tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post4154688972305344002..comments2023-10-26T06:29:39.824-07:00Comments on The Magnes Zionist: Gaza – Why this IDF Abuse Was Different From Other IDF AbuseJerry Haberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15173892714754718716noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-7618228802295694262009-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:002009-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:00"there is still no scholarly study of why some IDF..."there is still no scholarly study of why some IDF soldiers abuse civilians and others don't"<BR/><BR/>There was no shortage of wars in the last century - is there no study of why some soldiers abused civilians and others didn't in any of those? I wouldn't think the psychology of Israeli soldiers was fundamentally different than that of others.<BR/><BR/>Levy: "The implication was that if the scum was cleaned away, the ranks would no longer be defiled.<BR/>That is not necessarily so."<BR/><BR/>He can say that again. The trouble is that a person who has done evil isn't therefore necessarily a constitutionally evil person (if such a person exists at all). And conversely, there's potential for evil in every one of us. So Levy is absolutely right insisting to look at the cause, not just at the symptoms of the disease.<BR/><BR/>"graduates of relatively established groups, who do not feel that the test of how they fight is definitive for their status in their own eyes or in the eyes of others"<BR/><BR/>On the contrary: why did these soldiers speak out if not because they felt they and/or their comrades had failed the "test of how they fight", as opposed to those who counted their barbarity as success?<BR/>They're competing, too, on a higher level, not for the number of nicks in their gun stocks but for their place in what they want to be a civilised society, in spite of the inherently anti-civilised nature of war - and that society's place in their lives. In short, they're saying, it's our state, too.fiddlernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-82497905969953383462009-04-07T06:53:00.000-07:002009-04-07T06:53:00.000-07:00Interesting.What Levy is implying is this: Non-Rus...Interesting.<BR/><BR/>What Levy is implying is this: Non-Russian Secular Ashkenazim, have getting mellower the past few decades. As they have mellowed, the IDF got mellower (at least relative to the standards by 1948), but at the same time their mellowness along with demographic changes have meant that they are less prominent part of the Army, more and more dominated by other elements: Russians, Mizrahim & Religious people, who are not so mellow.<BR/><BR/>Levy doesn't bring any facts here, so while it does fit with people's stereotypes, I don't know whether this is true.Dannynoreply@blogger.com