Meet "Breaking the Silence."
An organization that in everyone’s opinion, is on the far left end of the political map.
An organization that declares that its purpose is to monitor the IDF, which is actually quite an important thing to do, seeing that we live in a democratic society, and the point of democracy is that the people are in charge. There is supposed to be government transparency and every citizen can know everything and express his opinion on it. Therefore Breaking the Silence is, in theory, a very important organization, because it monitors the IDF.
However, if it is such an important organization, why are there so many complaints against it? Why are so many people against it?
After all, in the words of MK Zehava Gal’on (Meretz): “Breaking the Silence is an important organization whose essence is Ahavat Yisrael (love for fellow Jews) and love for the democratic Israel where one is allowed to criticize the government and even the army.”
So MK Gal'on is saying that Breaking the Silence is working out of love of other Jews. Very nice, indeed. If that were true I would be happy, even very happy. However, if one were to ask the Minister of Defense of Israel, Moshe Yaalon (you know, the guy who is responsible for the IDF) about this "love", he would answer that the IDF has looked into cases that Breaking the Silence reported, and found that almost all of the stories reported never happened. Therefore, he asked that instead of "reporting" those cases they turn to the IDF, so that together, they can investigate, and if need be, correct whatever problems do surface in order to make the army a more moral place to serve.
However, Breaking the Silence chooses not to do that, not to take advantage of a chance to correct problems in the IDF. They prefer to turn to the International media in order to get these unsubstantiated stories published. Therefore, it can be inferred that Breaking the Silence does not want to help the IDF improve itself, and only wants to besmirch the IDF - our people's army. The army of the Jewish Nation!!
That is why it is completely understandable that both left and right condemn it, and that the Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett chose to ban Breaking the Silence from schools in Israel as well. Because an organization whose purpose is to besmirch the IDF, and via that, Israel, does not deserve the right to promote its message in the Israeli educational system.
What message exactly is the organization trying to promote by maligning Israel in the world at large?