← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · toddbrendanfahey
Thread ID: 6928 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-05-26
2003-05-26 14:53 | User Profile
The "Hannibal" Procedure: Israel's Military Strategy Unveiled
by Uri Avnery Sunday, May 25
Hannibal crossed the Alps with his division of combat elephants and terrorized mighty Rome for years. He commanded the army of Carthage, originally a Canaanite Phoenician colony, spoke a kind of Hebrew and bore a Hebrew name ("God has been gracious"). In my youth, when we were searching for Hebrew and Semite heroes as role models, he figured high on our list.
It appears that the Israeli army, too, considers him a model. This week the legendary general was at the center of a controversial public disclosure.
The subject of the sensation was the "Hannibal Procedure" ââ¬â an Israeli army practice instituted in the mid 80s, first in oral instructions and later as an official order bearing this name. Some time ago this order was officially amended, but many soldiers attest that the original version it is still in force. It has now been published by Haaretz. It can be summed up in eight words: Better a dead than a captured Israeli soldier...
[complete article here]