In Israel, Protests by Soldiers Often Drive Political Change

An Israeli reservist carries his child past signs outside Prime Minster Ehud Olmert's office calling for the government to resign. Soldiers have been protesting the conduct of the war and are calling for an independent investigation. (By Shaul Schwarz -- Getty Images)

JERUSALEM, Aug. 26 -- Itamar Shapira refused to go to war. The 26-year-old first sergeant, a combat veteran called up from reserves to fight in southern Lebanon, told his superiors he did not think the war made sense.

His punishment: eight days' confinement in a prison camp. "I read a lot. I practically enjoyed it," he said Friday after his release. Within hours of that release, he was giving interviews about his grievances with the war.

Shapira's voice joined a chorus of other Israeli soldiers, many of whom served their time in Lebanon before airing their complaints. Hundreds of reservists, who make up the bulk of Israel's army, walked and rode back across the border following the Aug. 14 cease-fire and went straight to protest marches.

Their gripes are different from those of Shapira. Most complain that the war was mismanaged and should have been prosecuted longer. "The top commanders and the political leaders did not let us win the war. We want them to take responsibility for that," said Capt. Amichai Ben-Ari, 28, a reserve company commander, protesting outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office last week.

In most armies, refusal to serve in a war is met by harsh punishment, and criticism from the ranks is forbidden. But in Israel, where military service is mandatory and soldiering is an experience that almost all Israelis have in common, boisterous dissent from within the ranks is a long-standing staple of political change.

Protests by soldiers helped bring down the government of Prime Minister Golda Meir after the 1973 Middle East war, toppled then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon after the 1982 Lebanon invasion and helped bring about an eventual Israeli pullout, and upped the political pressures over Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Now, as in the past, the soldiers may provide the critical judgment that determines the fate of the country's top political leaders and military officers. The soldiers' demands are likely to force Olmert to appoint a state commission of inquiry Sunday to investigate the war. Political analysts say such a commission would have the potential to bring down his government. In a public opinion poll released Friday, nearly two-thirds of Israeli respondents said Olmert should resign.

"We are the voice of the nation from the inside. Every family in Israel has a son or father that is in some way involved with the military," said Shmuel Shmueli, 55, one of the organizers of the reservist protests. "That is why when the soldiers are sacrificing themselves so much because of stupid orders, the nation won't put up with it. We are demanding an investigation with unlimited scope."

None of the protesting reservists will be punished for their harsh criticism. They remain in their reserve units, and may be called up again. Even those who refuse to go, like Shapira, are accepted as part of the political fabric of the country and thus the army, and many remain in the military.

"If you were in combat, you get more respect," said Zohar Shapira, 37, Itamar's brother, who organized comrades in his elite secret unit to refuse operations in Palestinian areas in 2003. He has formed a group of former soldiers called Combatants for Peace. "Because we were so many years in the army, loyal to the country, endangering ourselves, people listen to us."

Israel relies heavily on its citizenry to switch from civilian clothes to uniforms and back again, in a matter of hours. That blurs the line: Soldiers one day are protesters the next. The country refuses to confirm troop strengths, but outside military analysts put Israel's army at about 150,000 active-duty soldiers and 500,000 trained reservists.

"This is a real people's army," said Uri Dromi, a retired air force colonel, military spokesman and now a director of the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem. "The military is often not dealing with a 20-year-old but a civilian who was called up. You have to strike a balance between demanding that they perform like soldiers anywhere, and at the same time realizing they are civilians."

In many cases, that requires more persuasion than blind obedience to orders, Dromi said. "The Israeli army has never been known for being disciplined," he said. "You don't coerce people to do things."

When his reserve unit was called, Itamar Shapira made the trip to northern Israel just to explain to his comrades why he was refusing to go. That was the toughest thing, he said.

"People say, if you refuse, and your friends are sent to die, how would you feel?" he said. "I wanted to show my friends that I wasn't doing it out of fear. They understood it. They knew what I was going through."

Shapira said almost all of the army officers he dealt with when he balked at service "were pretty nice."

From time to time, the army has tried to deal with such protests harshly, by dismissing the soldiers from the army and, in a few cases, bringing them to courts-martial. The result has often been more politically costly to the military and the government, Dromi said.

"The army does not want to push very hard on this," said Ishai Menuchin, 48, who founded Yesh Gvul, an organization for soldiers and reservists refusing to serve. As a lieutenant, Menuchin was jailed in 1983 for refusing to fight, but stayed in the reserves and was promoted to major.

"The army tries very hard not to put these people in prison," he said. "The basic model of the Israeli army is that it should represent the nation, and every part of the Jewish nation should be part of the army. It's very important to them that all sides of the political map are serving."

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, about 3,500 Israeli reservists signed a petition refusing to serve but only about 170 were jailed, Menuchin said. A similarly small percentage were punished for refusing to serve during the Palestinian uprisings in the West Bank and Gaza. In this war, Menuchin said he knows of seven jailed soldiers out of about 50 he estimates refused to serve.

The balking soldiers have traditionally been from Israel's largely secular liberal left. But some have been supporters of the movement to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and have refused to serve in an army that was ordered to dismantle the Gaza settlements last year. The reserve soldiers protesting this Lebanon war reflect a mix of political backgrounds, and many are simply angry at what they saw as inept leadership.

"It's a very small state, and everyone knows everyone," said Moshe Levi, 50, a sergeant who volunteered for recall during the war even though he could be excused for service because of his age. The soldiers are never shy about pointing out shortcomings in their officers, he said.

"We're all chiefs of staff," he said with a chuckle. "There is not one Israeli soldier in reserve duty who isn't sure that he could replace the current chief of staff at any given minute."