Danny Zamir, head of the Rabin “Mechina” (pre-army academy), wrote a piece published in JPost today regarding the allegations that have surfaced over the past few weeks of IDF troops acting inappropriately during Operation “Cast Lead.”  We’ve written a post on the subject previously, but we’ll let Zamir’s thoughts speak for themselves.  An excerpt:

A number of articles published recently in The New York Times quoted or were based on words spoken by myself and by graduates of the pre-army leadership development program which I head (the “Rabin Mechina”) – graduates who participated as combat soldiers in Operation Cast Lead and who met recently to process personal experiences from the battlefield.

Both explicitly and by insinuation, the articles claim a decline in the IDF’s commitment to its moral code of conduct in combat, and moreover, that this decline stems from a specific increase in the prominence of religious soldiers and commanders in the IDF in general, and from the strengthening of the position of IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky in particular.

It was as if the media were altogether so eager to find reason to criticize the IDF that they pounced on one discussion by nine soldiers who met after returning from the battlefield to share their experiences and subjective feelings with each other, using that one episode to draw conclusions that felt more like an indictment. Dogma replaced balance and led to a dangerous misunderstanding of the depth and complexity of Israeli reality. The individual accounts were never intended to serve as a basis for broad generalizations and summary conclusions by the media; they were published internally, intended for program graduates and their parents as a tool to be used in the process of educating and guiding the next generation.

You can find the rest of the article on JPost.

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Below, please find PM Benyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s speech to the Knesset upon being voted in as Prime Minister.  You can find this speech and others on the Prime Minister’s website.

Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin – congratulations again, my friend,
Honorable Outgoing Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert – thank you for your words,
Members of the Outgoing Government,
Members of the Incoming Government,
Former Members of Knesset,
State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss,
Mrs. Aviva Shalit,
Mrs. Karnit Goldwasser,
Mrs. Esther Waxman,
Members of Knesset,
Distinguished Guests,

As the poet in Psalms wrote: “Lord, my heart was not proud, and my eyes were not haughty, nor did I pursue matters too great and too wondrous for me.”

Members of Knesset,

It is not with the elation of the victorious that I stand before you today, but rather with a feeling of heavy responsibility. However, these are not ordinary days. I ask for your trust at a time of global crises, the likes of which have not been seen in years. I speak out of a feeling of concern, but also of hope and faith, and mostly in recognition of the seriousness of this challenging hour. For Israel faces two enormous challenges: the economic challenge and the security challenge. These result from dramatic international developments; huge thunderstorms are raging around us. It is not our actions or failures of the past that are the root of these crises, but our actions and decisions in the near future that will determine if we will prevail. On this day I would like to express my full confidence that the people of Israel will be able to successfully deal with the challenges we face. The State of Israel was established during its most difficult hour, an hour during which the words of the Declaration of Independence echoed in our ears: “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books. After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to its land and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.” continue reading…

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Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman sat down yesterday for an in-depth interview with the Haaretz newspaper.  During the course of that discussion, he talked about his commitment to moving the State of Israel towards peace as envisioned by the American-sponsored Road Map to a Permanent Two-State  Solution, declared in 2003.  Here is some of what he had to say:

[...] Speaking to Haaretz Thursday, Lieberman tried to tone down his rhetoric slightly. “I am committed to the road map of 2003 as approved by the Israeli cabinet,” he said, referring to the outline for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace proposed by then-president Bush. “I voted against it, but it is a cabinet resolution and I am bound by it.”

He added that the new U.S. administration itself no longer talks about the Annapolis process. “I propose following the road map, phase by phase,” he said. “I recently went quite far with my remarks, even saying that I was willing to leave my home at the Nokdim settlement if there was a cabinet resolution on the issue, but we can’t give all this up for nothing, and there must be reciprocity.”

Lieberman stressed that he would endeavor to meet all Israeli obligations regarding the road map. “Unlike others, we will carry out everything that is in writing, and there will be no contradiction between what we say and what we mean, but we will stick to the phased nature of the road map. We will conduct talks with the PA, but we want to make sure their ‘checks’ don’t bounce. The Palestinians must first of all confront terror, take control of Gaza and demilitarize Hamas. Without these, it will be difficult to move forward.”

You can find the rest of his discussion on Haaretz, and the speech to the Foreign Ministry on the Ministry website.

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The incoming government under Prime Minister Netanyahu has released its policy guidelines for the new administration.  The overarching goal, as these guidelines dictate is:

The 32nd Government of Israel will strive to achieve security and social justice, improve the economy, advance peace with all of Israel’s neighbors, and maintain the Jewish character of the country while ensuring the rights of all religions.

For the details, see the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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The new government was sworn in yesterday under the leadership of the new Prime Minster Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. You can find a list of the government ministers on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with links to relevant speeches from the transfer of power ceremony.

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