Study: Gaza expulsion 'brainwashing' led to poor IDF performance in Lebanon
Much of the criticism of the IDF's performance in Lebanon two summers ago has centered on the soldiers' training being deficient due to excessive time spent in police actions in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. One of those 'police actions' (or non-combat military actions as the IDF called it at the time) was the expulsion of Gaza's Jews from their homes in the summer of 2005. Now, a study has established a direct connection between the mental training received by IDF soldiers for expelling Jews in the summer of 2005 and the poor performance of IDF soldiers in combat against Hezbullah in Lebanon in 2006. The study refers to the Gaza training as 'brainwashing.'The Jabotinsky Heritage House in Tel Aviv recently completed a study on the psychological training given to IDF soldiers before the 2005 “Disengagement” and its effect on subsequent IDF operations. The psychological training given to soldiers had a serious impact on soldiers’ performance in later conflicts, researchers found.In the following video, Eshel and Isakovich explain the connection between Gaza 2005 and Lebanon 2006. In sum, when the soldiers went to Lebanon in 2006, they were no longer capable of seeing that there was an enemy to fight. They had drilled into their heads that Israel would not need to fight any more wars.
Dr. Gadi Eshel said the research team managed to collect a vast amount of material on the mental preparation for the eviction and the eviction itself. The material showed that the army put a great deal of effort into creating terms that would help soldiers to feel that they were doing the right thing, said researcher Ruthie Isakovich. Isakovich labeled the training given to soldiers to mentally prepare them to evict Jews “brainwashing.”
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:00 AM
3 Comments:
The IDF was trained well in the need to fight fellow Jews. What was neglected was its preparedness to take on Israel's real enemies.
The people in charge of the IDF's re-orientation are still in office.
The video isn't working. I got a short commercial, then nothing. I'll see if I can find it over at A7. I've watched with that viewer over there before, so I know it works.
And, thanks for the info.
I am not 100% convinced that that the IDF's performance in the Lebanon debacle hinges on the degraded morale and "brainwashing" due to the Gaza expulsion. Don't forget that the whole IDF wasn't involved in it, nor were the main forward fighting units - no tanks, artillery, etc., and certainly not the IAF or the Navy.
However, there's are 2 other aspects that did influence performance: real cutbacks in IDF equipment and maintenance and lack of training to confront organized guerilla warfare. The cutbacks resulted in soldiers literally sharing flak jackets and helmets. There's a lot of outdated stuff and a serious shortage of good, usable equipment in the IDF. This added to the general chaos of a misdirected war. In addition, Miluimnikim often had no idea who was in command or what they were supposed to do.
Some IDF unit were certainly trained to fight Jewish civilians, which is utterly reprehensible. The majority of the troups, however, have been trained to deal with defensive moves against Paleo infiltrators and human ticking bombs. The IDF forgot how to fight on the offensive. The lack of training to confront Iranian-backed Hezbonazi guerilla tactics and psyops was central to the IDF's ground operations failure to engage and destroy. Tanks were sitting ducks, ordered to move in and out of predictable formations, etc. Why Olmert, Livni, Barak and the whole mess are still around to lead us to further defeat is a very frightening prospect.
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