Thursday 12 October - Gaza War - Aggregation & Commentary

הכרת הטוב

'I Come Here Also as a Jew': With Netanyahu, Blinken Pledges That 'U.S. Has Israel's Back'

So far, no daylight between Israel and the Biden administration on Hamas. The U.S. Navy is deterring Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah from launching a major attack from the North as the IDF concentrates on Gaza.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-12/ty-article-live/idf-strikes-gaza-overnight-prioritizing-attacks-on-senior-officials/0000018b-221a-d010-a59f-bb7bf0400000

To take your mind off our troubles. Here is 1:44 of a deranged 77-year-old man talking shite. Enjoy.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?531054-1/president-trump-addresses-supporters-west-palm-beach-florida

Army Radio report

באופן חריג: אל-על תפעיל בשבת 2 טיסות חילוץ להשבת אנשי מילואים מהמזרח וארה"ב

El Al will fly reservists back on Shabbat.

There's been some confusion about where the EU stands on funding the Palestinians. Here is the latest:

https://www.impact-se.org/blog/

EU President reconfirms freeze in aid to Palestinians in place following Hamas onslaught Following conflicting messages: EU President Ursula von der Leyen clarified that a wholesale review of Palestinian funding is taking place. EU Commissioner also reaffirmed suspension of aid and subsequent audit after EU Foreign Minister had claimed opposition to the move. Sweden and Denmark join Austria in suspending aid, Germany considering freeze. The unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel reflects years of hate-teaching in Gaza schools, with European funding contributing to textbooks used. Dear Elliot, Ramat Gan, October 12, 2023 – Following conflicting messages from leading figures in the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reconfirmed yesterday that EU funding to the Palestinians is being thoroughly reviewed. As a result the EU, which is the largest single donor to the Palestinians, will now freeze aid. In a statement addressing the Hamas onslaught, President von der Leyen said: “There can be no justification for Hamas' act of terror.” Consequently, she explained that “It is important that we carefully review our financial assistance for Palestine. EU funding has never and will never go to Hamas or any terrorist entity. So we will now again review the entire portfolio in light of an evolving situation on the ground.” Oliver Varhelyi, the EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement responsible for EU funds to the Palestinian Authority, reaffirmed the position, telling the Financial Times today that “Having seen what has happened, we cannot not check [the funding] again, to see whether we have not been used and abused.” Emphasising the extent of EU funding to the Palestinians, he added: “We’re in the middle of a war where it seems that we have a very strong Islamist terrorist organisation emerging in a territory where we are the biggest donor.” On Monday, Varhelyi announced: “There can be no business as usual. As the biggest donor of the Palestinians, the European Commission is putting its full development portfolio under review, worth a total of EUR 691m.” The Financial Times makes clear that Varhelyi made the original announcement “with the understanding that he had backing from the Commission’s executive.” However, the announcement was challenged on Tuesday by Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs commissioner, who claimed that the “overwhelming majority” of EU states are in favour of continuing Palestinian funding unabated, and that funding “would not be cancelled.” Borrell’s position would appear to be undermined by a flurry of EU member-states who have already decided to freeze their own bilateral funding to the Palestinians. On Tuesday, Sweden’s Development Minister Johan Forssell announced: “We have a new situation after the 7th of October… Our decision today is that Sweden will ... pause development aid to Palestine until further notice.” Earlier in the day, Denmark’s government said that it "has decided to put Danish development assistance to Palestine on hold." Meanwhile, on Monday Austria announced that it would be suspending its aid to Palestinians in response to the Hamas attack on Israel. Germany is also reconsidering aid to the Palestinians after German Development Minister Svenja Schulze stated that “these attacks on Israel are a terrible turning point. We will therefore examine our entire commitment to the Palestinian territories.” International funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been used to finance the production of textbooks which are replete with hatred, and incitement to the type of extreme violence which Hamas has deployed. Driven by IMPACT-se, over the last five years the European Parliament has passed five pieces on legislation condemning the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA for hate teaching, and has threatened the withdrawal of funding. Best regards, Marcus Sheff

