I’m not happy about the conviction for manslaughter of Elor Azaria but I am not surprised. Elor was accused of killing a terrorist who’d carried out a stabbing against another soldier in Hebron. The terrorist had been shot, was lying on the ground and Elor Azaria had then shot him in the head. This became a huge, international incident because anti-Israel NGO B’Tselem very quickly released a video of the incident.
I’ve barely said anything about the case because, very early on, I didn’t like something I saw in the videos. He arrived late on the scene: I worked that out by combining the first two videos in the public domain. When he arrived he was sauntering, not running with purpose. He cocked his weapon while it was pointing at the sky: this is a Hollywood movie move. It is not what trained counter terrorism officers do when there is an imminent threat.
Then he carried on walking (not running) till he had a clear shot past other soldiers who were standing closer than he was and between him and the terrorist. It’s also clear from the time taken to remove the wounded soldier, the terrorist had been lying for some time. By the time Elor shot, the ambulance had left. If the terrorist had a suicide vest he would have detonated. That always looked like a failure of local command to me, but that’s not what this trial was about.
What should happen is a worldwide acknowledgment that the IDF is the most moral army in the world and that it deals with transgressions with the seriousness they deserve.
What will happen is that the Jew hating world will judge Elor Azaria as the representative of all Israelis and even all Jews and will judge all Judaism by his actions.
That is the double standard the world applies to Israel and the Jews and that is the global Jew hatred against which the only safety net we Jews have is to live in our own indigenous lands as free people directing our own affairs.
