Behind the ‘dissident’ letter from 1,000 Israeli reservists

April 13 – The heroic Palestinian resistance to occupation, apartheid and genocide continues to cause stresses, strains and fractures throughout all of Israeli settler society, including within its armed forces.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) located in The Hague, Netherlands, has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charging him with war crimes, while at the very same time he is on trial for bribery and fraud by an Israeli court.

In the streets of occupied-Palestine, there are non-stop demonstrations by the Zionist settler population over issues ranging from the forced conscription of religious anti-Zionist youth to getting the release of Israelis detained since Oct. 7, 2023, by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

The Israeli settler state is the creation of a transnational Zionist movement that originated in 19th-century European Jewish communities. However, not all Jewish people are Zionists, and most Zionists, including Christian nationalists, are not Jewish. Also, and most importantly, without the economic, political and military backing of various imperialist powers, including the U.S., Britain and France, the Israeli state could never have been set up in the first place.

The armed wing of the Zionist movement is the so-called Israel Defense Forces (IDF), now more widely known as the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF). And there is now very public dissension within it in the form of widely circulated letters in newspapers. These letters have been signed by thousands of reserve soldiers — older soldiers, most who have already completed more than two years of regular service in the IDF/IOF — criticizing the Netanyahu government’s conduct of the genocidal war in Gaza. They do not see a winning plan. And no winning plan means defeat.

While the letters call for an end to the fighting and may make slight mention of Palestinian casualties, they in no way give any indication of solidarity with the Palestinian people or have any vision with regards to the true liberation of Palestine. One signer, a pilot, said, “This isn’t about refusal or defiance and isn’t directed at the military.” (ynetnews.com, April 10, 2025)

One of the letters was signed by reservists from the elite Intelligence Unit 8200. It “warned that high rates of reservists were experiencing ‘burnout’ after multiple rounds of being called up,” and “they had noticed the ever-increasing rates of non-reporting for the reserves.” (Times of Israel, April 11, 2025)

According to the head of the IDF/IOF Air Force, Major General Tomer Bar: “The messages that appear in a published leaflet express distrust and harm cohesion in the Air Force. … The leaflet weakens the solidarity.” (Arutz Sheva, April 11, 2025)

That’s a good thing. But he got it wrong. It’s the steadfast Palestinian resistance that’s breaking down unity in the IDF/IOF. The leaflet reveals the breakdown.

The writer is a member of Veterans For Peace in the U.S. and served in the IOF (1972-75), where his experience led him to support the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.