It’s a couple of weeks since the video of the soldier in Hebron was breathlessly rushed out by the people at the anti-Israel NGO B’Tselem.
I kept mostly silent, Dave posted a pretty good “wait and see” post and I stayed behind that. Further to that, Israellycool published an excellent exploration of what the IDF’s rules of engagement actually are which further informed me greatly.
Now I’ve read the following “I Wrote the IDF Code of Ethics. Here’s My Take on the Hebron Shooting.” by Asa Kasher in The Forward and this paragraph jumped out at me.
First, most of the Israeli public became aware of the Hebron incident by watching a video produced by a Palestinian photographer working with the radical left organization B’Tselem. This immediately created a wrong impression: that the soldier had been condemned by the IDF chief of staff and the minister of defense solely on the grounds of a piece of radical left propaganda. The mistaken idea that an NGO that has often cooperated with enemies of Israel in international campaigns against the IDF could play a role in forming the views of the head of the IDF and minister of defense enraged many Israelis, not just those on the extreme right. The political tensions within Israeli society are strong and significant, but their manifestation often rests on mistakes and misunderstandings, coming out noisy and crude.
This is the key part. The army knew there was a big problem with the soldier’s actions BEFORE B’tselem stepped in. They were dealing with it and will deal with it properly of that I have little doubt. Once again a foreign funded NGO with no legitimacy in Israel is causing massive divisions in Israeli society.
The relentless Jihad and terrorists put a massive strain on our society. Foreign agents within, trying to destroy us, are pernicious and malicious. B’Tselem claim they’re for helping the Palestinians. How does this help Palestinians? Perhaps you say the next time there’s a terrorist attack the attacker might manage to injure or kill more Jews. Is that good for the Palestinians? They seem to think so.
The terrorist, the one who had already taken a knife and attacked soldiers, is still dead and will remain dead. The punishment of one IDF soldier won’t change that. It also won’t stop another Palestinian picking up a knife and running headfirst into our bullets again, in fact it might embolden another one. I ask again, how did B’Tselem improve anything for their Palestinians?
B’Tselem are for the destruction of Israel: they’re not pro-Palestinian except in the sense that the Palestinian cause only exists as a vehicle for Jihad to destroy the Jewish state. B’Tselem are cheering over the discord and rancour they’ve created in Israeli society. B’Tselem are just another wheel on that Jihadi vehicle.
