When Brothers in Arms Break Their Silence
The Twitter account of “Brothers in Arms” has long since stopped limiting itself to expressions of refusal to serve and the fight against the judicial reforms. Just this past week, for example, it wished all Israelis a happy New Year, congratulated itself on a new promotional film about the organization, attacked Smotrich’s new AI video, and even mourned the death at a ripe old age of actor Ilan Dar. There is just one event on which the organization has yet to comment: the film “NZA,” which claims that their brothers in arms—all IDF soldiers—are war criminals, child murderers, and systematic killers of innocent people.
That is a little strange, considering that to this day the organization continues to take offense on behalf of the reservist pilots whom Minister Karhi told to “go to hell.” After all, these are the very same pilots now being accused of killing Gazans for the sake of killing. Do they suddenly no longer deserve defending? Which is worse: being called “leeches,” or being accused of being “murderers”? Or is it that as long as the enemy is not Yariv Levin, these great patriots suddenly feel no urgency to take to the streets with a blue-and-white flag and “defend our beloved country”?
Perhaps the silence is rooted in the organization’s representatives’ interview with the American program “60 Minutes,” right on the eve of the massacre. Shira Etting, a reserve helicopter pilot and one of the organization’s leaders, explained at the time why they had organized a mass suspension of reporting for reserve duty. The explanation given was different from the one presented to the Israeli public: “If you want pilots to be able to fly and shoot missiles and bombs at houses, knowing that they might kill children, they have to have the strongest confidence in the people who are making those decisions.” “In their moral values,” added refuser Ron Scherf. Sitting beside them in silence was Omri Ronen, now in a realistic spot on the Democrats’ Knesset slate. The message was clear: we stopped reporting for duty because Israel’s leadership in the fall of 2023 was not one that could be trusted not to kill children for political purposes.
Three weeks later, children and adults did indeed begin dying in the Gaza Strip from Israeli bombs and missiles. We know the truth, which is that this is regrettable but minimal collateral damage in an exceptionally justified war for survival. But what is the world supposed to understand? If in September you explained to it, in fluent English, that there was a real possibility Israel would kill Arab babies because of a lack of morality, and from October onward Israel did indeed kill Arab babies, the inevitable conclusion is that you are, at the very least, in the risk group for being a war criminal.
The embarrassment among broad sections of the Zionist left and the Democrats party since the blood libel was screened in Venice is not merely the result of fear of a deranged base. It reflects something deeper: a loss of direction and confusion. Above all, it reflects dishonesty and the concealment of people’s true views—people who, at the Kaplan demonstrations for democracy—oh, the irony—tore down “End the Occupation” signs so as not to scare away right-wing attendees, while in that same “60 Minutes” interview explaining that what all the protest activists had in common was the desire to end the occupation.
There is, after all, consistency in the position of someone who opposed the contemptible refusal campaign of Brothers in Arms up until October 7 and who also believes that Israel has not committed war crimes since that day. There is also consistency in the position of someone who supported refusal because of the government’s actions before the massacre and who claims that Israel has committed war crimes since then. It is the same leadership, after all. > >