The serious report was issued by the ‘Lavi’ organization. Members of extreme left-wing groups give educational courses to commanders at the rank of major and above.

The Lavi organization publicized a report that detailed the organizations that run obligatory educational courses for senior IDF commanders. The report reveals that many of these organizations are supported by the extreme left-wing New Israel Fund, which has also funded the BDS movement at times.

The obligatory courses are called ‘Purpose and Uniqueness’ and are taught every year to around 2000 commanders in the IDF. Receiving the rank of major is conditional upon completing the course. Soldiers of rank captain and major generally attend the courses through the Bina organization and more senior commanders, such as colonels and generals, attend the course through the Hartman Institute.

In the report, it is noted that though the materials for the course contain many different values, the ones particularly highlighted in the programs through the Hartman Institute and Bina organization specifically state, “Jewish identity, morality, respect for man, purity of arms, responsibility- these are the values that are the focus of the seminar and that are discussed during the dialog.”

Lavi has blasted the monopoly of left-wing groups on teaching the courses as an attempt to ‘reeducate’ IDF commanders. They note that both the Hartman Institute and the Bina organization are supported by the New Israel Fund and that many of the lecturers at the courses are associated with other extreme left-wing groups that are far outside the Israeli consensus.

The report also quotes Daniel Hartman, head of the Hartman Institute, in a recent interview in the newspaper Yediot Achronot. There Hartman says as follows, “If only the problem was just Netanyahu. So yes, Bibi is living in Germany of 1938, but the challenge is one of education- to deal with the distorted roots in the society.” Later in the same interview, Hartman called upon Jews to also celebrate Islamic holidays and declared it time for a “culture war.”

Another individual involved in giving lectures to commanders is Professor Avi Sagi, who called for an investigation against IDF commanders involved in the Cast Lead operation. “If the IDF and the authorities fail to have an investigation, then we the citizens, must demand it of them. If they continue to refuse then we must find people who will investigate,” said Sagi in an article in Haaretz.

The Bina organization is also connected to an extreme left-wing ideology. Among the teachers in the organization is Lior Tal who was previously on the executive committee of the radical left-wing Meretz party and also served as a youth director for Meretz. In an article on Ynet news, he wrote, “Placing individuals under the authority of a Rabbi or posek is dangerous and forbidden… The lesson I have learned from world atrocities is that a person cannot place himself fully under any authority be it G-d, man, or state. There is no holy authority.”

Nir Broyda, the head of the ‘Secular Yeshiva’ and deputy head of the Bina organization has also been outspoken in his views. In an article on Ynet he blamed Religious Zionism and Rabbis for Rabin’s murder. “The Rabin murder was not perpetrated by Yigal Amir alone. Rabin was murdered by an entire population of Rabbis, community leaders, teachers, and educators who placed themselves outside of the rules of democracy. They laid the foundation for the belief that Halacha and religion (in the mistaken way they view it) is above Israeli democracy and the values represented by Rabin and the Zionist forefathers… We are still waiting for this population to place its leaders on trial and cleanse their hands of the blood spilled. Until then, we will not forget and we will not forgive!”

Another teacher in the Bina organization is Leah Shakdiel from the radical left-wing group Nashot Watch (Women’s Watch). Lavi also emphasized that a large number of the lecturers in the Hartman Institute and the Bina organization are overlapping.

According to public records, the connection between the army and these left-wing groups came as a result of a public tender, but Lavi noted that there would seem to be a conflict of interest as Yaakov Kastel, who is the head of the program in the Hartman Institute is also the personal advisor to the head educator in the IDF. This fact raises a serious concern of a conflict of interest and that the choosing of the Hartman Institute to run the courses was not unbiased. It is noteworthy that through the contract the Hartman Institute received around $500,000 from the Defense Ministry in 2013 and presumably a similar amount each year after.

Kastel has also made statements that support a radical left-wing ideology. Among his statements he suggested that soldiers should not say Psalms before going to battle. In an interview with the ‘Faithful to Torah and Work’ Movement, Kastel noted, “If you have soldiers say a prayer or psalms that describe the war as total in nature, how can you expect them to then follow the rules of ‘Purity of Arms’”?

Lawyer Doron Nir Tzvi, from the Lavi organization stated, “It would seem that the tentacles of the New Israel Fund and the organizations it funds have crept their way into educating IDF commanders. In these courses soldiers are taught that the Jewish people are no better than other nations and that Israel is not a Jewish state, but instead a state of all its citizens. It is shocking that as ‘Jewish identity’ courses are removed from the IDF, radical left-wing groups associated with Meretz and others are teaching commanders what to think. There is a very limited range of ideologies that the commanders are exposed to in these courses and all of these ideologies are post-zionist and radically leftist.”

http://www.hakolhayehudi.com/report-new-israel-fund-educating-senior-idf-commanders/