Morality Play

[Ken Burch]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090427/leibovitz?rel=hp_currently

"Having learned about army life mainly from American movies, I expected machismo, bravado and grit. What I got instead was a long and measured lecture about morality.

The IDF, the commander stated, was the most moral army in the world. Like every army, we often find ourselves in difficult situations and often have to make regrettable decisions that cost innocent people their lives. But unlike any other army, said the officer, we meet the severe security challenges facing us with extraordinary care, with great compassion, with a commitment to justice and a true yearning for peace. That night, I slept well; still uncertain about what my military service might have in store, I took comfort in knowing that I belonged to an army that addressed the questions of morality and ethics seriously.

For the next three years, my faith in this point was repeatedly tested. I disagreed vehemently with the government's policy of continuing the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a policy that propelled so many of my friends into Palestinian towns and villages, where they were expected to police a resentful and angry population. And I was incensed when the army committed the occasional travesty, such as the murder of more than 100 Lebanese civilians in Qana in 1996. But overall, during my service and after, I continued to believe that the army took the sacred notion of human life seriously.

This is no longer the case."