Comment by dotancohen

  > Note, like most secular Israeli men, I served in the army (though not in any kind of combat way - I was a programmer). I also know many, many reservists serving today, as does literally every Israeli. There are a lot of Israelis with views I vehemently disagree with, but very few that would target civilians for no reason. (Though obviously take this with a grain of salt - my view of the IDF is still, at the end, anecdotal to me - my circle of acquaintences don't represent a true random sample of the army.)

Combat soldier here, both in mandatory service and in reserves. I've served with literally hundreds of other combat soldiers and officers over the course of decades. I've never seen anybody either target civilians nor suggest doing so. Even a joke such as "what if so and so..." by a soldier was severely punished in my mandatory service, and nobody would make such a joke in reserves.

I'm sure that there are bad eggs in the IDF, but by and large the IDF as an organization completely rejects the idea of deliberately hurting civilians. And every single cog in that machine that I've met has upheld that standard.