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**Airbornelawyer** · 08-02-2011, 17:14

I think the change in the IDF came after and to some extent as a result of Operation Peace in Galilee in 1982. Prior to this, the focus of the IDF was defending Israel's borders, and their victories in the War of Independence, the '56 War, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War were testaments to their skill and reinforced the David vs. Goliath ethos of the IDF.

But the 1982 invasion of Lebanon had two or three negative consequences. After 1982, much of the IDF's focus shifted from conventional military defense against Arab armies, who had repeatedly demonstrated their incompetence. Since then, instead, the IDF has become focused on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, in South Lebanon after the invasion and within Israel's borders and in the territories since. Where the IDF soldier previously trained for the day war would come, now he found himself enmeshed in the daily grind of counterinsurgency. My friends and associates in the IDF (I grew up in South Florida and had several high school friends who ended up in the IDF) all agreed that morale in the IDF began to plummet at this point. Before, you were the army and air force that crushed Egyptian tank columns and shot the Syrian Air Force out of the sky. Now you spend every day playing terrorist whack-a-mole with no end in sight.

And further to LR's point on the Israeli Left: again before 1982, the Israeli Left was strongly pro-military and pro-aggressive defense of Israel. David Ben-Gurion (leader in the War of Independence and Prime Minister in the 1956 War), Levi Eshkol (PM during the Six-Day War), Golda Meir (PM during the Yom Kippur War), Moshe Dayan (IDF Chief in the 1956 War and Defense Minister in '67 and '73), Yitzhak Rabin (Chief of Staff in the Six-Day War and later Prime Minister) - they were all part of the Israeli Left. But the invasion of Lebanon seems to have changed the political calculus. Henceforth, Israeli leftists were free to view Israel as the bad guy, or at least be morally ambiguous. The IDF was no longer David facing an Arab Goliath, but had become Goliath. The stone-throwing Palestinian youths of the Intifada became the new David not just among anti-Israeli factions around the world, but among leftists within Israel. To their credit, outside of a fringe, the Israeli Left is relatively more serious, patriotic, and pro-defense than leftist political movements in most other Western countries, but the key word is "relatively".

08-02-2011, 17:14	#13
Airbornelawyer Moderator Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,953	I think the change in the IDF came after and to some extent as a result of Operation Peace in Galilee in 1982. Prior to this, the focus of the IDF was defending Israel's borders, and their victories in the War of Independence, the '56 War, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War were testaments to their skill and reinforced the David vs. Goliath ethos of the IDF. But the 1982 invasion of Lebanon had two or three negative consequences. After 1982, much of the IDF's focus shifted from conventional military defense against Arab armies, who had repeatedly demonstrated their incompetence. Since then, instead, the IDF has become focused on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, in South Lebanon after the invasion and within Israel's borders and in the territories since. Where the IDF soldier previously trained for the day war would come, now he found himself enmeshed in the daily grind of counterinsurgency. My friends and associates in the IDF (I grew up in South Florida and had several high school friends who ended up in the IDF) all agreed that morale in the IDF began to plummet at this point. Before, you were the army and air force that crushed Egyptian tank columns and shot the Syrian Air Force out of the sky. Now you spend every day playing terrorist whack-a-mole with no end in sight. And further to LR's point on the Israeli Left: again before 1982, the Israeli Left was strongly pro-military and pro-aggressive defense of Israel. David Ben-Gurion (leader in the War of Independence and Prime Minister in the 1956 War), Levi Eshkol (PM during the Six-Day War), Golda Meir (PM during the Yom Kippur War), Moshe Dayan (IDF Chief in the 1956 War and Defense Minister in '67 and '73), Yitzhak Rabin (Chief of Staff in the Six-Day War and later Prime Minister) - they were all part of the Israeli Left. But the invasion of Lebanon seems to have changed the political calculus. Henceforth, Israeli leftists were free to view Israel as the bad guy, or at least be morally ambiguous. The IDF was no longer David facing an Arab Goliath, but had become Goliath. The stone-throwing Palestinian youths of the Intifada became the new David not just among anti-Israeli factions around the world, but among leftists within Israel. To their credit, outside of a fringe, the Israeli Left is relatively more serious, patriotic, and pro-defense than leftist political movements in most other Western countries, but the key word is "relatively".
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