"IDF is embarrassed," claimed Yedioth Aharonot, the largest Hebrew newspaper, on January 3. The day before, 17 soldiers serving in Battalion 12 of Brigade 1 have deserted "Israeli Stronghold," the main IDF military base on Mt. Hermon, at the northern edge of the Golan Heights. Brigade 1, "Golani," is an infantry brigade dating back to 1948; infamous Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, commander of Operation Cast Lead, grew up as a soldier in this unit, moving up the ranks from soldier to commander. Hours after the desertion, the soldiers were captured by the brigade commander Yaniv Asor, who had found them by chance next to the entrance to the Hermon Ski Site; subsequently, they were tried at the unit. At the trial, they claimed to have been humiliated by the commanders of their platoon and company. In recent months, their commanders had refused to let young soldiers reach the stronghold. Thus, veteran soldiers were forced to fulfil cleaning tasks usually kept for younger ones. Finally, they were told that they would not be allowed to leave the stronghold to attend professional courses that would allow them to advance their military careers, opening their path to become officers. Their answer was brutal: desertion. They were sent to military jail for periods between one and three weeks.

Deserting Israel

The Golan Heights are under the military control of Division 36, the heaviest regular armored division of the IDF. Two territorial brigades are responsible for the line of strongholds watching over the border. Brigade 474 controls the Golan Heights while Brigade 810 overlooks Mount Hermon. One of its strongholds, "Israeli," is considered the most sensitive spot controlled by the division since it oversees the triple border between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. These strongholds are complex units, housing soldiers from different disciplines who perform a variety of tasks. In 10 Israeli Counterterrorism Soldiers Hit, I commented on the Alpinists subunit of Sayeret Matkal, the IDF top commando unit; their home is in Mt. Hermon. The area is home also to SIGINT units, which watch and listen what is happening across the border. The deserting soldiers fulfilled mainly peripheral security tasks and had abandoned one of Israel's most sensitive spots for a few hours.

No less surprising is the fact that Golani soldiers have a long history of desertions, despite being one of the best units of the IDF. On March 1, 2007, at least 50 soldiers of Golani Batallion 51 left Tze'elim Training Base for being refused their basic rights; later reports fixed the number of desertions at 90 soldiers. It was the second time within a week that these incidents happened at the same unit. On July 22 of the same year, soldiers of the same unit deserted a stronghold as a rebellion against their commanders. The picture at the top of this page was taken at the gate of an Israeli stronghold next to the Lebanese border after Golani Batallion 51 soldiers deserted it on April 17, 2006. In front of that stronghold is a Hezbollah stronghold. For unclear reasons, the latter chose not to walk into the deserted Israeli post. These and similar cases were caused by mistreatment of the soldiers involved.

Until now, everything looked like a systemic problem within Golani. Yet, this happened only days after the events described in Palestinians Take Weapon from IDF Soldier in Guard. On December 21, 2012, an unusual incident took place at the gate of the IDF Ramah Base, near the Palestinian town of a-Ram, northwest of Jerusalem. Two Palestinians approached the gate and took the weapon of the soldier guarding it. Again, this was just days after two separate incidents when IDF soldiers ran away from Palestinians throwing stones at them, despite their being armed (see IDF Open-Fire Regulations Backfire). Something is wrong within the IDF; the signs of this regularly fill Hebrew newspapers; "the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting," said Sun Tzu a long time ago. What would he have said regarding a situation in which the stronger army collapses from within for no apparent reason?