Extremism and the IDF

While the world focuses on the vulnerability of a nuclear state to religious extremism in Pakistan, Haaretz today reports that members of an IDF battalion are publicly threatening not to remove settlers if ordered to do so, noting that

[a] number of Israel Defense Forces from the Nachshon Battalion on Monday hung a sign at their basis proclaiming that their unit would refuse to evacuate Israelis from West Bank settlements.

The move comes nearly a month after soldiers from the Shimshon Battalion waved banners with the same message during their graduation ceremony in Jerusalem. Two soldiers were expelled from their brigade and given 20 days in military prison following that incident.

Given that this is essentially mutinous behavior, it deserves to be taken extremely seriously. No one is suggesting that the Netanyahu government will not immediately curb such behavior. But as the influence of religious extremism grows within the IDF, there should be concern the the military of the regions only superpower harbors such extreme views.