joshua Lawson
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January 5, 2021
There’s nothing flashy about this little book, but it does contain important first hand accounts from Israeli soldiers about conditions on the ground in Palestine. If nothing else, it will shake any illusions you might have (assuming you are a western reader) about the righteous character of the Israeli occupation.
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Ishraq
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July 16, 2013
To be honest, I was not chocked with these testimonies from soldiers in the IDF during Operation Cast Lead 2008-2009. What caught my attention was really some testimonies and incidents happened during that massacre and the Arab media and journals did not mention. (To be honest again, this is so typical of them.)
I would like to share some of these testimonies but what you would basically know from these testimonies is that at the beginning, not all the soldiers knew why they would go to Gaza and what is the exact mission to have on the first day of the attack. They always had some Rabbi soldiers to talk about the Great War for the Promised Land and how everything is justified and no regret.
The Rules of engagement were clear, to get in and out with no soldiers’ kills, injuries, kidnapping... the live of a soldier is very precious and when you shoot, shoot to kill. Do not let feelings and regrets control you, once these Palestinians (innocent or not) when cross certain lines should be shoot to kill.
House demolitions was a common act to do, a whole neighborhood would be taken down if a suspected house for launching Qassam rockets is happened to be there. Demolish everything, houses, trees, orchards, everything that a tunnel is expected to be under...
Testimony 1 - Human Shield
"… Sometimes the force would enter while placing rifle barrels on a civilian's shoulder, advancing into a house and using him as a human shield. Commanders said these were the instructions and we had to do it…"
Testimony 4 - Rules Of Engagement & Home Occupation
"Missiles, tank fire, machine gun fire into the house, grenades. Shoot as we enter a room. The idea was that when we enter a house, no one there could fire at us. Naturally by combat reasoning we would not take a house that the Hamas would expect us to take, for it would be highly likely for the Hamas to booby-trap it."
Testimony 21 - Briefings & Rules Of Engagement
"There are two phases: there's the primary phase of taking objectives. There, whatever is suspect is targeted for fire, and there are houses on the road, like in an ambush. As soon as someone passes them – you shoot. The 'red line' procedure is to report, request permission to open fire."
"Men, women and children. This was our first objective in the operation plan. We walked in, reached the neighborhood and began the offensive advance. While you're attacking you shoot a lot even while encountering no one. You make sure you're not being surprised. Say we entered a hothouse and are securing it: you cut a hole and enter the hothouse, shooting at the plant rows. You're not on automatic fire, but you do give a few bursts to make sure you won't be surprised."
"He (the battalion commander) also spoke about having to remain alert and not be afraid, he stressed that this was not a limited confrontation such as in Hebron, and not to hesitate to shoot if we suspect someone, nor feel bad about destruction because it is all done for the safety of our own soldiers. “
"... He said that whatever was destroyed can be rebuilt, but the life of a soldier once killed cannot be restored..."
Testimony 35 - Vandalism
"… He (one of the soldiers) was in the room, I was in the position, and looked through the window, sitting. He opened a child's bag. The family was not there, they had run away. He took out notebooks and text books and ripped them. One guy smashed cupboards for kicks, out of boredom..."
Testimony 39 - Vandalism
"The guys would simply break stuff. Some were out to destroy and trash the whole time. They drew a disgusting drawing on the wall. They threw out sofas. They took down a picture from the wall just to shatter it. They really couldn't see why they shouldn't."
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Emma
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February 15, 2013
This is an incredibly important book because its accounts have been historically verified and because it forms part of a wider project called Breaking the Silence to create a physical, intellectual and emotional space to reflect on what serving in a system that dehumanises people does to them its soldiers on an individual and societal level. I think every unit in the IDF is represented in these testimonies. It is incredibly upsetting to read, but it helped me understand the mechanics of occupation, the mechanism of humiliation and frightening people on the ground, the disruption of a way of life and the powerlessness of the soldiers too in the system and chains of command. It seems like a kind of hell and a kind of nightmare neither side has a strategy or plan to escape from. The work of Breaking the Silence in forming humane and friendly links with the Palestinian community and talking to the world about the reality of IDF service is extremely brave, as we know part of healing from trauma are the acts of testimony and witness and integration of these events into a coherent self. Reminded me of the wonderful Rabbi Jonathan Sacks talking on Holocaust Day about the need for friendliness to counteract brutality in the world. This needs to happen on an individual and societal level. The actual testimonies are well written, put in the context of the political framework and form a useful reference in general for those working with military and/or trauma, or wanting to understand the very human experience that lies beneath the news headlines. Know that in reading this book and bearing witness, you too have become part of that healing process for this embattled part of the world. I do wish there had been some follow up of the people that contributed to the testimonies, how their experiences impacted their lives outside of military service and them as people outside of their experiences of serving....How did these experiences change them and their attitudes? Do they dissociate from these memories or use their experiences in life? I wanted more of a context I guess.
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Wordsword
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August 24, 2015
It's hard to realize how the most blamed and tortured nation has unlearned the most important lection history gave them... There's always a victim who suffers, no matter if it's fair or not.
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Muna
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July 15, 2021
what you saw on TV is something, but what you will read in this book is something else. It is beyond horrifying that there is more injustice, simulation and violence.
