How close is the Israeli army to collapse?
electronicintifada.net
Plummeting morale, mutinous soldiers, a rash of suicides and espionage are wearing Israel down.

In a related twist last month, Israeli intelligence agencies announced that they had broken up two alleged Iranian spy rings — one of them entirely composed of Israeli Jews.

Yossi Melman, intelligence correspondent for Haaretz, described the very idea that some Israeli Jews are now willing to work for Iran against Israel as a sign of what he described as “the moral decay and disintegration of Israel’s social cohesion.”

Melman reported for the Tel Aviv paper that “the Shin Bet [intelligence agency] and police have arrested 14 Israelis on suspicion of spying for Iran. Since the arrests were made during wartime, the accusations are very severe. The suspects represent two separate rings recruited and controlled by agents of the Iranian ministry of intelligence.”

Despite claiming that the alleged spies were mainly motivated by money, Melman wrote that “the painful truth which cannot be ignored is that more and more Israeli Jews are ready to spy for Iran.”

He claimed that “in the last six months more than 20 Israelis were arrested by the Shin Bet and charged with espionage for Iran’s ministry of intelligence.”

These 20 alleged spies “are Israelis from various walks of life,” Melman claimed.

“Males and females, young and old, from across the country. They represent the mosaic of [their] society: a yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh, a psychology student from a college in Ramat Gan, a businessman from Ashkelon and two new immigrants from Belarus and Ukraine.”

Melman explained the situation as he sees it: “Many Israelis are depressed because they don’t see an end to [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s belligerent policies. The economy is deteriorating and the government doesn’t offer hope to its citizens. All these are fertile ground for the cultivation of spies.”

It also seems to be fertile ground for the possible collapse, or at least severe degradation, of the Israeli military. With no end in sight to the war of attrition being waged by the resistance, the challenges for Israel’s military will only continue to mount.

A collapse may still be a long way off, but for Palestinian and Lebanese people, it could not come soon enough.

  • rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml
    12·
    12 days ago

    It does means a lot actually. The article is very clear how in the following statement which is one of several insightful information bits:

    Melman explained the situation as he sees it: “Many Israelis are depressed because they don’t see an end to [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s belligerent policies. The economy is deteriorating and the government doesn’t offer hope to its citizens. All these are fertile ground for the cultivation of spies.”

    The material conditions are very different from the US invasion in Vietnam.