The Perils of Israel’s ‘Follow Me!’ Ethos by Mitch Ginsburg, Times of Israel
… All but one of the commanders were killed. And thus, perhaps, was born the Israeli ethos of commanders leading from the front – a practice that has received renewed attention during Operation Protective Edge, in which, the army weekly magazine Bamachaneh revealed, a full 44 percent of the 64 dead soldiers were killed while in command positions. Additionally, the magazine reported, one out of every five battalion and brigade commanders fighting on the ground in Gaza was wounded during the 18 days of Operation Protective Edge’s ground phase…
These figures are not unusual, said Maj. Uzi Ben-Shalom, the head of research for the Concept, Doctrine and Training Department of the IDF’s Ground Forces Command…