The link reports a larger number of refuseniks than just the 28, as several hundred in all branches.
But the parallel is the same as here -- the gov't says, "The refuseniks' letter gives moral encouragement to the lawless members of the terrorist organisations."
While the members of the military say it is the gov't which is lawless:
""Their argument is not against the Israeli air force, but against those who issue the order, and those who determine the policy that leads us nowhere," he told the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
"I share your position that the occupation is increasingly corrupting this nation ... We are neither aware nor sensitive enough to what we are doing to the other side. We must begin to dismantle the settlements, we must recognise the fact that the Oslo accords have failed, not only because of the other side, but also because of us."
You may be right about the elections. I don't follow it that closely. But the military mutiny is striking. It could never be termed mere "insubordination" in the US. They would be court-marshalled immed.
The rest of the section:
"Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and army reservists have refused to serve in the occupied territories, but the pilots' letter has outraged the military establishment and much of the public because pilots are held in such esteem.
The most senior of those involved, Yiftah Spector, is a fighter ace who has shot down 15 enemy planes in Israel's wars. The pilots have divided opinion, even among former Israeli air force commanders
Major General David Ivri, the commander from 1977 to 1982, said they were playing in to the hands of Hamas.
"[They] fell into the trap laid for them by the terror, and unintentionally and indirectly created support for terrorism and reinforced it and gave it a certain justification, without wanting to," he said.
But his successor, Major General Amos Lapidot, said he understood their motives.
"Their argument is not against the Israeli air force, but against those who issue the order, and those who determine the policy that leads us nowhere," he told the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
"I share your position that the occupation is increasingly corrupting this nation ... We are neither aware nor sensitive enough to what we are doing to the other side. We must begin to dismantle the settlements, we must recognise the fact that the Oslo accords have failed, not only because of the other side, but also because of us."
Newspapers reported that the letter reflected wider dissent in the air force about the "targeted killings" of wanted Palestinians, in which more than 100 civilians have died." |
