[Netz]

The Israel Defense Forces have a different approach to most armies in the world and that approach does not involve what you termed the “... wrong side of a furious Israeli soldier's rifle”.

The average Israeli soldier is no mercenary nut case who loves guns and warfare, the opposite is true. The average “Matkal” fellow is no 6 foot 5 inch HULK brute who is looking to “kick a**”, no, he is usually a modest Jew who knows that he has no choice but to defend his people and land from repeated Arab killers.

There is no love of warfare here, we're all conscripts, no volunteering so we want to get in, do the job and go back to our families. Nobody in Israel is a Rambo type butt-kicker but due to NO CHOICE, we do it well.

There is also something called “Purity of Arms”, a moral code of conduct in warfare and in clashes that make us THINK before firing. The moral imperative is very high here even though the press makes us look like we are every bit as cruel as the Syrians, who eat the hearts of their victims, no, were not Arabs BUT...having been provoked we can be nuttier than them.

[darrellmaurina]

I appreciate your note. And yes, I comprehend what you mean about having a military force based on scalpels and not sledgehammers, using personal discipline to strike hard but to strike with focus. I hope I was not offensive in my reference to a “furious” IDF soldier. It was meant as a compliment.

I don't think anyone who hasn't lived in Israel for an extended period of time can fully comprehend what it means to be a country composed of democratic and Western-oriented people living in a thin sliver of land smaller than all but the smallest of American states, and surrounded by a growing mass of people in surrounding countries who are absolutely committed to denying the right of Israel even to exist.

May G-d bless you. You very clearly need all the blessing you can get.