Barbara Opall-Rome's article "Report Cites Shift in Israeli War Doctrine" [DefenseNews.com, May 5] repeats, without any qualifications, a report by a group called Breaking the Silence (BtS) that alleges abuses by Israeli soldiers in the 2014 Gaza strip fighting. Defense News treats the group as a reliable news source and fails to raise essential questions about its credibility.
The article fails to note that BtS receives extensive foreign funding for smearing Israel. According to the watchdog group NGO Monitor, grants to the organization from Danish, British, Irish and Swedish sources are contingent on BtS collecting negative testimonies and accounts that portray Israel in a negative light.
The article repeats BtS co-founder Yehuda Shaul's claim that this report isn't for international bodies such as the United Nations. "We're Israelis. Our focus is here," Shaul says. However, the group's extensive lobbying, speaking tours and press releases in Europe and the US — largely out of country and largely in English (not Hebrew) — speak volumes about its intended foreign audience and intentions.
Defense News fails to question BtS methods or its "data." While noting that the organization claims to have "published transcripts and essays from some 70 IDF [Israel Defense Force] combatants of a 50-day war that killed 73 Israelis — 67 of them soldiers," the article fails to mention that this is a miniscule portion of the thousands of Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza in a war started by Hamas launching rockets targeting Israeli civilians.
BtS traffics in anonymous testimonies and allegations, as The Washington Post noted ("Israeli veterans say permissive rules of engagement fueled Gaza carnage," May 5) in covering the group's claims. This prevents the IDF from conducting a proper investigation of purported incidents and raises more questions about the group's true objectives.
Defense News repeats unquestioningly Shaul's claim that IDF policies have undergone a "deliberate shift in doctrine" to where the "IDF no longer classifies anyone as innocent." It relies on anonymous and unconfirmed tales from the group as evidence. But outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey has said that Israel "went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties in Gaza."
By failing to question or investigate BtS, Defense News does readers a disservice.
Sean Durns
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Washington
