It was February 1988, about two months after the first intifada erupted. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops in Gaza and the West Bank were confronted by complicated and violent encounters with Palestinian civilians. Chief of Staff Dan Shomron wrote a letter to IDF commanding officers reminding them to maintain “the principles of law, ethics, and discipline.” He also wrote that he expected the troops to display “assertiveness and decisiveness, along with self-control, restraint and sensitivity.” He concluded by emphasizing, “Force must not be used as a means of punishment, nor should it be used once the objective has been achieved. … The population must not be abused, shamed or humiliated, and no intentional damage should be caused to their property.”

Two months later, Shomron stunned politicians by declaring that the intifada could not be quelled by military means alone. His comments evoked harsh criticism from politicians on the right, but he nevertheless continued to state his view of the situation. In one notable instance, Shomron rejected a demand that the chief of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna, be removed from his post for telling the Cabinet that the intifada could not be reined in by force. The person who demanded that Mitzna be fired was none other than Ariel Sharon, industry and trade minister and a senior member of Likud. Shomron stood up and said, “That’s my opinion too. Fire me if you want.” While this particular incident was unusually intense, Shomron came under regular fire from politicians back then, during a national unity government. Neither Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir from Likud nor Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin from the Labor Party stood out for having come to his defense.

Almost three decades later, what is being called the third intifada, or the “young people’s intifada,” is raging. Within the corridors of power, Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot finds himself caught in the middle of a similar political tempest, with politicians on the right trying to gain political advantage by attacking an ostensibly moderate statement he made. Like Shomron before him, Eizenkot is leading the military through a complicated conflict with a civilian population. It is, in fact, the kind of conflict that raises serious questions of ethics and values on an almost daily basis. The similarity ends there, however. While Shomron was being stubborn and bold in confronting the political class and adopted a position with clear political ramifications, Eizenkot’s allegedly offensive comment was only stating the obvious. All he did was expand on the reasoning behind orders for opening fire when soldiers confront civilians. Simply put, if there are other ways to resolve a confrontation, it is best to avoid opening fire.

Even the occasion for his remarks was completely innocuous — during a meeting Feb. 17 with high school students in the town of Bat Yam. Yuval Pollack, a junior, had asked whether the rules for opening fire were sufficiently clear and whether they might put the lives of soldiers at risk. Eizenkot responded at length, stating in part, “The IDF cannot speak in slogans, such as 'if someone comes to kill you, arise to kill them first’ [Talmud, tractate Berakhot 58a]. … There have been cases in which a 13-year-old girl with scissors or a knife got into a confrontation with soldiers. I don't want a soldier to empty a magazine on a girl with scissors.”