Israeli Battle for True Democracy

 

A war of a different kind is brewing to come to a head in Israel. It will be billed as the valiant confrontation to save democracy. This is actually a very accurate summation but who is attempting to save democracy and who is simply vying for power over the future of Israel is to be determined. Another angle to decide this battle is one of political views, the old socialists attempt at a last-ditch effort to retain their stranglehold over all decisions of the realm against the Zionist and nationalist struggle to break that stranglehold and return the rule of law to all the people with the elected representatives deciding the nation’s fates. The rumors over the unfolding coalition agreements has made some strong inferences that included within is a rough sketch for judicial reform and an end to the Supreme Court’s ability to override any decision be they made by the Knesset or even military commanders during a conflict. Part and parcel of this conflict is the method by which justices are chosen. Let us start there.

 

Currently a committee is selected to choose new justices for the Supreme Court as well as the lower courts. This committee had an unassailable makeup giving the sitting Supreme Court Justices along with the Attorney General and a member of the Lawyers Guild sufficient votes to block any nominee of which they have political differences. This had continued the leftward leanings of the Supreme Court solidly entrenched. The next Knesset is set to complete the transformation begun under Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked during the past government. The new selection process being proposed would place the Knesset, the elected Israeli legislature, the power for approving judges plus there will be a twelve year term for judges such that the court will never again be stranded in the politics of two or more decades ago and always being refreshed with new judges chosen by the elected representatives. This will allow the courts to more represent the ideals and aspirations of the people and not become an elite which has fallen out of touch with the people and the government. They also are going to attempt to draft laws which will permit the Knesset to overrule any overturning of a law passed by the Knesset by the Supreme Court, something which has prevented advancement of Israel and galled many Knesset Ministers who sat helplessly being unable to get laws which the people demanded past Supreme Court vetoes. Things had reached a point a few years ago where the Supreme Court flexed their assumed control which was never enacted through legislation but was simply a usurpation of power by Chief Justice Aharon Barak, who postulated that all things are adjudicable. Through this expansion of judicial power, the Supreme Court intervened in any area they believed that their desires were not being met. This led to Israel living under a black robed form of tyranny which the justices, with the blessings of the Europeans who sided with these left-leaning justices, claiming that to limit their power or alter their monopoly on choosing their replacements was an attack on democracy. Accordingly, Israel was often beaten into submission when the United States joined the Europeans in their pressuring of Israel to simply sit back and allow their betters to dictate their laws and lives. Now that battle is about to be waged for real.

 

Chief Justice Aharon Barak

 

Already we are hearing the screams that Israeli democracy is planning on being assailed and destroyed if the court’s powers are curtailed in any way and the method for choosing Justices has any modification from their beloved system. Where we are confused is how anybody can confuse allowing unelected Supreme Court Justices to override the elected government, counter orders given by military officers and generally dictate to every entity of the government what their marching orders are and stand over even the Prime Minister making the entire elected governance impotent under the overview of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is already smarting from the change made whereby they can no longer decide who gets to reside on lands which are contested without requiring a proof of the claims against the placement of Jewish homes; the court never found claims against Arabs to be founded, only Jews. This was removed from their dockets and placed in the lower courts ending the practice where a largely European funded NGO would come before the Supreme Court claiming their Arab client, who preferred not to appear out of fear of reprisals, once owned an area in which Jewish communities were built, and they often did not produce any deed of ownership and yet the court nearly always evicted the Jews destroying communities. Now with these cases in the lower courts a new procedure is in place whereby such claims will require the Arab making the claim to appear unless the court can be convinced such is impractical with reason, and the producing of a deed or bill of sale which will stand up to review before such decisions are reached. Further alterations allow the courts to order reparations rather than eviction, something the Supreme Court refused to consider as they appeared to have been operating under the concept that the Jews required being removed such that the Two State Solution could be enacted using the pre-Six Day War borders. The Supreme Court appeared loath to move beyond this idea and spent far too much energy in their crusade to make this happen. Now their screams of the death of democracy echo hollow as the people largely see this as the rescue of democracy from judicial tyranny.