(communicated)

Yesh Atid Wisely Stays out of the Netanyahu-led government

בוקר טוב, לצערנו, הצעתו של ראש הממשלה לשעבר וראש האופוזיציה, יאיר לפיד, לממשלת חירום מקצועית ללא הקיצונים לא התקבלה. איננו זקוקים לתפקידי שרים בזמנים כאלה, אלא זקוקים להשפעה אמיתית על המצב. נמשיך ביש עתיד לתת גיבוי מבחוץ ולתמוך במדינת ישראל ובכוחות הבטחון עד למיגור מוחלט של החמאס בעזה. נמשיך לתמוך במשפחות ולפעול למען הלוחמים הגיבורים שלנו ולמען העורף הישראלי. שיהיה בוקר שקט, שימרו על עצמכם 

(communicated)

The Hamas horror is also a lesson on the price of populism By Yuval Noah Harari

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/11/netanyahu-populism-weakened-israeli-security/

Bit by bit, the story dribbles out.

היום השישי למלחמה | דובר צה"ל: היו סימנים בלילה שלפני פלישת חמאס, אך לא על מתקפה בהיקף כזה

https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-10-12/ty-article-live/0000018b-208e-d010-a59f-b9ef0ba50000

Why does the BBC even think it has to explain its anti-Zionism and moral relativism after all these years.

Terrorism is perforce anti-civilian warfare except at the BBC.

Why BBC doesn't call Hamas militants 'terrorists' - John Simpson

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67083432

I was curious about the source of this story. Turns out it is a GOP House member. No reason for him to try to damage Bibi. Senior US lawmaker says Egypt warned Israel 3 days before onslaught

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/senior-us-lawmaker-says-egypt-warned-israel-3-days-before-onslaught/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20know%20that%20Egypt%20has,was%20given%2C%E2%80%9D%20he%20says.

As we keep one eye on the north, I am thinking about Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and his February 2023 comment about Netanyahu's putsch for regime change: “For the first time since the creation of [Israel], we hear speeches from the entity’s president and former prime ministers Lapid, Bennett, Olmert and Barak along with former defense ministers and generals who talk about civil war and bloodshed and say that there is no solution to the challenges posed by the new government.” Gleefully picking up on Herzog warning, Nasrallah says Israel tearing itself apart

The finance world braces for impact from the Israel-Hamas warThe shockwaves of the Israel-Hamas war have finally reached Marrakesh. It took several days—as it often does in the technocratic world of international economics—for financial leaders gathered here at the Meetings to grasp that the conflict could affect everyone.

Here on the ground, the full scale of the devastating human tragedy and military conflict unleashed by Hamas’s assault on Israel last Saturday is coming into focus—and with it a focus on the war’s economic ramifications. Several conversations are happening at once. 

First and foremost, there is growing horror as reports about the terrorist attacks and fallout in Israel and Gaza play on TV screens and phones inside and outside the official venue for the Meetings.

There is also discussion of the global economic fallout. Energy prices have understandably been a big focus, with memories of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and ensuing oil embargo front of mind for ministers. But as many of the economists milling about the pavilions have noted, the global energy market has shifted dramatically in the fifty years since that war. The world doesn’t solely rely on the Middle East for energy. And—for now—the conflict hasn’t spread through the region.

Then there’s the shekel and Israel’s economy. Israel’s central bank intervened to prop up the currency by selling thirty billion dollars in foreign reserves, but the shekel’s slump continues. There is wider concern that foreign investment in Israel will dry up and create a recession in the Israeli economy.

With regard to Gaza, the question is about reconstruction—whenever that time comes. Will the World Bank and other development banks play a role and step in with aid? A European commissioner initially signaled that the Commission would stop sending some aid to Palestinians, but that decision was quickly reversed by the European Union. There are open questions in Marrakesh right now about 1) what kind of aid will flow to Gaza in the near term and 2) what kind of money will be requested in the long term. Because these are questions for the development banks, the IMF has, so far, been able to sidestep the questions.

