The Panic of Israel's Soldiers

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The news of Israeli soldiers being hit by a Palestinian rocket on 11/September/2007 is striking, and ought to give military and political analysts pause—not because the rocket struck its target, but because the number of soldiers who suffered panic attacks was greater than the number wounded by actual shrapnel. Reports on the numbers of casualties conflict, but this is unimportant; what matters is that Israel itself acknowledged that more than half of the casualties were cases of panic.

Israel’s soldiers are supposed to have undergone harsh and demanding training, to be accustomed to the whistle of bullets over and under them, in their waking hours and in their sleep, to be familiar with the sound of massive explosions during their maneuvers, and to have experienced tanks attacking them and planes bombing overhead. As the Arab commonly imagines it, the Israeli soldier is a trained, seasoned, and brave soldier who attacks with force and valor. But it is clear that this traditional Arab image is not true, and that it exists in the Arab mind in order to conceal the impotence of the Arab regimes, not for the sake of truth. The Arab regimes are hedonistic, mercenary, conspiratorial regimes in pursuit of pleasure and appetite, and they work constantly to entrench the idea of an invincible, all-powerful Israel in order to justify their defeats, their humiliation, and their concessions.

It has been proven beyond any possible reinterpretation, through the war on Lebanon and through the confrontations with the Palestinian resistance, that the Israeli soldier is hollow and fragile, and jealously guards his own life, and that Sayyed Hassan spoke the truth when he said that Israel is weaker than a spider’s web.

—in the targeted Israeli camp, and it would do a great service if the recording were broadcast so we could see how Israel’s soldiers panicked. Surely one of them screamed, “Where are you, Mother?” or “My darling mother, save me!” or “Oh, Father!” or perhaps he cried out to Palestinians to lift the rocket from over his head, or called for help “for Muhammad’s sake” or “for God’s sake.” Screaming, wailing, calls for help, and running in every direction certainly prevailed. The figures Israel itself reported indicate that its soldiers turned into terrified mice, not knowing which hole to flee into.

If a simple, primitive rocket struck them with this degree of terror, what would rockets of greater force, precision, and payload do? This is an event that confirms that this army is not an army built for real wars. It is an excellent army for confronting Arab regimes, but it is a fragile, cowardly army before real fighters.

Israel will take its revenge and will strike Gaza, and will kill and destroy because of its advanced military machinery, but the one who wins the battle in the end is the soldier on the ground, and that is certainly not the panicked soldier.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “هلع جنود إسرائيل” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.