 

The coalition will be formed within the ensuing few weeks and a new Knesset will be seated with very much the same breakdown as the last Knesset, sixty-five nationalist-Zionist-religious-economic capitalist or, as the media calls them, right-wing Ministers and fifty-five socialist-Arabist-two state solution supporting liberal or, as the media calls them, centrist or left-wing Ministers. Isn’t it simply amazing that almost anywhere one goes on this globe, those who are even slightly right of true center are called extreme-right-wing-fanatics, and we do not even want to know what they call true right-wing-fanatics, hint, their name is Nazis or fascists, and left of center is often referred to as centrist and far left are left-leaning. There really is only a true leftist in the more conservative news, the minority of the media, while the rest of the media are often far left and see old-style liberals as right-wing fanatics as they are not even left enough to be called centrist. As some have said, often with remorse, I did not leave the left-wing as a liberal, the left-wing left me and went places I do not care to visit. We will hear the caterwauling from the leftist media in Europe and the plethora of leftist politicians all echoing the same mantra that Israel is having the basis of democracy attacked by fascists in the government. We are confused as to how the elected government which can be changed by the people in any election are fascist while unelected Supreme Court Justices ruling by judicial fiat is democracy. If these definitions are correct, then perhaps I do support fascism as at least it comes with elections, but we all know deep down that those definitions are backwards. Even the Supreme Court Justices realize they are selling a bag of rotten to the core goods and stand against democracy. Anyway, who ever said Israel was a democracy? Israel is a Parliamentary Democracy under the rule of law as stated in the Basic Laws.

 

Now, if people would like a few suggestions for making some needed changes, well, who are we to disappoint. First thing is should they decide that the Knesset can overrule the Supreme Court veto, it should be by some form of super-majority, be that sixty-percent which is seventy-two Ministers, or two-thirds which is eighty Ministers or lastly three-fourths which is ninety Ministers. We would also prefer to see that any legislation require a super-majority for establishing a new Basic Law in place of a simply majority and an even higher bar for the repeal of any Basic Law. Another alteration would require that a quorum be required for any legislation to be voted upon thus making sneaking legislation through would become impossible, a tactic seldom utilized but even once would be too many times. And while we are at making modernizations, how about we make the letters of the law regarding electioneering, elections, term lengths, appointment of judges and Supreme Court Justices by defined methods, qualifications for offices, defining the threshold permanently instead of allowing it to be modified by the whims of each government, removal from office for impeachable and other crimes, and the other definitions required to set straight a framework around which the governing bodies are wrapped including a prescribed method for amending said constitution which would then be presented to the people for ratification. Lets make the Constitution an actual representation of a democracy by allowing the people to have the final say such that they can send the drafts back to the government with a note stating, try again, here are a few suggestions, and eventually the process will produce something we can all get used to and learn to live under. The world is screaming for democracy, how about we give them a real example and a real taste of what a modern democracy can produce and how well we know how to be a democratic country. Perhaps some of those crusted old-school Europeans will be able to learn something from the upstart nation which is over four-thousand years old and has seen all the forms of governance the world has ever produced and found that they all often lacked the protection for the weakest amongst us, and often those weaker ones were us Jews. The world oppressed the Jews for thousands of years and now they demand to tell us how to run our own nation which we finally are returning home after those two thousand years of torment and really have had more than enough of the world telling us what it is we can and cannot do and what we are permitted and how we must listen to them for what is right. We had a code for governance while these upstarts were still living in tribal villages and they want to tell us how to rule Israel. Well, we could simply use the Torah but that would really upset the world, so maybe that would not be such a bad idea, if only to hear the howls.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

A General View of the World

 

