An IDF commander publicly framed battle in Gaza as a religious war defending God

Evidence

In the war that Israel launched in the summer of 2014 against the Hamascontrolled Gaza Strip (Operation Protective Edge) religionization was further elevated. A brigade commander, Colonel Ofer Winter, a graduate of a premilitary academy in the West Bank settlement of Eli, dispatched a “battle order,” telling his troops they were going to war “to wipe out an enemy” who “curses, blasphemes and scorns the God of Israel” (cited in Sharon 2014). He thus presented the battle against the Palestinians not only as the extension of a war rooted in the Bible against Amalek, as the rabbis had previously done, and not only as a state defense against an enemy, but also as a religious war aimed at protecting the reputation of God. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 897

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s religious framing is recent rather than primordial — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 51; Sacralized scriptural precedent is invoked to authorize killing enemy civilians in the IDF — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 893

Broader Connections

• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s religious framing is recent rather than primordial #complicates (0.85) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 51
• Sacralized scriptural precedent is invoked to authorize killing enemy civilians in the IDF #exemplifies (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 893