The same Israeli military base that right-wing activists once stormed to shield soldiers from military investigators now watched those soldiers stack their rifles in a heap and walk out on their own commander.

On July 30, roughly 100 soldiers from the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion left Sde Teiman without permission after their battalion commander took a sledgehammer to the decorative plaques they had hung. The army said the signs were remnants of irregular “veteran-junior” traditions – informal customs governing the status of longer-serving and newer soldiers within a unit. The soldiers insisted the plaques were part of their company’s heritage, carried through Gaza and Lebanon. The distinction hardly matters. What matters is that the argument escalated until the troops abandoned their weapons, marched out chanting against their officers, and rendered the battalion temporarily unfit for the Gaza rotation it was preparing to join. Most returned by evening under threat of AWOL (absent without leave) charges. The investigation will produce reprimands or quiet discharges. That is the least interesting part of the story.

Armies know failures of discipline. What they less often confront is the quiet renegotiation of the contract that makes discipline possible in the first place. For decades, the Israeli combat soldier operated under an unwritten understanding: The political leadership could be questioned, the government could be detested, the media could be ignored, but the field commander’s authority inside the unit remained largely beyond challenge. Rank still carried a presumption. Trust was granted first........

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