Leaders of a grassroots movement against the retreat from Gaza have sent a letter to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, asking him to refuse orders to carry out the plan.
The movement, "The Three Fathers," calls upon Yaalon to inform the Prime Minister that he "will not be a partner to insane actions that will lead to ruin and destruction for the State of Israel."
"We call upon you," their letter states, "to serve as a model to all your soldiers, and announce that you plan to refuse orders. You must inform the Prime Minister and Defense Minister that there are things that are more important than the actual position [in which you serve]... The use of the Israel Defense Forces against citizens of the country is in total opposition to the objectives of the army, and is liable to lead to a civil war."
The Three Fathers movement is headed by Atty. Baruch Ben-Yosef, Moshe Keinan and Zechariah Komemi - all of whom lost sons in the course of the Oslo War.
Regarding the perception that "refusal of orders" is a phenomenon on both ends of the political spectrum, Keinan told Arutz-7 last night that there is an essential difference between people on the left-wing who refuse to serve in Yesha or in the army altogether, and right-wing members who refuse orders to evacuate Jews from their homes:
"A soldier who refuses to fight is a traitor, while one who refuses to evacuate his brothers is, at worst, a delinquent."
Commentator Haggai Segal similarly wrote in the B'Sheva newspaper last week,
"An army is designed to protect its country from its enemies and fight its wars. All the other missions it is entrusted with from time to time - such as helping people in a disaster area, or working in a critical national installation when the regular workers strike, are marginal and secondary. It is therefore clear that a soldier who walks away from a battle with the enemy is not in the same category as one who refuses to replace a striking port worker or dispersing a stormy social-issue demonstration. The first is a traitor and the second is a disciplinary problem."
Keinan said that his letter to Chief of Staff Yaalon has a precedent: "Yossi Sarid himself once declared that if the Government of Israel makes a democratic decision to transfer Arabs, he would lie down in front of the trucks in order to prevent it. Sarid turned to the whole nation, including the Chief of Staff, to tell them that a decision to transfer people is totally illegal. Is there any difference between the transfer Sarid was talking about and the expulsion of Jews who have been living on their land for 30 years and whose children are buried there?"
Keinan then turned once again to Yaalon directly: "Chief of Staff, Sir, you are the State of Israel's Number One Soldier. Perhaps your government and your Prime Minister and Defense Minister are handing you a clearly illegal order?... The Chief of Staff must give up his stripes and tell the Prime Minister, 'Choose yourself a different Chief of Staff.'"
"We are not dealing only with the evacuation of communities, but rather with the soul of the Jewish Nation," Keinan said. "Where is Zionism? Why did we come to the Land of Israel? Why did we settle Misgav Am and Rosh HaNikra [in northern Israel]? We were raised to believe that every place in the Land of Israel that the Jewish People step belongs to us. This is not a matter of [politics], but rather of the soul of the country - Zionism."
The movement, "The Three Fathers," calls upon Yaalon to inform the Prime Minister that he "will not be a partner to insane actions that will lead to ruin and destruction for the State of Israel."
"We call upon you," their letter states, "to serve as a model to all your soldiers, and announce that you plan to refuse orders. You must inform the Prime Minister and Defense Minister that there are things that are more important than the actual position [in which you serve]... The use of the Israel Defense Forces against citizens of the country is in total opposition to the objectives of the army, and is liable to lead to a civil war."
The Three Fathers movement is headed by Atty. Baruch Ben-Yosef, Moshe Keinan and Zechariah Komemi - all of whom lost sons in the course of the Oslo War.
Regarding the perception that "refusal of orders" is a phenomenon on both ends of the political spectrum, Keinan told Arutz-7 last night that there is an essential difference between people on the left-wing who refuse to serve in Yesha or in the army altogether, and right-wing members who refuse orders to evacuate Jews from their homes:
"A soldier who refuses to fight is a traitor, while one who refuses to evacuate his brothers is, at worst, a delinquent."
Commentator Haggai Segal similarly wrote in the B'Sheva newspaper last week,
"An army is designed to protect its country from its enemies and fight its wars. All the other missions it is entrusted with from time to time - such as helping people in a disaster area, or working in a critical national installation when the regular workers strike, are marginal and secondary. It is therefore clear that a soldier who walks away from a battle with the enemy is not in the same category as one who refuses to replace a striking port worker or dispersing a stormy social-issue demonstration. The first is a traitor and the second is a disciplinary problem."
Keinan said that his letter to Chief of Staff Yaalon has a precedent: "Yossi Sarid himself once declared that if the Government of Israel makes a democratic decision to transfer Arabs, he would lie down in front of the trucks in order to prevent it. Sarid turned to the whole nation, including the Chief of Staff, to tell them that a decision to transfer people is totally illegal. Is there any difference between the transfer Sarid was talking about and the expulsion of Jews who have been living on their land for 30 years and whose children are buried there?"
Keinan then turned once again to Yaalon directly: "Chief of Staff, Sir, you are the State of Israel's Number One Soldier. Perhaps your government and your Prime Minister and Defense Minister are handing you a clearly illegal order?... The Chief of Staff must give up his stripes and tell the Prime Minister, 'Choose yourself a different Chief of Staff.'"
"We are not dealing only with the evacuation of communities, but rather with the soul of the Jewish Nation," Keinan said. "Where is Zionism? Why did we come to the Land of Israel? Why did we settle Misgav Am and Rosh HaNikra [in northern Israel]? We were raised to believe that every place in the Land of Israel that the Jewish People step belongs to us. This is not a matter of [politics], but rather of the soul of the country - Zionism."