Failure to Assimilate: The IDF Undesirables

 9 Marcheshvan 5786

These guys are the true inheritors of Avraham Avinu's legacy.  They are prepared to do whatever it would take to "rescue Lot".  Does anyone imagine that Avraham would have managed his war along the lines of what this failed State has done?

Revealed: The IDF unit turning ‘hilltop youth’ settlers into soldiers

(May 3, 2023) ...2.5 years ago, the Israeli military established a unit called “Desert Frontier” specifically for hilltop youth settlers, who make up the vast majority of the unit’s soldiers.

...Desert Frontier, which was established in 2020 and is subordinate to the Jordan Valley Brigade, “consists mainly of hilltop youth … the extreme of the extreme, who otherwise would not have enlisted.” The idea, according to the official, is that serving in the unit is a way to rehabilitate them: “This unit is very unique. We take them and turn them into soldiers.”

... a few dozen soldiers serve in Desert Frontier, most of them from so-called shepherding outposts in the northern area of the Judean Desert and the Jordan Valley. According to these officials, many of them have a history of violence. You have to read it again to believe it: the military is enlisting hilltop youth settlers known for their violence toward Palestinians to serve in a unit that acts against Palestinians living in the same area.

According to security officials, hilltop youth settlers seemed like an ideal choice for the job –– they grew up in outposts, have worked as shepherds from a young age, and developed skills in tracking and navigation in the field. In the northern Judean Desert, army officials say, there exists “a security vacuum,” and recruiting these settlers is seen as a suitable way to fill it.

...Desert Frontier soldiers train with those from the Haredi Netzah Yehuda unit. Afterward, they come to the unit’s own post, which is near the Dead Sea. About a year ago, the army decided to transfer the bulk of the unit’s operations from the Judean Desert to the Jordan Valley. The decision was made after military officials received numerous complaints of violent incidents and abuse against Palestinians, some of which were filed by Israeli citizens who heard about the incidents from Palestinians.

...the relationship between the [Bedouin] tribe and the army used to be positive. “I told the police: ‘This is not the army’s usual way of doing things.’ I told them that soldiers used to help us and us them. This unit has been in the area for two years, and since they got here, everything has changed.” Several other residents echoed this claim that the relationship between the Rashaida tribe and the army had been pleasant until the formation of this Desert Frontier.

IDF freezes operations of ‘hilltop youth’ unit linked to anti-Palestinian violence

(December 20, 2023) The Israel Defense Forces recently halted the operational activities of a controversial unit implicated in multiple incidents of abuse against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

The unit, called “Sfar Hamidbar,” or Desert Frontier in English, was known for recruiting so-called “hilltop youth” — extremist settler activists involved in building illegal outposts in the West Bank and frequently alleged to be involved in violence against Palestinians.

Sfar Hamidbar has seen several incarnations, but was most recently established as a company in 2020 and assigned with tracking operations to help combat drug and weapons smuggling by Bedouins in the West Bank.

Together with the Lions of the Valley battalion it is subordinate to, the unit has been credited with helping to seize hundreds of illegal rifles smuggled into the West Bank from Jordan and conducting arrest operations in the Jericho district, according to a profile of the unit by the Ynet news site in January.

But numerous complaints arose that the unit was also involved in violent attacks against Palestinian civilians, including a report in October by Haaretz that soldiers from the unit had beaten and severely abused Palestinian residents of the Wadi al-Seeq village west of Jericho in the Jordan Valley region.

...The radical settler activists were reportedly recruited to the unit as part of an effort by the IDF and settlement leaders to direct their energies in a more disciplined and lawful manner.

Dror Etkes, a longtime activist against Israel’s control of the West Bank and Israeli settlements there, said the unit had patrolled both the South Hebron Hills area and the Jordanian border as part of its anti-smuggling operations, but that it mixed these duties with harassment of the local Palestinian population.

He noted that many of the illegal herding outposts established by hilltop youth and extremist settlers are located in these regions, and said that the soldiers recruited to this unit were “serving their own interests” when harassing Palestinians in order to increase Jewish control of territory in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel exercises full security and civilian authority.

According to the Ynet report, some of the settler youth recruited to the unit had criminal records and were known to the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, thus requiring special approval by the Shin Bet and police in order to be able to enlist in the IDF.

