Soldiers must engage the enemy

The military's decision to investigate whether soldiers were involved in the lynching of 29-year-old Eritrean national Haftom Zarhum during Sunday evening's lethal terrorist attack at the Beersheba central bus station, is the right thing to do, both legally and ethically. Woe to the army whose soldiers take the law into their own hands, and woe to us all if that proves to be true.

If soldiers were somehow involved, those promoting anti-Israel policies will undoubtedly try to use it to leverage the claim that Israel executes innocent people without a trial.

The Israel Defense Forces was also wise to announce an investigation into the actions of the soldiers who were present at the scene of the attack and failed to engage the terrorist, leaving it to the policemen called to the bus station.

Those soldiers, despite being armed and despite serving with combat units -- judging by the insignias on their uniform -- did nothing to subdue the terrorist. Footage of the incident shows one of them allegedly fleeing, while others just stood there, undoubtedly in fear of their lives.

Conventional wisdom says you do not judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, meaning that since we do not know who the soldiers were, what they were thinking, the nature of their training, and whether or not they were even able to handle a full-fledged security incident, we should not pass judgment.

Those who insist on erring on the side of caution allege these soldiers did well to refrain from opening fire, as doing so in a crowded place, especially if they lacked the necessary skills to neutralize the terrorist, could have done more harm than good.

This is a problematic approach, as it contradicts not only military doctrines but also the unwritten contract between Israel and its defense forces. The IDF's basic duty is to come between war and the public, and serve as the latter's protective vest -- literally.

Seeing soldiers allegedly cower away when faced with a security incident while civilians charge forward is an unhealthy reversal of roles. Even if these soldiers prove inexperienced, they are still soldiers who have been trained to used their weapons, and therefore they should have been able to do so.

Israeli society bears full responsibility for this strange reality. For the past 20 years, since the last leg of the IDF's presence in southern Lebanon, soldiers have been turned into "children," whose lives outweigh those of the public they are meant to protect.

The southern city of Sderot, for example, suffered countless rocket salvoes before the military launched a ground incursion in the Gaza Strip to spare soldiers' lives, all while civilian blood had been spilled in Sderot. This frame of mind permeated the collective public opinion, and eventually affected the way the soldiers acted during Sunday's attack.

The IDF must nip this trend in the bud and make the obvious clear to all troops: You are bound by the uniform you wear, and these uniforms spell a code of ethics and actions.

The Israeli Air Force officer who engaged a terrorist near the Kirya (IDF headquarters) in Tel Aviv last week followed that code. He was not an elite combat soldier; he just acted like a soldier and did his job -- engaging the enemy.

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