But don’t expect avoidance of these issues to continue. By the end of the week, the ministers and governors in Marrakesh will realize what many around the world already see clearly: What is unfolding in Israel and Gaza will have global political and economic impacts.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/updates-imf-world-bank-meetings-behind-the-scenes/

Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman hold their first EVER phone callhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12621611/Irans-president-Ebrahim-Raisi-Saudi-Crown-Prince-Mohammad-bin-Salman-hold-phone-call-discuss-need-end-war-crimes-against-Palestine.html

The ethos of Hamas is the Palestinian ethos. Polling before the war revealed that if presidential elections were held & the choice was the PLO's Abbas or Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, Abbas would get 33% and Haniyeh 64% in Gaza. Haniyeh would also win in the WB.

https://pcpsr.org/en/node/955

https://x.com/JAGERFILE/status/1712308338245914685?s=20

So proud to have been a Never Trumper from the get-go.The bulvan offers words of "comfort" to Israel while campaigning in Florida.

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1712273555294232879

#Hamas Declares Friday, October 13, As General Mobilization Day For 'Al-Aqsa Flood Operation,' Urges #WestBank, #Jerusalem Palestinians To Join Massive Rallies And Confront Israeli Soldiers - Audio of report here https://ow.ly/Up4U50PVj00 #MEMRI

https://twitter.com/MEMRIReports/status/1711830817968681127

Channel 14 Israel - All Bibi-All-The-Time. Then came a glitch.

Criticism of Netanyahu on his own TV Channel. If you have Hebrew, this is a *stunning* interview.  Disseminate. Not just for its content but that it aired on Bibist Channel 14. They didn't intend to air it, but live TV makes total control impossible.

https://twitter.com/JAGERFILE/status/1711996839476511095

'EVIL IS NOT STUPID' Guest Posting - From My Christian Friend in Jerusalem -

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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, GO TO THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

www.timesofisrael.com/ or  the Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com/

For the latest in Hebrew, you can follow events here.

glz.co.il and haaretz.co.il/ and www.n12.co.il/

I am occasionally posting on X (Twitter) twitter.com/JAGERFILE and invite you to follow me.

Thank you for standing with Israel now more than ever.

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Gazans set IDF tank aflame.

October 9, 2023

 

Shalom Friends,

 

We are a country in mourning for the 800 Israelis murdered since Saturday morning. It was the Sabbath (Shabbat), the last day of the biblical holiday of Succot (Feast of Tabernacles), and most people were praying in the synagogues, unaware. This is a tragic repeat of October 6, 1973, when Israel was attacked by an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, on Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish day of the year. 

 

Since the infiltration of 1,000 Hamas terrorists into Israel from Gaza on Saturday, most of our deaths have occurred around southwestern Israel as far [north] as Tel-Aviv. Families were murdered, and more than 100 were taken captive into Gaza – from young children to senior adults. Although there are daily warning sirens, we do not know if any Gazan rockets actually fell into Jerusalem or if they were taken out by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system. 

 

The Israeli disengagement from Gaza 18 years ago, followed two years later by the rule of Hamas, initially had over one million Arabs in this tiny strip of coastland. In the ensuing years, the population doubled to more than two million and spawned too many to count attacks on our country, resulting in the volatile situation seen today.

 

Our Israeli leader, self-involved in legal battles, and the seeming complacency of the military for more than a year, have brought us to a vulnerable position. This provides a ripe opportunity for our enemies. The brilliant aspect of the way our borders were breached by Hamas will become more evident in retrospect. As the world valuably learned from 911 - evil is not stupid.

 

Israeli Army reservists have also been called up to the northern border. With Iranian intervention in Syria for the last 10 years, and its funding of terrorist groups Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon/Syria (both sworn to the destruction of Israel), our existence is continually threatened. Iran’s financial support reaches from the UN to individual countries. 

 

Most of us are staying near home until the Land is cleared of Hamas infiltrators; many have already been eliminated. Most commercial businesses are closed except for places to buy food. There is no sunshine; the skies are clouded. Except for the occasional, ominous warning sirens of incoming rockets, everything is uncharacteristically quiet in my neighborhood. 

