Israeli forces killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender to troops, drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed “in cold blood.”
Back in 1994, the IDF granted Itamar Ben-Gvir an exemption from mandatory military service due to his right wing views. He has since been convicted (in Israeli courts) of supporting a terrorist organization, and is currently serving as Israel’s minister of national security; and is a key figure in maintaining the current governing coalition.
The governing coalition has been in constant tension with senior IDF leadership, which has long argued that all achievable military objectives in Gaza have been achieved, and that continued operation is counter productive.
They’ve proven themselves a capable actual army in the past against numerically far superior opponents, displaying both organizational and individual competence alongside their evil. Now they don’t even have that. It’s just a very well funded gang.
Yeah that’s fair, though I do have to note that other than Yom Kippur in none of Israel’s past conflicts was it seriously outnumbered. That’s the image they like to sell, and intuitively it feels like it should be true, but it’s really not. Israel has always been good at raising massive armies relative to their population, and for instance surprisingly way outnumbered their enemies in 1948. Again not contesting your point; I agree that they were much more competent in the past.
Not disagreeing, but “at this point” implies they were ever anything else.
Back in 1994, the IDF granted Itamar Ben-Gvir an exemption from mandatory military service due to his right wing views. He has since been convicted (in Israeli courts) of supporting a terrorist organization, and is currently serving as Israel’s minister of national security; and is a key figure in maintaining the current governing coalition.
The governing coalition has been in constant tension with senior IDF leadership, which has long argued that all achievable military objectives in Gaza have been achieved, and that continued operation is counter productive.
They’ve proven themselves a capable actual army in the past against numerically far superior opponents, displaying both organizational and individual competence alongside their evil. Now they don’t even have that. It’s just a very well funded gang.
Yeah that’s fair, though I do have to note that other than Yom Kippur in none of Israel’s past conflicts was it seriously outnumbered. That’s the image they like to sell, and intuitively it feels like it should be true, but it’s really not. Israel has always been good at raising massive armies relative to their population, and for instance surprisingly way outnumbered their enemies in 1948. Again not contesting your point; I agree that they were much more competent in the past.