But since everyone has to serve in the IDF, lots of shitty people are also veterans of the IDF.

I understand where you’re coming from, but I think this ignores the fact that Israel’s dehumanization and brutalization of Palestinians is a systematic one. It’s not just that there are good and bad humans in the IDF as much as it is that negative behavior is encouraged, often unpunished, and rewarded even, whereas positive behavior is disparaged. This has been the case for a long time where soldiers who would try to stop or hold their peers accountable for murders, tortures, and rapes were often turned into pariahs and be given death threats and the like.

With that said, I do wholeheartedly agree with everything else that you have said. You raise some really good questions.