Israel’s military has a crisis even if it refuses to admit it

Credit: Al Jazeera

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Israel’s once-vaunted military faces an uncertain future.

Not just because the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to judge Israel's Gaza war conduct and the issuance by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

But also due to assertions that the military is unable or unwilling to enforce discipline, questioning of the military’s capacity to investigate itself, a long-held US-supported holy grail of the military’s self-perception as “the world’s most moral army,” and the rise of an officer corps infused by religious ultra-nationalism.

In addition, several recent books by Israeli veterans of the Gaza war belie the military’s moral claim and document the traumatic fallout of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, as well as 15 months of combat in the Strip.