At the top of our concerns has to do with the Israeli Supreme Court, in particular the leftist Justices and the Justice Minister. These groups of Justices are thinking of invalidating the recent new Basic Law called the Nationality Law. In the past it has been considered beyond the scope of the Supreme Court to countermand any law passed as a Basic Law. These Justices had gotten used to acting in response to any leftist demands protesting laws passed by the Knesset and their having simply invalidating them from their position without having a case brought. This had become a dangerous situation as the Supreme Court had become a dictatorial force. The present Justice Minister had acted to bring such actions under control thus preventing the Supreme Court blocking legislation or even making laws from the bench and even at times countermanding orders given by officers in the IDF. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has thusfar prevented their doing so while under her watch. She had even stripped the Supreme Court from ordering demolitions of housing by restructuring the laws such that these were now to be decided in the lower courts where actual deeds of ownership would be required proving ownership of such lands rather than decrees coming without such proof as had become the case. No longer can a complaint be lodged without deed to prove ownership of lands as the Supreme Court had been doing in the past. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has warned these Supreme Court Justices not to act as they are considering or face severe consequences. Should they challenge her on this, they will soon understand that there is no fury like a women scorned. Hopefully, these justices will understand that the rules have changed and that they no longer rule Israel, the elected representatives of the people do. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has even altered the means by which new Supreme Court justices are chosen such that the court no longer basically can choose their own replacements. This has been a benefit for the people as their elected governance now rules and not a black robed group of unelected justices.

 

The supposed peace between Israel and Hamas has hit a snag, which may not be as bad as one might believe. Where the elected Hamas run government, elected being those chosen who Hamas picked to run, had agreed to the ceasefire but the military arm of Hamas has refused to honor any ceasefire choosing instead to try to destroy Israel through military means. The unfortunate result is the incendiary balloons and kites will continue to be launched into Israel setting more fires and potentially threatening homes and businesses. Many Israelis are reaching the point where they simply want Gaza erased from the earth and retaken complete cleared of its current inhabitants. The government refuses to bend to this will as they know that the United Nations, European Union, most European nations, the Arab and Muslim worlds and many others would be up in arms and demanding that Israel be brought before the International Court of Justice in the Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The excuse which the Prime Minister would give any media asking his reaction to such a move would likely be that we cannot anger the United States and President Trump. What many Israelis believe is that President Trump would likely not say anything and would be more likely to block any motions in the Security Council demanding Israel be prosecuted stating that Israel was simply removing a terrorist threat to the nation and her people. Still, the Israeli government will not be testing this theory and the Hamas threats from Gaza will unfortunately remain for the time being. Eventually, their threat will require the retaking of Gaza and recognizing and admitting that relinquishing control of Gaza was a serious mistake for which Israel has been punished enough.

 

Further news from the confrontations along the Gaza perimeter not only include more launching of incendiary devices but also Hamas terrorists engaging IDF soldiers shooting at them resulting in IDF responding fire. The Hamas position was targeted by an IDF tank and the position was eliminated killing the two Hamas terrorists who had engaged the IDF from an armored bunker. Armored bunkers are quite adequate to protect one from rifle fire but a tank round is something complete different. The resulting tank fire can be seen at the end of the video below which also shows the Hamas terrorists firing at the IDF position across the border. The moral is to not annoy people who have greater firepower than you are protected against. With any luck, this might convince the military wing of Hamas to agree to a ceasefire. The only real problem with reaching a ceasefire with Hamas is that they will break the agreement as soon as they have rearmed sufficiently to cause more damage and threat to life than their last round of violence. This is why they call any ceasefire a hudna, which in Islamic history is an agreement for ten years or until the Islamic forces have rearmed sufficiently to achieve their goals.

 

 

On a brighter note, Ruach HaShem Gordon from Shilo, Israel, won the male youth 14-15 category in 40kg at the 1/4 semi-final against a Sri Lankan opponent with a final score 30-28, although weighing less than 40kg and being shorter than his opponent. He will continue into the semifinals and we wish him good fortune, as this is Ruach’s second time at the Youth World Championship. Israelis often do very well in many of these martial arts competitions partially due to training in Krav Maga, an Israeli developed martial art used by the IDF, as it is a method for overwhelming an opponent reaching a quick and some claim brutal victory.

