When It Is From The Left, Refusing Orders Is Moral

There is a petition circulating among the Left and being signed, including by a group of senior doctors and intellectuals, calling upon the Israel Air Force pilots to refuse orders if they should be commanded to attack Iran. In the petition they call on the pilots saying that refusing orders would prevent a terrible tragedy, and saying one small word "no" would be the greatest possible service to the State, far greater than following blindly to such orders.

Calling for soldiers to refuse orders is a pretty serious deal. At the time of the Disengagement some on the Right were calling for soldiers to refuse orders to remove Jews from their homes. It raised a serious debate, even among the Right, whether such calls are in order or not, whether the commands were immoral or not, and whether or not such calls for refusal was considered incitement. There was debate among the Right, but among the left it was pretty clear cut that settlers and their supporters were all law-breakers, calling on soldiers to refuse was incitement and also the worst crime possible that would lead Israel into anarchy.

Now, I don't know if the people signing the current petition actually were involved 7 years ago in attacking such similar calls from the Right. I suspect they were, but I don't know that.

I do wonder, if they were among those who said soldiers should never refuse orders and such calls were incitement, how can they dare make such calls themselves now. And if they were not among those 7 years ago, I wonder, will those who loudly rejected any possibility of refusing orders and attacked those who encouraged it as gulty of incitement, will they attack the people behind the current petition calling on soldiers to refuse orders?

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------