 

We are hearing the sound of aircraft overhead, sometimes at regular 20-minute intervals, a graphic portrayal of the reality now occurring in Gaza, possibly leading to its destruction. Arabs there were warned on Sunday of impending air attacks, but its effectiveness is unknown. So too, the innocents in Gaza are to be mourned, most of them trapped by leaders who have not even supplied them with basic water and electricity in 16 years of rule.

 

It is heartbreaking, the loss of life on both sides. Please continue to pray for Israel – we need help from the only One who is more than able to adequately provide it. Holding on to Psalm 91, especially vs 4 “He shall cover thee with His pinions and under His wings shalt thou find refuge.”

 

Blessings,

Nita

 

Reference for keeping up on the war, live from Israel, in English: “The Times of Israel” easily accessed online.

Israel at War - Recriminations - Netanyahu Must Go

Early Sunday morning, Army Radio began reading the names of the 500 dead from yesterday’s Pearl Harbor-like attack by Hamas Gaza on Israel. Over two thousand were wounded. The number of Israelis – men, women, and children – taken captive by the enemy is unknown.

The final number of dead from yesterday will go higher as the fog of war lifts and bodies are recovered.

Some 24 hours after the initial attack, the security situation in two kibbutz settlements on our side of the Gaza border is unclear.

Hamas managed to occupy parts of Israel within the Green Line for the better part of a day. That is something no other enemy has achieved since 1948.

Day two of the 2023 war has dawned.

I hear this is not the time for recriminations. I beg to differ. At the very least, let's put the cards on the table.

Binyamin Netanyahu is responsible for our predicament. When the situation stabilizes, he should resign. 

The heads of the IDF and security services repeatedly warned him that his putsch to transform Israel into an illiberal majoritarian democracy and the vehement mass opposition it was engendering was undermining our deterrence. Yet he plowed on. 

He formed the most extreme insular government in Israel’s history. Not since Oslo has the national consensus and esprit de corps been so undermined.

Seeing their leaders in the cabinet emboldened Hardal messianics to dance their way up, around, and into the Temple Mount. The Palestinian Arab leadership exploited this reckless behavior to argue that the Jews were “storming” their holy shrines. In recent weeks, they tied up the army with midnight visits to “Joseph’s Tomb” in Nablus. These pilgrimages require an incursion into an enemy city, invariably leading to clashes and casualties.  

The most right-wing government in Israel’s history lost control of the security situation inside the country. Violence in the Arab sector spiked. Spitting and other attacks by Hardalim and other ultra-Orthodox louts on Christians became routine. The government was obsessively focused on changing the regime. Nothing else mattered.

It shoveled millions of shekels to the Haredim and to runaway settlement building. 

Netanyahu was scheming to find legislative ways to institutionalize Haredi draft dodging.

He lied about stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons. For all intents and purposes, the mullahs can now put an atomic bomb together within two weeks.

He bet on building up Hamas to the detriment of the PLO. He gave the green light for Qatar to deliver suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars into the hands of the Islamists.

And, of course, he released from prison all the prominent Hamas chieftains who went on to rebuild the terror infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. 

He was derelict in repeatedly appointing unqualified defense ministers who failed to ask the right questions about our Maginot Line along the Gaza Strip.

He is accountable for the intelligence failure of Israel being caught with its pants down precisely 50 years after the Yom Kippur War. He has to answer for the military being so stretched that it could not push the invaders out for a full day. He is liable for not addressing the nation on a timely basis.  

As soon as it is propitious, Binyamin Netanyahu and his incompetent government must go. 

Until then, he should bring in Yair Lapid and Benny Ganz and create an emergency war cabinet. 

When this is over, we can get down to more substantive recriminations and a State Commission of Inquiry.

Fifty Years since the Yom Kippur War

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan with Prime Minister Golda Meir 

Dear Readers,

It's 50 Years since the Yom Kippur War. I wrote a short piece for Israel My Glory, a US-based Christian Zionist magazine that explores why Israel was caught by surprise.