 

The Russian interference in the 2016 election continues to limp ahead with them now hinting that they are now considering looking into conspiracy of President Trump. There is a reason for why they have stated this change in direction. The level of proof for conspiracy is so far below the original charges of actual criminal acts to alter the results of the election. What appears to have come about is that the Mueller special council investigation is as they find less and less evidence of any wrong-doing or even collusion that they are continuing to move the goal posts closer and close such that they have lowered the bar about as low as is possible. The only question is when will the plug be pulled and what will happen when that day finally arrives. Nancy Pelosi and others have threatened to bring charges against President Trump for impeachment for obstruction of justice if he were to end the Mueller special council investigation. The already ridiculousness of the original charge for the Mueller investigation where he was charged to investigate the Trump campaign and anybody connected to the campaign for wrongdoing beginning with Russian collusion to alter the results of the election to any other criminal acts which can be uncovered. A simple description of these guidelines was that Mueller was to investigate until he found something with which he could charge President Trump no matter how far they had to go or how slight the criminal act or hint thereof.

 

The initial Iran sanctions have been passed which will make nations and companies have to choose whether they wish to do business with Iran or with the United States. The President of Iran, Rouhani, responded to the move claiming that he would be willing to meet with President Trump as requested without preconditions providing that the United States apologizes for all that they have done to damage Iran and pay compensations to Iran. What is it with these Middle East dictatorial regimes that they believe that no preconditions means that they do not need to give up anything but the United States and Israel must be required to surrender everything these countries demand and then they will discuss any further surrender which will be demanded by these nations. Actually, if one studies Islam they will immediately understand that it simply states that Allah has promised them that they will rule the world and as Muslims, they are superior to all others. Islam places Muslims above everybody else because anyone who is not a believer of Islam is a Dhimmi, which makes them a second-class people who must defer to any and all Muslims. As a Dhimmi, you have no right to be represented in any court case which is brought against them. Non-Muslims are subjected to Dhimmitude as how they will be treated. This is usually reserved for Jews and Christians as People of the Book while others have even less rights under Islam. Some within Islam have stated that the United States was founded upon an Islamic foundation rather than a Christian or Judeo-Christian foundation, thus the United States is actually an Islamic State.

 

On a completely different front, the gender wars continue in the Western World. The main concept behind this movement apparently is that the normative over 90% of the world must defer to the minority sexually different people who most would claim are confused about their gender. It was not that long ago that such people were listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as requiring mental health counselling and assistance. They would have been referred to psychologists for treatment rather than the normative population being forced to facilitate this small minority and whatever their proclivities demand. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was edited such that these disorders were removed from the list of disorders under extreme pressure from those who desire removing all sexual disorders or unlawful proclivities from their former classifications under the law and mental disorders and instead injected into normative society and demand they be made comfortable no matter how uncomfortable it may make the majority of people. One of the demands from these activists is that everybody be permitted to use whichever restroom which agrees with their emotional state and not necessarily their physical gender. They refer to these gender confused people of having the wrong gender as an accident of birth and their genes and these people should be permitted to use restrooms and even showers at the gym which agree with their mental state and not their gender which is merely an accident of physiology.

