IDF releases reservists

Israel discharges most of the military reservists it drafted last week in anticipation of Western strikes on Syria - @Galey_Zahal
— Dan Williams (@DanWilliams) September 1, 2013
The IDF has released most of the reservists that it called up in anticipation of a US attack on Syria.

That's not surprising since President Obama has decided to wait for Congress to come back from vacation, which won't

IDF soldiers abandon patrol, go dancing with 'Palestinians' in Hebron nightclub

IDF soldiers from the elite Givati brigade abandoned a patrol on Monday night, and went dancing in a 'Palestinian' night club in Hebron, one of the most dangerous places in Judea and Samaria.

Let's go to the videotape (yes, videotape).



The IDF is not pleased.

According to the report, the soldiers entered the club while on patrol
on Monday, after hearing the song Gangnam Style by Psy coming

'We won't be able to live with these people if we just butcher them'

Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock talks about why Israel exercises great restraint in its dealings with the 'Palestinians.'

Before the IDF hit Hamas-operated targets, it scrutinized them to protect the safety of non-combatants.


“Our goal,” Captain O says, is to assure that “no innocent civilians are hurt.”


This objective
is complicated severely by the fact that Hamas routinely locates

IDF destroys Syrian army post in response to shelling in Golan

The IDF used a Tamuz guided missile to destroy a Syrian army post on the Golan Heights on Saturday after Syrian shells hit the Israeli side of the Heights.

The IDF fired a Tamuz surface-to-surface missile at a Syrian army
post on Saturday, after several Syrian mortar shells exploded in the
Golan Heights.

The Tamuz - a guided missile - accurately struck its target.

Earlier on Saturday,

Oh my: Look who's likely to be the swing vote if the government decides to expel Jews from 'settlements'

Gil Hoffman reports that despite the Knesset being split 61-59 in favor of the Right, if a plan to expel Jews from 'settlements' comes to a vote, the Left believes that it will carry the day. The Shas party (and maybe United Torah Judaism as well) are eager for the chance to take revenge on Naftali Bennett for excluding them from the government.

“The haredi parties will be partners in the

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

I'm passing on verbatim an email I just received from Dan Friedman in New York. Dan has added his own comment at the top.

[The notion that “American pressure” motivates Israel’s many strategic blunders may have held water 25 years ago, but now it’s just a convenient excuse that serves the purpose of various parties in Israel and the Diaspora, on the Left and on the Right. Today, “Friends of

The soldiers of the next war with Hezbullah: You and me

Ben Caspit argues that in the next war with Hezbullah, the soldiers will be you and me. And the IDF is preparing for it.



Wars against guerrilla organizations with state-like capabilities
cannot be decided on the ground, but rather in the minds of people.
Israel has been intensively preparing for such a war.



In 2006, the IDF
attempted to carry out a well-known ground maneuver that

They want to draft Haredim, don't they?

The government says it wants more Haredim to serve in the IDF and the IDF says that it's happy to have them. But when it comes to putting your money where your mouth is, there's something missing. The IDF is cutting the budget for Nachal Charedi, the largest unit in the IDF and the only religiously observant combat unit. Specifically, they're cutting the budget for the third year of service.

The real threat to democracy

In a piece that's behind JPost's paywall, but which I received by email, Evelyn Gordon reports that Israel really does have a dictator and that his name is not Netanyahu or Beinish or Grunis. It's the attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein.

After
years of dismissing leftists’ hyperbolic claims that Israeli democracy
is under threat, I’ve decided they may be right after all. What they’re
wrong

Judea and Samaria: No perfect answers

Captain Barak Raz is finishing up his tour of duty on Sunday as the IDF Spokesperson for Judea and Samaria. On Friday, he posted this blog summing up his two years on the job.

This incident reinforced something that I
always try to explain: the threat is real. The lack of “successful”
terror attacks from the West Bank in recent years should never be
confused with a lack of motivation or

Syrian civil war spilling over into Israel?

A surprise IDF drill in the Golan Heights shows that the IDF is preparing for the possibility of the Syrian civil war spilling over into Israel.

A key battalion of the IDF’s Nahal infantry brigade held a surprise war drill
this week, mobilizing troops from around the country to a staging area in the
North, and launching a live-fire exercise together with other army
units.

Lt.-Col. Menny

4 IDF soldiers wounded in explosion on Lebanese border

Four IDF soldiers were wounded, two moderately and two lightly, in an explosion on the Lebanese border on Tuesday night. The IDF has not released details of the incident, but the Lebanese Army is claiming that the soldiers were across the border.

The Lebanese Army said the troops were inside Lebanese territory when
the blast occurred. A statement from the L.A.F. said that, in a
"violation of

Haredi soldier refused to remove tzitzith, commander sent him to jail for ten days

A Haredi soldier in the IDF's elite Golani unit refused to remove his wool tzitzith (four-cornered undergarment) during training and was sent to the brig for ten days by his commander (link in Hebrew).

The commander ordered the soldier to remove the tzitzith due to the heat and the danger of dehydration. The soldier, a Habad Hassid, refused  to remove the tzitzith and was instead sent to the

This is rich: 'Equalizing the burden' comes back to bite National Religious

One of the big campaign planks of the Jewish Home party - the heir to the National Religious Party - was 'equalizing the burden.' The Jewish Home party called loud and clear for 'all' Israeli citizens to do three years in the IDF, or in national service if they could not serve in the IDF. The Jewish Home party was so adamant about that plank, that it conspired with Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party