Again, I have to admit to neglecting this blog. I have been busy playing with a new app to create short video clips for The Yakking Show. It’s called “Spikers Studio” You can see the results on The Yakking Show YouTube channel.
As in previous Israel updates, Binyamin reflects the thoughts and feelings of the soldiers on the ground and his own thoughts on war from the unique perspective of a civilian intimately involved in the war in a non-combatant capacity. You can read Binyamin’s earlier updates here.
Now over to Dr. Binyamin Klempmer’s update.
Dear Friends,
Going up North I passed by a huge cloud of smoke. Hezbollah must have hit us with a huge missile. Most likely, we held our peace.
In On War, Clausewitz writes, “But the slower the action proceeds in War, the more frequent and longer the periods of inaction.” War, typically, is more about inaction than it is about action. More about warming seats than wearing out boots.
One of the two soldiers on guard duty looks up for a momentary glance then back down to his smartphone. “Hey Binyamin…Glad to see you…You can make us an espresso.” “I’ll make you ice coffee.” “Even better.” “Sorry we can’t look up from our phones. We’re playing Mortal Combat. The best game ever invented.” “Oh. You’re playing against each other?” “No. We’re partners. We’re playing against other combatants from around the world.” Meanwhile, gunshots blast from the other guy’s phone; he’s too involved to speak. “Where are the other players from?” I ask. “Oh. All over the world. Russia. China. India. Even Iran and Iraq. It’s a great game. You connect with people from all over the world. People you wouldn’t connect with otherwise.” I make them each an iced coffee. Without looking up, the guys take their coffees and scoot over a bit in their chairs making space to place the cups of coffee. The guy’s quickly put their phones down to give me hugs in the midst of the heavy online combat then sit back down and resume the fighting. I continued on.
The things we spoke about: Hair. “Let me tell you something. That good for nothing Conduct Sergeant, he’s never even been in combat, isn’t even allowed to carry a weapon, his only job is to make sure we’re dressed like soldiers, comes to our outpost at four o’clock in the morning in Gaza, he’s not even supposed to be in Gaza, anyway, this guy wakes me up at four in the morning to give me a haircut. I don’t look good without hair. Look at the picture of me after my haircut.” “What can I say, you look better with hair than without.” “That’s right! I don’t look good without hair. I’m in Gaza fighting for four and a half months and this guy comes to give me a haircut. If I ever see that guy again, I’m not going to even tell you what’s going to happen to him.” “I don’t blame you. You’re a pretty ugly guy without hair. But you’re a good looking guy with hair. If you had a girlfriend at the time she would have taken one look at you and left you. You would have been without hair and a girlfriend. It must have been traumatic for you. It was traumatic, wasn’t it?” At this point all other guys are slapping their thighs in laughter at the performance the two of us were not putting on. “That’s right I was traumatized.” “Doesn’t that sergeant know that we’re in a war?” “I guess he doesn’t. Probably the only time he ever went to Gaza was to give me a haircut.” “Probably.”
The things we spoke about. Sun Tzu. “Listen,” I said, “You’re an officer. You might be a low ranking officer as far as the military is concerned. But as far as the mothers of your men are concerned, you’re a general. You need to learn Sun Tzu. On the micro-level of your twenty men, you need to be a strategist. Now listen to the words of Sun Tzu, “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.” Generals carry binoculars. That’s why I bought you a good pair of binoculars. To know your enemy. To see your enemy. And more than that, to see their territory and to know their territory. How can you defeat your enemy if you don’t see them and if you don’t see their fields?” The officer listened patiently and obligingly to my tirade, after all, I had bought for him a good pair of binoculars. Then I said, “Now listen. Sun Tzu says that we need to make our enemy’s strength our own. Did you see what happened in the news the other day with the guy strapped to the hood of the Hummer?” He didn’t know what I was talking about. “A Fatah guy from the West Bank got into a firefight with a few soldiers. They shot him in the shoulder. Wounded him bad. Tied him to the hood of their Hummer and drove around the West Bank. They drove around the West Bank with a wounded combatant tied to the hood of their Hummer. The videos taken from the windows of the nearby residents went viral. How could the Israeli Soldiers be so cruel the New York Times wanted to know. I’ll tell you. We weren’t cruel. We were kind to many whose strength is in their cruelty. We need to be more cruel. They’ll appreciate that. They’ll respect us for it. They’ll stop fighting us. They’ll feel appreciated and understood by us. They should have executed him and then strapped him to the hood.” The gentle soldier looked like he was about to gag and vomit on my words. He interrupted. “The Jewish People are children of Avrohom, and we’re known by three traits: mercy, meekness, and kindness. How can we possibly act with such cruelty?” “Because King Shlomo said, ‘Those who are kind to the cruel will eventually be cruel to the kind.’ We need to be cruel to end the fighting. And ending the fighting is the ultimate kindness.” He nodded thoughtfully at my Machiavelian philosophies of war. I promised to bring him a copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War on my next visit. We gave each other a big hug. I love the guy! He’s one of my soldiers.