 

Future World will be Bright One Way or the Other

 

The world has so many ideas in the modern world which would have been considered a sign of mental disorders if people were to suggest these ideas be considered, let alone passed into law, back not all that long ago. Sometimes, as people somewhat advanced in age, but not overtly so, we look at a world we do not recognize with ideas being considered as normal today which were considered not to even be discussed in polite conversation back in the day, as we call it. As to where the world is going, we have a difficult enough time dealing with some of where the world has reached. We have realized that the speed with which changes are arriving has increased exponentially and will only accelerate from here. We see a future where things are going to change; our only worry is which direction this change will be. Will the age of Artificial Intelligence and robotics arrive before a new and probably decisively final World War where weapons potentially beyond our imaginations are used and the result to society and the world will be far beyond our reckoning. The future could reach heights where many of the current problems will finally be problems in the past worldwide and a world where computers are used to advance the human condition and robotics free people up to pursue their own directions and the people in the current third world will have resources providing food and clean water and a level of life which is unthinkable to them currently. There could be a future where want will be something of the past, resources will be made available for the conquest of space, and a completely new frontier will be opened for the human race. The other direction the world might take will pit the human race in a divisive war where almost the entirety of the world will end up choosing sides and survival will be the main goal of humanity. We pray every day for the best and fear for the worst and unfortunately, that is the limit of our power. The next decade will be decisive and perhaps we will have the opportunity to do another one of these articles and sum up the changes, or not.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Neutered IDF Lost Control of Soldier to Leftist Instigated Clash

 

There is a video which shows a confrontation that slowly but steadily escalates which is a certain sign that the entire confrontation was staged and carefully orchestrated to produce a desired end, the isolation of an IDF soldier and the apparent shaming of the soldier by depicting him as defenseless and helpless against any aggressions against the soldier. The entire video is shown below. The length of the video is a full nine minutes with the last four starting at the five minute mark displays the desired end result, a surrounded soldier being beaten by teenage girls and soon backed up by women. The soldier was attempting to subdue a rock thrower who has what may well be a broken arm in a sling which may have contributed to the soldier taking a less strident means for restraining the youth who resists making his being taken more difficult than it already was given the terrain. So, first the video and then more discussion on the probable other factors which many outside, and even inside, of Israeli territories are unaware of but the foreign instigators and Arab rock throwers and others are fully aware and take full advantage due to the dire situation.

 

 

 

 

The first thing which needs to be pointed out is this entire fiasco may have been committed and carefully orchestrated to result in a single IDF soldier attempting to arrest the youth with the cast on his arm. Watching the video carefully from the seven minutes-forty seconds through the seven minutes-fifty seconds introduced into the scene was an individual wearing a blue-grey T-shirt, baseball cap and with a large backpack strapped on his back. He enters the scene and is careful not to become too intrusive and involved in the events but who has taken the moment to challenge further the soldier who has apparently extricated himself. If not for the intervention of the second IDF soldier, this intervention might have engaged the first soldier sufficiently long enough to allow for the mob to reengage thus providing the camera person filming the entire event to get some more ‘choice’ video of the hapless and helpless weak IDF.

 

 

Leftist infiltrator with large backpack on back enters picture at top before coming down to attempt to prolong confrontation by forcing IDF soldier back to the ground but was prevented by second soldier in video

 

 

Instigator entering scene wearing backpack ready to interfere with soldier to prolong confrontation

 

 

Bilal Tamini credit person behind many similar such videos exalting Palestinians at the expense of Jew, especially IDF soldiers

 

 

The video depicts a soldier unable to cope with women and children, an IDF boy, not a man as he could not even perform his duties when assaulted by women, for even further propaganda and largely shot to shame the soldiers and depict the superiority of the Arabs. This briefly intervening person appears to be a Leftist instigator and coordinator likely from Europe and in the area to gather film such as they were able to shoot today. The video concluded with the name “Bilal Tamimi” emblazoned in red across the closing view. The name Bilal Tamimi appears to be connected with Palestinian videos largely depicting violent exchanges and edited to give the worst possible depiction of the IDF and the heroic Palestinians. Often the theme is the Palestinians as David against Goliath IDF forces and, at least true to the original story, David proves victorious. Unfortunately the reality is the Palestinian Arabs’ efforts have the support and backing of the vast majority of Arabs including the leaders of various Arab and Muslim nations. The Palestinian Arabs are the proxy being used in order to give the impression of the Israeli giant and brutal forces when should they ever succeed in using world pressures to force Israel back to her pre-1967 Six Day War borders, then the full Arab force of as many as five to ten nations will contribute forces, financing and other essentials for the next attempt to drive the Jews into the sea.

