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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hannibal Directive in Jewish law |
| 2024-02-06 |
| [Jpost] The Hannibal Directive is just one more reminder of the dangerous consequences of well-intentioned but ultimately misguided prisoner exchange policy. Israeli reporter Ronen Bergman has claimed that IDF soldiers were told, during certain incidents on October 7, to prevent the kidnapping of Israel citizens or soldiers “at all costs.” The alleged directives were purposely ambiguous. In practice, the claim goes, it was understood that the forces would fire in those given scenarios with the goal of killing terrorists, even when clearly understanding that their fellow Israelis would inevitably also be killed. These alleged incidents have been strongly criticized by Prof. Asa Kasher, author of the IDF’s first code of ethics. He notes that previous IDF chiefs of staff, including Shaul Mofaz and Benny Gantz, directed that there was no permission to target a hostage. The details of these allegations remain murky, but it pays to review the responsibilities of a government toward individual lives within the broader context of a military campaign intended to secure the broader collective. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 There were rumors of such orders when I was regular/reservist - never seen any. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-02-06 11:20 |