...The IDF has halted the operational activities of Sfar Hamidmar until a final decision can be made.

Netzah Yehuda: The ‘violent and aggressive’ IDF unit the US is thinking of sanctioning

(May 9, 2024) The US and Israel have been involved in intense discussions recently about whether Washington will sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after reports of a string of human rights violations committed against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank before the Gaza conflict began in October.

Netzah Yehuda is an ultra-Orthodox division of the IDF that was established as a way of encouraging Haredi Jews, currently exempted from military service, into the Israeli armed forces. It was reported on April 20 that the Biden administration was considering sanctioning the unit under the “Leahy Law”. This 1997 law prohibits the US government from providing funds to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in “gross violations of human rights”.

But following a series of exchanges between the US and Israeli government, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said: “The Israeli government has presented new information regarding the status of the unit and we will engage on identifying a path to effective remediation for this unit.”

...Netzah Yehuda, formerly Nahal Haredi was created in 1999 as an all-male combat unit with the specific goal of enlisting young Jews who had dropped out of ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious schools. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, fixed-term military service has been compulsory for all Jewish Israelis. But the ultra-Orthodox – or Haredi – community has been traditionally exempted from conscription.

Netzah Yehuda aims to integrate young Haredim within the ranks of the IDF. By enlisting in this unit they are able to adhere to their strict religious beliefs, one of which involves avoiding interaction with women – who are also required to serve in the military. Netzah Yehuda’s recruits come largely from underprivileged, impoverished and marginalised backgrounds.

A significant group among the Netzah Yehuda are the so-called “hilltop youth”. These are second-generation settlers who were born and raised in the illegal outposts scattered across the occupied Palestinian territories. They consider Judea and Samaria on the West Bank their home, rather than Israel proper.

Former prime minister Ariel Sharon oversaw the exit of Israeli forces from Gaza in July 2005. This was accompanied by the dismantling of Israeli settlers’ communities living in the strip. Since then the number of settlers living illegally on the West Bank has risen to more than 700,000. Hilltop youth have been implicated in numerous reports of violence and aggression against Palestinians there.

One notorious aspect of this has become known as the “price-tag policy”. Also called arvut hadadit (or “mutual responsibility”), it is designed to deter the Israeli government from curbing settlement expansion or forcing settlers to leave their unauthorised outposts in the occupied territories. Young and ideologically motivated settlers exact a “price” for what they consider to be a betrayal by attacking Palestinians and vandalising their homes or holy sites.

The shared ideology and experience of alienation from broader Israeli society tends to foster cohesion within Netzah Yehuda combat unit. This, in turn, leads to the soldiers seeing themselves as separate from the broader IDF ethos.

Netzah Yehuda’s motto is: v’haya machanecha kadosh (and your camp shall be holy). This is a quotation from the Torah, which is taken literally by battalion soldiers to mean – as one commander told the Hebrew Maariv newspaper in 2017 – that they are on a “holy mission”. This contributes to a culture that encourages unrestrained violence against non-Jewish populations in the West Bank.

...The IDF claims Netzah Yehuda “operates in accordance to the IDF Code of Ethics and with full commitment to international law,” and that the IDF “remains committed to continue to examine exceptional incidents professionally and according to law”.

Key points regarding its current status:

Operational but Restructured: The threat of closing the unit has been lifted. A new commander was appointed, and the unit was moved out of its original area in the Judea and Samaria region to address "disciplinary" issues, including reported incidents of violence against Palestinian civilians and left-wing activists.

Continued Role: The unit remains a combat and tracking unit with the main goal to track down and arrest terrorists in the West Bank, specifically in the Judaean Desert and Jordan Valley. It is subordinate to the "Lions of the Valley" battalion.

Recruitment: The unit was initially known for recruiting members of the "Hilltop Youth" (extremist settler activists) for rehabilitation and service. The unit is aiming to diversify its recruitment to include members from other sectors, such as the agricultural world, to strengthen its capabilities and improve its norms.

Oversight: The IDF has emphasized that the unit is part of the military and subject to the army's laws and supervision, with incidents being reviewed and disciplinary measures taken as necessary.