The moral judgment, action, and credibility of Israeli soldiers who refused to serve in Lebanon (1982-1985)

This chapter describes three stages of analysis: first, the uniqueness of the Lebanon War and its moral complexity; second, the personal/moral characteristics of the Israeli soldiers who refused to serve in Lebanon; and, third, some thoughts on the credibility of the soldiers’ moral justifications for their actions. Most of the soldiers who were morally troubled by the prolongation of the war chose to express their objections as civilians upon their return from reserve service in Lebanon. Assuming that those remaining in the unit have a conscience also the primary question for consideration, quite before any attempt to assess the correctness of the objector’s mode of moral solution, is the credibility of his claim for moral superiority. At least within the Israeli reality of war, selective conscientious objectors should be given more credibility than the Unconditional Objectors who often take advantage of the social system, rather than pointing out its weak points that they are ready to correct.