Polls show the Israeli public's faith plummeting in most institutions, from the courts to the media, which are seen, however wrongly, as dominated by the "extreme left." Only the army is still widely revered.
That is in part because so many Israeli parents must entrust their sons and daughters to it. To doubt the army would be to question the foundational logic of "Fortress Israel": that the army is all that prevents Palestinian "barbarians" such as Sharif from storming the gates.
But also, unlike those increasingly despised institutions, the army has rapidly adapted and conformed to the wider changes in Israeli society.
Rather than settlers, we should speak of "settlerism." There are far more settlers than the 600,000 who live in the settlements. Naftali Bennett, leader of the settlers' Jewish Home Party and education minister, lives in Ranana, a city in Israel, not a settlement.
Settlerism is an ideology, one that believes Jews are a "chosen people" whose Biblical rights to the Promised Land trump those of non-Jews such as Palestinans. Polls show 70 percent of Israeli Jews think they are chosen by God.
The settlers have taken over the army, both demographically and ideologically. They now dominate its officer corps and they direct policy on the ground.
Azaria's testimony showed how deep this attachment now runs. His company, including his commanders, often spent their free time at the home of Baruch Marzel, a leader of Kach, a group banned in the 1990s for its genocidal anti-Arab platform. Azaria described Marzel and Hebron's settlers as like a "family" to the soldiers.
By their very nature, occupying armies are brutally repressive. For decades the army command has given its soldier free rein against Palestinians. But as settler numbers have grown, the army's image of itself has changed too.
It has metamorphosed from a citizens' army defending the settlements to a settler militia. The middle ranks now dictate the army's ethos, not the top brass, as ousted defense minister Moshe Yaalon discovered last year when he tried to stand against the swelling tide.
This new army is no longer even minimally restrained by concerns about the army's "moral" image or threats of international war crimes investigations. It cares little what the world thinks, much like the new breed of politicians who have thrown their support behind Azaria.
The soldier's trial, far from proof of the rule of law, was the last gasp of a dying order. His sentence, due in the next few days, is likely to be lenient to appease the public. If the conviction is nullified by a pardon, the settlers' victory will be complete.
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