When even the tough cant take it anymore.

last updated 8 January 2015

Israel

Yaakov Katz

Israel just had its biggest military revolt since the 1948 War of Independence, said Yaakov Katz in The Jerusalem Post. Last week, about 100 soldiers from a battalion in the famed Golani Brigade walked off base in protest, saying their “mental-health needs” were being ignored. The brigade is traditionally one of Israel’s most elite units, deployed on the northern front in every war, including last summer’s campaign in Lebanon. That was a tough war for Golani. The deputy commander of the battalion in question, Maj. Ro’i Klein, was killed when he threw himself heroically on a grenade to save his men. Seven other soldiers also died in action. Yet a new battalion leader, the soldiers say, returned everyone to duty “as if nothing had happened.” He ignored requests for appointments with a counselor. He didn’t even show up at a memorial march for the fallen. For months after the war, the soldiers struggled with stress and grief, until finally they snapped. Now 11 of them, “believed to have been the organizers of the revolt,” are in jail. But if their “complaints are not responsibly addressed,” the rest will go AWOL again.