Israel Hayom..
20 April '12..
Ayelet is a dedicated and hardworking kindergarten teacher. Over the years she noticed a flaw in her school's study aids. There was wonderful educational material for every holiday but the kit for Independence Day contained pictures of a barbecue, fireworks, and that's it. The day when we celebrate our small country's existence struck Ayelet, wisely, as more than just a picnic. We ought to teach the little whippersnappers about the country's strength, she thought, and decided to create her own kit. She wrote a letter to parents soliciting pictures of fighter jets from old air force magazines, pictures of tanks from the "Bamahaneh" army newspaper and various types of military paraphernalia. The parents in her well-to-do community responded with shock. "Fascism," they cried in protest, "Nationalism!" "Militarism!" "Extremism!"
In Israel's first 25 years, the IDF parade was Independence Day's central event, drawing crowds of hundreds of thousands. The premier broadcast of Israeli television was of the 1968 IDF parade. A feeling of solidarity, love for the IDF, and pride filled the air as artillery, tanks and upright soldiers filed past. After too many generations when this beaten people had not so much as a cap gun, a large and mighty Jewish army was something to behold, the realization of a dream, the embodiment of our sovereignty, a grand show of strength. At its peak the parade contained 4,500 soldiers, 400 vehicles and 400 planes. The word fascism never popped into anyone's head. Loving the IDF and cheering it on once a year were the least citizens could do to give back to the army. The last parade took place in 1973, on the eve of the Yom Kippur War. After the war, we discontinued the tradition. What's left is the annual air and water show. But this year the IDF would like to cancel these as well, due to budgetary constraints. And there is not a single preschool teacher in Israel who would dare teach children about the IDF's strength
We have asked the IDF to stop being a people's army and become a "professional army." We turned our backs on it when it requested a budget increase. We appointed a chief of staff who sold stocks during wartime and a general staff that can't stop its infighting. We tarred and feathered it when it did not make gains during combat. Then we dunked it in honey under a hornet's nest when it did make gains, but there happened to be a camera nearby. The High Court lashed out at it. Successive attorneys-general turned it into a cripple. The media proceeded to take away its wheelchair. And a week before the most battered army in the world commemorates its 23,000 fallen soldiers, we carried out a summary execution by the hanging of an IDF lieutenant colonel.
On the first day, in shock at those six harrowing seconds of video footage, no one came out to defend Eisner. And then a parade of journalists burst out of their air-conditioned rooms to attend the hanging. In total lockstep. On their way, the Communist thought police decided it would be a good idea to redefine the "Consensus" soldier organization as right-wing. Questions regarding the facts piled up, but hypocrisy was having a field day. Only then did a few brave dissenters come out of hiding.
A society whose security is threatened must have the backs of its soldiers and commanders. Even to rebuke them, when necessary. When dusty officers return from the battlefield nowadays, no one throws rice at them anymore. But at the very least, let's not throw them to the dogs.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1761
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True Americans want a strong Israeli Army; count me as one of the afore mentioned persons.
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