Here is the link. 

Alternatively, cut and paste 

https://israelmyglory.org/article/israels-pearl-harbor/

into your browser.

Binyamin Netanyahu anti-'Occupation' Gadfly

The damage Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has unleashed upon Israel's political society in six months is plain — at least for half of Israel – to see. The other half is willfully blind or maintains that the ends (majoritarian democracy with theocracy as a possible endgame) justify the (economic, social, and military destabilizing) means.

One of the many unintended consequences that Netanyahu has wrought is that he has exposed the direct connection between the "occupation" and his coalition's regime change putsch. "Judicial reform" mobilizers are mostly associated with the settlement movement in one fashion or another. They want to gut the judiciary's powers to remove the last check on absolute Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. For it is the judiciary that routinely interferes with the confiscation of disputed lands and applies international legal norms in the West Bank. It does this because it is the civilized thing to do; and protects IDF personnel from being dragged before international tribunals as war criminals.

By campaigning to undermine democratic values within the Green Line, even as they are too often flouted in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu has unwittingly brought “West Bank rules” into Israeli living rooms. Even as Israelis debate whether pure majority rule is "democracy," as the Netanyahu camp maintains, or that overarching "democratic values" define "democracy," as I and other opponents of regime change hold, millions of Palestinian Arabs enjoy no democracy whatsoever. Those in the West Bank live under the unelected Palestinian Authority's authoritarian rule and, on top of that, are subject to IDF military law.

Netanyahu's post-Jabotinsky Likud Party and the ultra-nationalist Orthodox Hardal parties led by Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Avi Maoz have jarringly connected the dots for many Israelis like me between the Hardal (*) stream, the "occupation," and what is happening inside the Green Line to the rule of law. Of the 64 coalition members, about half are Hardal or Haredi (including three Likud MKs). Ten live over the Green Line.

Hardal sensibilities lean toward intolerance, anti-intellectualism, and antagonism to modernity. Their hilltop clerics have koshered the murder of Arab non-combatants. Government ministers applaud vigilantism. No less than old-school haredim, Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and Maoz appear committed to incremental yet inexorable gender segregation in public spaces. Virtually all their movement's youth groups are now segregated. Zvi Thau, the Supreme Leader of Maoz's party, has made trashing gays his holy mission. 

While haredi politicians of United Torah Judaism and Shas (also coalition members) would profit from taking down the judiciary, they are primarily political free riders narrowly interested in budgets, patronage, and evading national service. 

The advance guard driving “judicial overhaul” is mostly associated with the Hardal stream and is motivated by a desire to annex Judea and Samaria regardless of the demographic and international consequences. The exception that proves the rule is Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who presents as a secular Jew and champions majoritarian democracy. Though, let's not forget that Levin himself has long pressed for annexation. 

In this way, Netanyahu's coalition has shoved the "occupation" in our faces. He has forced us to recognize the political and cultural intersectionality between events in Judea and Samaria and within the Green Line. Until recently, I myself denied that the settlement enterprise served as a hothouse for intolerance and disregard for the rule of law on both sides of the Green Line.  That position is hard to maintain, given that annexation at any price is so central to Netanyahu's regime change.

For de jure annexation of the West Bank to happen, the judiciary would need to be sidelined. Let me pause to explain why annexation makes no sense. There are 3 million Palestinians in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Another 2 million in the Gaza Strip. Add in nearly two million Palestinian Arabs who are Israeli citizens within the Green Line, and you have 7 million Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This is equivalent to the number of Jews in the same territory.

Before my lefty friends smugly mutter, "I told you so," consider that Israel has a moral, historical, legal, and cultural claim to the West Bank. It is bolstered by the security-based practical need to retain the West Bank's high ground, which overlooks coastal Israel. Jews are not colonizers in the West Bank — what "colonizer" can dig down and discover artifacts belonging to their ancestors? Eretz Israel is not occupied, yet the Arabs who live there feel they are “under occupation.” This has become a distinction without a difference.