 

Analyzing the causality for the events depicted on the video is the long chain of command all the way back to the Israeli Supreme Court. Believe it or not, the Israeli Supreme Court took upon itself the task of reviewing and tweaking, they referred to it as humanizing, we would more refer to it as empowerment of the enemy through the handcuffing and forcing the IDF and other Israeli security forces by allowing deadly force in almost no circumstances and should such force ever be used, the soldier in question would be considered to have acted improperly and will face a command court of inquiry where the soldier will need not only to defend their actions but prove the absolute need for their ‘overt act of undue violence.’ Every time overt force is implemented, especially involving a weapon even if only as a threat, the offending soldier and potentially their commander will at the very least be forced to take additional training. This additional training does not give the soldier or their commander any new techniques or methods of engagement. No, this additional training is given by lawyers from the IDF who review the reasons against ever harming an Arab Palestinian or Western leftists who orchestrate and direct these confrontations as it is more important to deny these instigators with an act of violence than it is to avoid giving the effect of an emasculated IDF incapable of handling any opposition. The Rules of Engagement (ROE) are far more stringent than those placed on the troops of the United States, Britain or any of the other nations assisting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those ROEs were excessively stifling as it was. Our brief article from December 19, 2006, titled ROE, the Real Problem in Iraq gives an accounting of the ROE for United States and most allied forces in Iraq. It was the ROE which spelled the end of the career of Lt Colonel Allen West which we reported about in the second half beneath the video of ret. Lt. Colonel Allen West speaking on the issues of the day as he views them. The article written on July 31, 2015 was titled How to React When Your Societal World is Threatened. These references should grant a clearer insight into the problems which a poorly constructed and stifling set of ROE can and does place a soldier.

 

The additional problem with the ROE lies in the IDF, particularly those at the front lines where the dangers they face are real threats to health, body, limb and life, having their ROE inspected by non-military and non-combat panels. Requiring that the ROE have the approval of lawyers would be bad enough if those lawyers were also at least soldiers or possibly a panel of politicians comprised of Members of the Knesset, or the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, but definitely not the justices of the Supreme Court of Israel. The Israeli Supreme Court in question is largely leftist in their political views; reside in safe neighborhoods far from the realities in Judea and Samaria; and lastly we can be assured that no more than two or at most three ever served or were trained to fight in the front lines, particularly as these lines are today. One piece of information that may not have imparted the hard impact upon the judges is the potential for loss of life when soldiers suffer hard impact from stones thrown very often with accuracy and ill intent using slings or the size of the rocks which often are as large or larger than cinderblocks and boulders and the full threat such hold. Rock throwers are a very real threat to life and limb of the IDF soldiers yet they are not permitted to protect themselves from such attacks with lethal power themselves. They are pretty much left to depend on teargas grenades and other non-lethal and nearly completely ineffective methods. As was depicted in this video, the grenades are often retrieved by the sling throwers and launched right back at the IDF positions with great efficiency. The ineffective ROE has also been evidenced by recent reports where soldiers refused to take steps to terminate rock-throwers who were targeting passing vehicles as should they engage these rock-throwing terrorists they could very well find themselves set upon and in threat of breaking their ROE defending themselves. It is apparently wiser not to engage and appear impotent than to actually take steps to enforce the law and protect the citizens from potentially bodily harm on top of a damaged vehicle.

