by Yaakov Lappin
A reported clash between IDF ground and air force commanders in Gaza highlights a deep cultural and moral divide between those who fight in the air and on the ground.
A recently reported argument between the Commanding Officer of Southern Command in the Israel Defense Forces, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, who is responsible for Gaza ground operations, and the Israeli Air Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, during a video call, has offered a rare glimpse into the immense internal pressure produced by the war against Hamas.
According to a recent Ynet report, the confrontation erupted during a heated operational discussion over the provision of close air support to ground troops. The argument reportedly centered on objections by Bar to firepower requests from IDF Southern Command that allegedly led to the deaths of noncombatants.
Asor reportedly asked Bar to cease objecting to such firepower requests and accused him of being disconnected from the harsh ground combat realities.
On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir framed such debates as part of a healthy command culture regarding life-and-death issues.
Col. (ret.) Amit Assa, a former senior member of the Shin Bet with over 30 years of experience, told JNS that before analyzing the substance of the argument, it is critical to understand that the leak itself is a significant failure.
He stressed, however, that the discussion is taking place within the IDF’s accepted rules of engagement framework.
“There is a flaw in something that has occurred throughout the war, in a process that is getting worse because the whole world is open to media, especially social media,” Assa said. “There are operational discussions and interactions that should not be shared publicly. It is not the public’s ‘right to know.’ There are only drawbacks to this, and it can create the opposite situation.”
Assa warned that this level of exposure could create a situation where commanders could make a decision “not based on professional grounds, but on how it will look in the media. And that is the biggest danger.”
He argued that for Israel’s enemies, such reports are a significant motivational boost. “Our enemy is looking for the disintegration of society and an inability to continue this war,” he stated. “When the enemy sees an event like this, it serves it. The enemy says, ‘Great, another nail in the coffin.’”
Beyond the leak, Assa said the argument stems from the vastly different realities of air crews overhead and field units on the ground. He referenced the ground commander’s reported frustration, yelling, “You are sitting there in the Kirya [IDF headquarters] and you are detached from the field.”
“At the base of this comment, we hear something much deeper. And what is deep here is the disconnect, the emotional disconnect, that exists between a pilot and even the simplest combat soldier,” Assa explained. “A pilot performing his most complicated and physically difficult mission … does not see the enemy with his own eyes. Even a helicopter pilot who fires a missile and hits a terrorist’s vehicle now does not see the terrorist’s face before the missile hits him. There is an emotional detachment that creates a situation where the ground soldier has emotional mechanisms that operate beyond the basic rational.”
This visceral connection to the battlefield, Assa argued, creates a completely different moral framework for decision-making.
“The very fact that you live in the field, you know what it smells like—not just what it looks like. What does a terrorist smell like? What is the smell of a terrorist’s burnt corpse lying beneath a soldier?” he asked. “I emphasize this intentionally because pilots do not have this. And the moment they don’t have it, their system of considerations is a different moral system. Why is it morally different? Because you do not see the evil, the cruelty, and the inhumanity of your real enemy. This is something that only a soldier in the field can experience, because he experiences it on his own flesh.”
This gap, he said, leads to flare-ups when a commander in a sterile command bunker, concerned with legal directives, denies a request from a commander on the ground who has just seen his soldiers fired upon by a terrorist who then fled into a building. For the ground soldier who “smelled it in his nose and saw it with his eyes,” there is no moral question about striking the building. For the disconnected commander, the moral calculus is different.
Assa also pointed to the immense physical and mental fatigue, or “wear and tear,” on ground commanders as a contributing factor. “He, unlike the Air Force commander, does not finish his workday and gets into the shower and a warm bed. He doesn’t get a proper meal in the senior officers’ dining room at the Kirya. He is eating dust and sand, and this affects him in terms of attrition more than the Air Force commander,” Assa said. “So when he reaches his breaking point, it’s easy to understand why the fuse is short.”
Assa suggested that senior IAF commanders, such as those who command the force’s control center, are brought to the field to directly experience the tribulations of ground combat. This would also boost their credibility among the field units when they challenge firepower requests, he said.
On Aug. 7, at the conclusion of a multi-front situation assessment 22 months into the war, Zamir addressed the issue of internal debates directly. He framed them not as a sign of weakness, but as an essential component of the IDF’s strength.
“The culture of dispute is an inseparable part of the history of the people of Israel, and it constitutes a vital component of the IDF’s organizational culture—both internally and externally,” Zamir stated. “We will continue to express our position without fear—in a substantive, independent, and professional manner. This is how we also expect our subordinates to act. The responsibility is here, on this table.”
He added, “We are not dealing with theory. We are dealing with matters of life and death, with the defense of the state, and we do so while looking our soldiers and the citizens of the country in the eye. We will continue to act with responsibility, integrity and determination—with only the good of the state and its security before our eyes.”
Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military
affairs correspondent and analyst. He is the in-house analyst at the
Miryam Institute; a research associate at the Alma Research and
Education Center; and a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for
Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is a frequent guest
commentator on international television news networks, including Sky
News and i24 News. Lappin is the author of Virtual Caliphate: Exposing
the Islamist State on the Internet. Follow him at:
www.patreon.com/yaakovlappin.
Source: https://www.jns.org/the-gap-between-air-and-ground-personnel-that-created-an-operational-dispute/
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