In addition to Sun Tzu, my ideas were informed by the words of Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 17,
Every prince ought to desire to be considered compassionate and not cruel. Take care not to misuse this compassion. So long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal, a prince ought not to mind gaining the reputation for cruelty…With a few exemplary executions, he will be more merciful than those who, through too much mercy, allow disorders to arise, from which follow murders or robberies. These harm the whole people, while those executions he ordered offend only the individual…It is impossible for the new prince to avoid the reputation of cruelty, because new states are full of dangers…But when a prince is on a campaign with his army, with a multitude of soldiers under his command, then he absolutely mustn’t worry about having a reputation for cruelty, because that reputation is what holds his army together and has it ready for duty.
This article caught my eye:
Soldier arrested on suspicion of murdering captured terrorist
The soldier is accused of shooting a Nuhkba Force terrorist in the head after the terrorist was captured and interrogated.
Israel National News
Jul 2, 2024, 10:31 PM (GMT+3)
A 20-year-old soldier was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of murdering a terrorist from the Hamas Nuhkba Force who had been captured.
Channel 12 News reported that the soldier, who served in the Kfir Brigade, was arrested at his home and will be brought tomorrow for a hearing on the extension of his detention.
In his defense, the suspect claimed: “On October 7, my friends and I went down south. We saw a fierce battle that was going on between the Yamam soldiers and the Nukhba terrorists. Unfortunately, some of our soldiers were killed. We continued to fight and eliminated the terrorists.”
The investigator responded, “You yourself interrogated a terrorist in the field, then you shot him in the head. That’s why you’re suspected of murder.”
The soldier maintained, “I did not murder any terrorist, but I eliminated the terrorists who were there and shot at us.”
As nauseating as it is in civil society, and it is nauseating, it seems to me that the investigator, as difficult as it may be for him, must learn to differentiate between murder during times of peace and execution during times of war. Especially, when execution is carried out to save the lives of our soldiers. Clausewitz said, “Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.” Certainly, moral courage, as simple as it is, is painfully difficult. In the film, A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s character yells at the character played by Tom Cruise, “You can’t handle the truth,” and the truth is, as unpleasant as it may be, that, in war, men kill men.
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I brought my gongs and chimes with me. There was a soldier full of anxiety who needed to relax. Deep in a forest close to the War Zone, surrounded by cows and large bulls I put out two yoga mats. One for the soldier to lay down on, the other for the gongs and other instruments. I gave him an hour-long sound bath. The cows and bulls stood there, watching, mesmerized. Afterwards I made him a coffee and taught him the Qigong Mountain Stance. I taught him that in war one must stand not in the Western Style of attention where one can easily be knocked over, but in the Eastern Style. Mountain Stance. I told him that in combat he must be a mountain. Roots of a tree. A rock. Solid but flexible. I’ve never been in combat. Maybe that makes my instruction to him hypocritical. But regardless. It was the instruction he needed at that moment. He looked more serene. Ready for combat. Or, at least, ready for the next sound bath. Hopefully both.
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Standing under a beautiful, clear, baby blue sky. The soldier next to me grabbed my arm and told me that we need to run to the cement bunker. But we couldn’t go into the bunker. If we did, we would have missed the awesomeness of it. The beauty of it. The bourgeoisie banality of it. We stood there enamored like Fourth of July Fireworks spectators. But it wasn’t bourgeoisie nor was it banal. It was an awe inspiring spectacular that none of us had witnessed before. A volley of over forty rockets exploding in the sky. We whipped out our phones and began filming. I got some good shots. Could have been better. Afterwards, with all of our nerves a bit frayed, we drank iced coffee and enjoyed a good three hour conversation until we were all back to ourselves. Twenty-five rockets exploded in the sky. Fifteen rockets hit their mark. Unfortunately for the people in Safed, their homes were destroyed.
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The war still goes on. Support it, deny it, either way, it’s your war.
If you’d like to donate, the soldiers really appreciate your support!
Here’s the link: 
https://thechesedfund.
Many, many thanks and much gratitude to all of you who have given so generously. You’re the exceptions to the rule. YOU’RE AMAZING!!! YOU’RE THE CIVILIAN HEROS!!! You know who you are! Thank you!!!
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Also, here’s the link to my book, purchase a few copies for your local libraries.
Stay Safe! Stay strong!
Binyamin Klempner