It took two sides to create this "occupation" conundrum. The settler movement operated by creating facts on the ground in the absence of legal authority or societal consensus. It made settlement the first imperative. No Israeli government, left or right, offered a strategic settlement plan anchored in our security needs that made space for a deal the other side could live with – if it ever wanted peace. Settling the land in the face of unremitting Arab violence became an end in itself, with generations raised in a fervent breeding ground of messianic expectations.

Palestinian Arab intransigence is the flip side of the occupation equation. Imagine if, after the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords signed by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the latter had wanted peace and not the phased destruction of Israel. Imagine if, with all the EU and US money thrown at the PA, Arafat had allowed viable political institutions to be developed and inculcated Palestinian youth in coexistence. Imagine if, when Hamas began blowing up Israeli buses to protest Oslo, Arafat had attended the funerals of the Jewish victims. Imagine if he and Mahmoud Abbas had said "yes" — just once — to a Palestinian state in the offers made by Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon, or even Netanyahu in his earlier incarnation.

At the end of the day, we can't want a Palestinian state more than the Palestinian Arabs do — and as long as their leadership will not accept that the Jews, too, have a right to a national homeland. What matters most for the PLO, Hamas, and its international apologists is not building their polity but destroying ours. What sort of state would sprout if the "occupation" ended tomorrow? How long before Iranian Revolutionary Guards were set up overlooking Ben-Gurion Airport? Gaza is a flashing red light, foretelling what PLO/Hamas control of the West Bank would bring.

Opponents of the "occupation" have never wanted Israelis to overthink the "Day After" a Palestinian state came into being. The more delusional among them imagine the Palestinian Arabs as peaceful shepherds, disciples of Gandhi who, if left to their own devices, would build an egalitarian non-sectarian state. Or they trick themselves into thinking that Israel would pull up its drawbridge and our two peoples would go their separate ways.

It is in this context that Netanyahu comes along to make plain the toxic blowback of radical settler ideology on our domestic polity. And in doing so, he has made the "occupation" the problem not just of the left and the Palestinians but of all opponents of regime change. I blame Netanyahu for normalizing hatred of the judiciary. 

Bearing in mind that this government plans to be in power until at least October 2026, Netanyahu has already given us a sour whiff of what a Hardal-Haredi Israel led by a demagogic Likud might look like.

Netanyahu’s symbiotic union with Jewish supremacists aching to bring animal sacrifices on the Temple Mount and with retrograde non-Zionists keen to maintain their own insularity while imposing ultra-Orthodox mores on Israel's busses, trains, and mainstreet is pushing heretofore agnostic or even right-leaning Israelis into the "anti-occupation" orbit. 

Security hawks like me wonder whether the Jewish subculture nurtured in West Bank messianic circles that spawned Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and their ilk poses more danger to Herzlian Zionism than Haredi obscurantism. UTJ and Shas leaders may be grifters and shirkers, but their ethical pliability makes them open to bargaining. In contrast, the Hardalim, including those ensconced within the Likud, are rigid ideologues with a sinister agenda: to refashion Israel’s political regime. 

Binyamin Netanyahu is principally responsible for bringing our polity to this brink. He could yet save Israel and salvage his reputation by resigning. That would make a national unity government possible. A new government could pull Israel out of its quagmire and maybe, by and by, set the stage for a reassessment of our strategy in the West Bank. 

Or, he could stay the course and persist in his unintended role as anti-'occupation gadfly. 

-----

(*) The stream formerly known as national religious or Mizrachi and identified with modern orthodoxy, has largely morphed into חרד״ל, an acronym for חרדי לאומי‎ Ḥaredi Le'umi.

Characterized as religiously stringent, they troll for khumrot (above and beyond what law and tradition require) while valuing insularity, like authentic haredim. What most distinguishes Hardalim is their ethno-supremacist and messianic political orientation. They are mostly post-Zionists in the sense that they take their cues not from the state or the military hierarchy but from their clerics (just like haredim).