"Army of Thieves".. Israel Between Plunder and the Collapse of Military Discipline

SadaNews - Haaretz's article did not wait for the Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir's speech to describe the crisis of the Israeli army. Ofer Shelach and Adi Shafran Gitlman went straight to the heart of the matter, which is that an army that loses discipline and values does not become a more ferocious force, but rather an "armed gang," and its end is not only the erosion of its moral image, but defeat on the battlefield.

The article was written by Ofer Shelach, head of the National Security Policy Research Program at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former member of the Knesset, and Adi Shafran Gitlman, a senior researcher in the same program. Therefore, the warning does not come from outside the Israeli institution, nor from a traditional rights discourse, but from within the field of Israeli national security itself.

This background gives the article a special value, as it deals with ethics and discipline as part of the army's ability to fight, not just a propagandistic or legal issue.

This phrase gains additional weight after Zamir's statements yesterday, Monday, at the conference of the High Command, when he warned of the phenomenon of looting within the army, saying that "the phenomenon of looting, if it exists, is despicable and may stain the entire Israeli army," pledging to investigate these cases and not letting them pass unnoticed.

The discussion is no longer about individual cases, but about an openly expressed fear of the image of a "thieves' army," where the prolonged war turns into an environment that produces looting, chaos, and behavior that damages the army's image from within.

The writers believe that the Chief of Staff does not have the luxury of "choosing his battles" on this file, despite pressure from the political leadership. According to the article, the army leadership faces an unprecedented situation, where the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, and members of the government and Knesset attack army leaders almost daily, and cabinet meetings turn into a media space for reprimanding the Chief of Staff.

From Looting to Disintegration

Zamir's statements about looting came as part of a broader speech about "non-value events" within the army, as he stated that the Israeli army is a "values-based army," but he acknowledged that what has recently surfaced is the result of a "long and complex period," warning that normative deterioration could be as dangerous "as operational threats."

He also placed restrictions on the use of soldiers and army reserves on social networks to disseminate controversial messages or for self-promotion, considering that a "red line."

But Haaretz's article goes further than Zamir's speech. It does not see looting as an isolated incident, but as a consequence of the ongoing war, the exhaustion of regular and reserve forces, and the erosion of leaders' authority.

Shelach and Shafran Gitlman write that a prolonged war "makes it difficult for those involved to maintain the image of a warrior," and that the reserve forces were not built to provide hundreds of days of service annually for the third consecutive year.

Endless War

The deeper danger, according to the article, is that this prolonged war leaves many in service viewing every Palestinian or Lebanese as an enemy "doomed to death or humiliation."

Here, the significance of Zamir's warning about looting becomes clear: the issue is not just about stealing property in southern Lebanon or Gaza; it is an indication of the collapse of the boundary between a disciplined army and an undisciplined force.

In contrast, Zamir stated that the year 2026 may remain a "year of combat" on all fronts, and that the army will continue to remain in front-line defensive positions in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon until securing the long-term safety of Israeli settlements.

This perception suggests that the environment that produced the phenomenon of a "thieves' army" is likely to persist unless the Chief of Staff's warnings lead to actual measures.

The article and Zamir's statements together reveal that the Israeli army does not face a transient crisis of discipline, but an internal identity crisis.

When the Chief of Staff warns of looting, and two security researchers write that an army that abandons values becomes an "armed gang," the question within Israel becomes: Is the army still capable of controlling the war, or has the prolonged war begun to reshape it into an exhausted, angry army, susceptible to transforming into a "thieves' army"?

Source: Haaretz