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Source: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/110/focus/Fighting_by_the_book+.shtml
The Ethical Code of the Israeli Army
(Boston Globe) - David B. Green The IDF, unlike the U.S. military, is guided by a single, overarching ethical code - one that existed orally for most of the army's history, but which was formalized and set to paper in the mid-1990s, and rewritten in concise, 10-point form two years ago. Though simple in language, ''The Spirit of the IDF'' borrows from a multiplicity of sources - IDF tradition, Israeli and Jewish law, and international conventions - all drawn together with the assistance of some of the country's leading moral philosophers. At the heart of the IDF code is the concept of ''purity of arms,'' which requires that soldiers be willing to put their own lives at stake to avoid harming noncombatants and that they respond to all attacks and threats with proportional force.