 

The first item which needs to be addressed would have to be what kind of support, if any, will the current government provide perhaps by simply holding a meeting between the Defense Minister, Prime Minister and a selection of others from varying sides on the issue and actually review the ROE and make changes where there are needs to do so. IDF commanders need to update their thinking as they are still using the ROE and definitions of threat which applied very nicely and politely to suicide murderers and catching them before they could effectively self-detonate. The IDF soldiers are no longer fighting that form of war and are now often attacked simply because unless the Arabs fire actual bullets or have already stabbed and potentially murdered an Israeli or a soldier can they use lethal force, and even then they are advised that hand-to-hand combat engagement is preferred. It is really easy to prefer the most dangerous and potentially life threatening manner of disarming a knife wielding Arab Palestinian than to shoot them in their legs and thus making their detention safer for the IDF personnel. This is not possible as the ROE are not written with the IDF soldier in mind but rather the protection from harm the ignoble Arab Palestinian which the Supreme Court appears to presser using their powers to rescue than they do IDF soldiers. That situation needs to be adjusted so that a soldier knows that his commanders all the way up to the Director General, Major General Dan Harel, Deputy Defense Minister, Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home), Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon (Likud), and finally Prime Minister, Benyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu are supportive of their professionalism and judgement. They trust that your use of deadly force is solely in those situations where absolutely necessary; instead of precisely the point at which your life is in imminent mortal danger, which proves too late more often than not.

 

 

Dan Harel Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) and finally Prime Minister Benyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu (Likud)

 

 

Israeli leadership have a wonderful, if not exactly preferable, set of values by which they attempt to make Israel the most civilized and righteous nation in all things and especially all appearances no matter how contrived to do the opposite by European and American leftists deployed to Israel with implicit instructions and trained in techniques for directing events in order to provide the most embarrassing or unprovoked physical threat or action which can be edited from the filming of a confrontation. One can usually bet that there are Western Leftists behind any confrontation being expertly filmed and often edited. This wonderful goal runs afoul of the practical but dangerous situations which soldiers often find themselves. The IDF is so stifled and literally forbidden from using force, not just lethal force but any force. They are required to passively hold their ground when under attack by rock-throwing Arabs. If these assaults happen to those writing the ROE, they would immediately rewrite the ROE to make whatever actions they decided on at the moment of threat as necessary, starting with the use of weapons many Knesset Ministers carry on their selves. Such a ROE would be quite enlightening, would it not?

 

The facts are that the current ROE lessens any readily available reason for an escalation. Nobody should desire events to return to the stone-throwing being backed by rifle carrying men ready to answer violence with violence. All too often the launching of teargas grenades would obstruct vision and the sound of a rifle-shot echoed a moment before everything went past crazy and into lethal insanity. Sometimes it was a perceived threat, a potential detected which would be utilized, a finger raised or placed near to the trigger, then bullets would be exchanged often for a mere ten seconds, ten seconds which took a week to pass in the combatant’s mind. The result was inevitable, the youth stuck between the two combatants shooting at ghostly wisps of the other side, targeting anything which moved. This resulted in the wounding or deaths of the rock-throwing teens and younger who were caught in the middle of a gunfight. The contributing factor would be the age of the average rock-throwing youth as many are merely teenagers under nineteen and many likely in their preteen years. On the other side, the age of the recruit in the IDF is eighteen and nineteen which are recent graduates from High School. There exists a sole redeeming quality of the current ROE, it prevents escalations. Still, the ROE needs to be altered if only to trust more completely those we train and then hand them a weapon and tell them to almost never fire the weapon no matter the provocation. There actually is a deterrent force which is the paperwork which becomes necessary to describe in detail any shooting so a board can review the situation as perceived by the people present. The most common explanation given despite each bearing its own specifics would still be sufficient for reference for review. In a normal world, or should we claim a more perfect world, these children would still be hanging out together but would instead of playing this potentially deadly game would be playing soccer or hiking and what-not. It is a crime that they end up at each other’s throats. That is the saddest of realities as is each death on both sides. That is the sole damning quality of the current ROE. Still, the ROE needs to be altered if only to trust more completely those we train and, not as is the current policy, handing them a weapon and tell them to almost never fire the weapon no matter the provocation.

 

Beyond the Cusp