By David Isreael | Jewish Press | June 5, 2024
This is one of those Israeli stories that require more footnotes than actual text. To start, the word I chose to translate in the headline as “Dilapidated” is “Mechukmakim,” which, in addition to describing the sorry state of the subject matter, also packs a lot of contempt. And it’s the contempt, both for Hamas as well as for the IDF chief of staff who’s been stuck for eight months now trying to beat them, that the Hebrew speakers got from Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Ofer Winter’s statement.
Ofer Winter (Vinter) belongs to a new class of senior IDF officers: national religious, fiercely patriotic, and destined by his cultural and religious affiliations and convictions to hit his head against the glass ceiling separating the senior command and the officers who attended the wrong high schools in the wrong parts of the country.
Winter earned the target on his back on July 9, 2014, when, commander of the Givati Brigade during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, he issued his soldiers a “Commander’s Page for Battle” that went as follows:
“History has chosen us to be at the forefront of the fight against the fierce Gazan terrorist enemy, who defies, curses, and reviles the God of Israel’s armies. I lift my eyes to the heavens and call with you, ‘Shema Israel, Hashem Eloheinu, Hashem Echad.’ God of Israel, please make our path successful, as we go and stand to fight for Your people Israel against the enemy who blasphemes against Your name.”
It was an erudite message that combined a strong Jewish motif of asking God for help in the ensuing battle with a reference to the Philistines, former dwellers of Gaza, whose champion, Goliath, was killed by little David son of Jesse after he, Goliath, blasphemed against God’s name.
It was also the message that proved to be Winter’s career-ender, as Winter’s commanders and Israel’s left-leaning mainstream media were shocked to hear an Israeli senior officer saying Jewish stuff to his soldiers.
And it didn’t help that, in 2021, Winter spoke out about his objection to the attack on Rafah in which three soldiers were killed, including Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, whose bodies were never released by Hamas. Winter blamed the Commander of the Southern Command, Sami Turgeman, for taking too big a risk.
There were a few minor clashes afterward between Winter and the IDF brass, which the army would have turned a blind eye to had it been a different senior officer. Winter was called on the carpet on each one of those. For the final 18 months of his service he was kept at home, drawing a salary and doing nothing, until, on May 8, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi informed Winter of the end of his service in the IDF.
And now, after I’ve provided a whole lot of context, here’s what Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Ofer Winter said Tuesday night at the Jerusalem Day celebration in Ariel:
“Let no one confuse us, saying that we don’t want peace. We are all about peace. But the enemy interprets our desire for peace as weakness. This is the problem in the Middle East.
“The role of the IDF is to win and to overwhelm the enemy. Not everything is so complex. I know personally most of the field commanders in the IDF and they are doing everything to win, it’s not their problem. You win with what’s available. Insufficient ammunition? No legitimacy? Nonsense. Who is this enemy anyway? Who is Hamas? Some dilapidated Palestinians – you must take off the gloves and fight properly, it can be done, and quickly. Who is Hezbollah? No disrespect, but we are the strongest army in the Middle East, not because of our equipment, but because of our spirit.”
The audience applauded him during his speech, and Winter responded: “Thank you for the applause but don’t think I’m going into politics. I’m still a fighter for Israel.”
“To bring about victory, we must continue the unity we started. Unite all the people of Israel. How do we do that? Very simple. – we don’t fight.”
Should Netanyahu win the next election (whether soon or in 2026), he could do worse than appoint Ofer Winter as his Defense Minister.
@dreuveni
See my comment to Adam about that final quote.
@Adam
I can appreciate your being puzzled, at least in part, from what is written in the article.
First, when Winter stated,
he was calling for Israelis to not fight eachother, and thereby achieve a unity which could not be defeated by outside forces, roughly speaking.
Also, when David Israel wrote,
I believe Winter’s criticism in 2021 was about the 2014 war in which Goldin and Shaul were seized by Hamas. He also called for the war in 2021 not to be ended til the bodies seized in 2014 were released.
Regarding your objection about the term “dilapidated Palestinians”, namely that
I would disagree with you. Hamas had unopposed control of the occupied region of the Otef for hours, while the residents had no arms, no army, and no centralized defenses. All they had were a few security guards, a few policemen, and no alert about the impending attack. Hamas went door to door, slaughtering people with light arms, and in the case of the Nova Festival, it was literally a something akin to a shooting gallery. As to the army forces which were present, they were never alerted to the impending attack, many of the men and leaders were on holiday absence, and when the attack commenced, the access to the armory was cut off by a concentration of well armed (though still light armed) Hamas forces.
Recall what was accomplished with just a tank at the border when it finally arrived to engage the marauding Hamas forces. Had any significant force been present in the Otef, ready to face the attacking Hamas forces, the blood bath which resulted would have consumed the attackers rather than the defenseless occupants of the Otef, who had no means to deal with the attacking Hamas forces and their army of Gazan citizen raiders.
Regarding your statement that
Winter’s skill as a military commander has never been in dispute. His removal from duty was completely based on his political and religious disputes with the liberal leadership in the IDF. Personally, I completely agree with Inna1’s assessment of Winter. He is brilliant officer who would make an ideal replacement for any number of the military or political officio’s who forced him into early retirement.
I find this article puzzling. . Why did General Winter say that the way to achieve unity in Israel is to “not fight.” Why did he say that the army chief of staff was at fault more “taking too much of a risk” in ordering an attack on Rafah, when it should have been obvious to any patriot that the army needed to take a much, much greater risk in order to crush Hamas. And what is this all about calling Hamas “dilapidated Palestinians?” You can’t murder up to 1200 people, including many well-armed Israeli soldiers, within a few hours by being “dilapidated?” I appreciate it that this guy believes in God and the Torah. But this in and of itself does not make him either a military or political genius. He should definitely not be promoted to any high office, either military or political.
With these same generals who destroyed the army and caused Oct. 7 massacre Israel will not win. Gen. Winter is a great man, but such people are not welcomed in the Harvard Univ. alumni camp.
He sounds like my kind of guy! I only have problems with his final statement
Maybe it was misquoted…