Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth and RZP MK Zvi Sukkot pushed to elevate the value “of victory as the supreme value” in a heated debate over suggested changes to the IDF Code of Ethics.
“In recent decades, we got a bit confused, and we forgot what is most important. When we talk about the spirit of the IDF [the Code of Ethics], there is one matter that cannot be forgotten: victory is the supreme value, for sure in the Middle East,” Bismuth said at Tuesday’s debate.
They also tried to water down some of the language relating to the protection of enemy forces’ rights
Bismuth added that in the Middle East, without striving for “absolute victory,” one basically guaranteed that the enemy would start another fight later.
The FADC chairman attacked opposition figures who have ridiculed the idea of “absolute victory” as a populist mirage, used by politicians to manipulate public emotions and expectations.
On the other side of the debate were Yesh Atid MKs Maj.-Gen. (res.) Elazar Stern and Merav Ben Ari, who either opposed changes to the IDF code or believed that any changes could only be arrived at as part of a wider state inquiry into the October 7 disaster.
Stern, who was formerly the IDF chief of human resources and a top official in IDF education and ethics, disagreed, asserting that under the current code, the first value enumerated is victory.
Accordingly, he implied that there was no need to change anything, since the primacy of victory as an army value was already clear.
Further, Stern said that when the IDF probes its conduct in war, the perspective must include ethics and law, and cannot be limited to an analysis of how well soldiers pursued their military mission goals.
Push for state inquiry for October 7 issues
Moreover, he said that the country should have a state inquiry reviewing all issues related to October 7 and the war, and that only such a full, non-political perspective should have the right to make changes to the IDF code, if any changes might be necessary.
Sukkot – who is under investigation for breaking into an IDF base in July 2024 when he tried to defend soldier-suspects who had allegedly beat a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman – said based on media reports that some soldiers endangered themselves on October 7 when they tried to be overly careful about dealing with the Hamas invaders to concerns over the IDF’s code emphasis on even enemy soldiers having rights.
Ben Ari lashed out at Sukkot, saying his claims were fake news. “How dare you? How are you not ashamed?” she said. “Dozens of soldiers were killed there. You cannot speak like that about the soldiers.”
To date, while there have been some claims during the war by some soldiers of being held back from attacking Hamas terrorists in some instances due to the presence of Palestinian civilians, the overwhelming amount of data and anecdotal evidence has indicated that the military was far less strict about collateral harm to Palestinian civilians than in any war in decades.
Top IDF officials, while adding that as many as 25,000 Hamas fighters were killed and thousands more were likely killed by Hamas itself, have generally corroborated that the total number of 70,000 Palestinians killed during the war is accurate.
IDF tactics during the war often involved bulldozing or bombing whole Gaza neighborhoods, partially to enhance force protection and avoid the risks of Hamas booby traps against IDF troops.
Probes of October 7 have generally not suggested a failure to fight back as much as a lack of sufficient forces and being taken by surprise.
Brig.-Gen. Education Command chief Samuel Bumnadel said the IDF code has remained poignant and relevant since it was last revised in the 1990s, and that it was formulated after significant thought and debate.
Bumnadel said that at some point, the IDF is expected to issue the results of a probe into how well it complied with the IDF code during the war.
At press time, no follow-up hearing had yet been scheduled on the issue.
It is unclear what the procedure would be for the FADC to try to alter the IDF code, absent seeking to pass a new law, which would require wider support and buy-in from the prime minister, while to date Benjamin Netanyahu has not referenced the issue.