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Foxglove
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July 7, 2013
Cards on the table, I'm biased. I have many cousins and friends who have served or are serving in the Israeli army and I'm someone who has been involved in advocacy for Israel. I just came back from there a month ago, where I visited Hebron and participated on a Breaking the Silence Tour. Yesterday, my librarian suggested it to me as a book on Israel. (Yes, I read fast)
So, overall? Read it with reservation, context and a lot of soul searching about why you're reading it. If you're reading this book to prove why Israel is an evil country, you're wasting your time and making the situation worse. If you're reading this as one source of information in a nuanced discussion, then continue on.
Firstly, the book is hard to read. Unfortunately, a lot of the information being presented and it's often hard for someone who isn't familiar with military procedures to follow it. The book would have been a lot more powerful had it been more than a series of interviews, which can be repetitive and provides very little context which would only work in Israel where the average person is more familiar with the jargon.
As someone who is mildly familiar with Israel, I found myself lost. I understand that the choice was just to allow the words to speak for themselves, but I think that makes it really hard to understand. A better system of organization might have worked better. And not all the interviews needed to be included, longer interviews and less of them would be more effective than just to divide it into four sections.
In fact, it does come across rather dry after a while. In many ways, I'd suggest skipping the book and watching the videos on the Breaking the Silence site, which are a lot better, give more information and are not anonymous. Although quite a few of the testifiers have come forward, the fact that many of the testimonies are anonymous will hurt the book's credibility.
Second, this book is heart breaking on a personal level. It's upsetting to hear about abuse of any civilian but it's painful as well to see the trauma of the soldiers themselves. I think a proper reading of this book should remind us that everyone is suffering here, even if it can seem like brainwashing the reader against Israel. And boy, does it seem like Israel is the worst country when you read it, even though as other reviewers note, it's likely par for the course for how most wars are run. There aren't many ways to have a moral war, one can just attempt to reduce how immoral it is. It has a decided agenda, and it pretty much states it out.
Third, context. So much context is needed, and I would have loved more discussion of the terrorism and dangers faced by the soldiers to explain why they are so terrified. Discuss the soldiers who were horrifically murdered by guerilla warfare, where anyone can turn against the solders. The massacres of the two reservists Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami are touched on, but that's a story that takes places contemporaneously with the events and would be enough to make anyone trigger happy.
Therefore, I would suggest it be paired with the book "A Psalm for Jenin" by Brett Goldberg which is the same kind of agenda for the other side, and try to realize both stories are true. I have had the privilege of meeting soldiers in Israel who are among the finest, most moral and ethical men and women to walk this planet. I would trust them with my life. But unfortunately, not everyone is able to withstand the ethical pressure and people crack under the weight of being 18 and having to make life and death choices in a morally gray world. But as a (left wing) Israeli friend noted "I would have preferred this be a discussion among warriors, and kept within the army to fix, because it's our responsibility." I can understand a lot of anger among Israelis for this kind of discussion, it's going to be a painful conversation in a lot of homes.
This kind of discussion will never be welcome among the more mainstream Jewish community, especially among the older people. One of the major problems Breaking the Silence has is that Israelis are a lot less passive aggressive than Americans. Americans are often extremely careful to remind their audience, "we love our country, we just think..." ad infinitum. There's none of that here, because to many in the book, it goes without saying. To quote another Israeli friend who served, "I don't need to prove to anyone how much I love my country." So the book comes across horrifically anti-Israel when I think many of the people who testified are people who would die for their country.
I can understand why this book would be condemned. It's one sided, making the Palestinians out as victims and provides little context for why Israelis are in the territories. Yes, it's being used against the country by those who would use any excuse to hate the country, and that's even more painful. Israelis should be able to critique their own governments' policies without outside forces using such critique as a weapon against the country. It shuts down proper debate and makes change even more impossible.
Again, don't let this be your only source of knowledge on the conflict. It's nuanced, complicated and it's not a zero sum game. The only productive thing you can do is support Israelis and Palestinians to come together, make a lasting and sustainable peace and show support to the moderates on both sides.
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Garryvivianne
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May 24, 2013
Wow! Very interesting, very sad. the Israel Defense Forces—which many Israelis speak of as "the most moral army in the world", They are supposedly trained to protect their territory & be a big presence in the West Bank and Gaza area, trained to be defensive & responsive.
This book tells quite a different story. This is told through the eyes of the soldiers. Most of these soldiers are NOT "trained". This book is bits & pieces told by different soldiers. Most do what they want, some superiors know what is being done & do nothing about it. A lot of them are very young & frightened that they are even there. Most don't understand why they have to "take over" someone's house under the guise of "staking out a possible terrorist". They sometimes trash the houses, some just sit around & watch tv, it's not what I would think is a military procedure. They pull people out of their homes & make them take bombs out of places, they talk about shooting at people, some get excited when something terrible DOES happen, they feel like they are doing their jobs, like something HAS to happen. Some don't like doing what they do, some feel very guilty.
Through the many soldiers' who have spoken out, they have created a fiercly terrifying record of oppression. As they say, they are "showing a presence" wherever they are. Most are probably just as scared as the people they are up against. Through their "law enforcement"—they have broken any chances of normalcy in political & social areas. And with that goes the possibility of independence. Seems like the conflict will always be there. Seems so hopeless, even for these soldiers.
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