October 28, 2011, 2:13 AM
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It was a normal Shabbat afternoon in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood. Children were outside visiting with their friends and playing in the empty streets. But the tranquility of the scene was destroyed in a moment, when a Palestinian terrorist crept up on 17- year-old Yehuda Ne'emad and his friend and began stabbing Ne'emad in the abdomen and shoulder.
Ne'emad's neighbor, a 12-year-old girl, told reporters that there but by the grace of God both she and her six-year-old brother would have also been attacked. After stabbing Ne'emad, the Palestinian terrorist began chasing the two children.
"It was only due to God's help that I was able to escape," she said. "I am sure that I couldn't have escaped alone, because he was much faster than me."
The IDF, which failed to prevent the attack, played no role in saving their lives. One week later, the terrorist was still at large.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the IDF would view Ne'emad's stabbing, along with the steep escalation of terror and sabotage from Ashdod to the Galilee to Gush Etzion over the past several days as a wake-up call. The time has come to ratchet up the IDF's counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria to end the current wave of terror before the Palestinians have the opportunity to get their killing machines back in gear.
But shockingly, it appears that defeating terrorists is at the bottom of the IDF's to-do list.
Statements emanating from the IDF's top echelons indicate its commanders are unaware that it is their job to fight and defeat terrorists.
Israel's release of hundreds of convicted Palestinian mass murderers in exchange for Gilad Schalit was a shot of adrenalin for Hamas and Fatah alike. Hamas views the swap as a vindication of its path of murder in the name of jihad. Fatah sees the swap as a challenge to its power that can be surmounted only by proving it can mount its own renewed terror assault against Israel.
Rather than meet this new challenge with an aggressive counterterror initiative, this week officers on the General Staff told Haaretz that Military Intelligence, the civil administration and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) believe the best way to respond to Hamas's ascendency is to release Fatah terrorists from jail and to give more land to Fatah's terror-aligned security forces in Judea and Samaria.
That is, those charged with fighting Hamas terrorists recommend empowering Fatah terrorists. And they do so at a time when Fatah's leadership refuses to have anything to do with the Israeli government and as Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is preparing for his summit with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Rather than recognize and confront the rising dangers from Hamas and Fatah alike, senior IDF commanders made statements this week indicating the army believes that its most important mission in Judea and Samaria today is to fight Jews.
This week, Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon completed his two-year stint as Judea and Samaria Division commander. At his farewell party held two days after the terror attack in Jerusalem, Alon described the central challenge facing the IDF in Judea and Samaria as evicting Israelis from their homes.
As he put it, "It's likely that the IDF will be required to carry out, together with the police and the civil administration, certain missions that are not within the national consensus, and do so in the face of a rising conflict with the extremist but expanding fringes of Israeli society."
During his time as division commander, Alon ordered troops to shoot at Israeli residents of outpost communities slated for destruction with rubber bullets if they tried to oppose forcible expulsion.
Alon went on to speak of the grave threat of "Jewish terrorists."
He said, "Already today there is an extremist minority, marginal in size but not in influence, that is liable to steeply escalate the acts commonly referred to as 'price tag,' but are actually terrorism. These acts must not only be condemned; their prevention, and the arrest of their perpetrators, must be undertaken more effectively than what we have managed to accomplish to date."
As far as Alon is concerned, "Jewish terrorists," pose a threat to Israel that is just as dangerous - if not more dangerous - than the threat posed by the real terrorists just freed from prison. And from OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi's supportive statements at Alon's farewell bash, it appears that Mizrachi agrees with him.
But how can this be? No "Jewish terrorists" have stabbed and murdered Palestinian children. No "Jewish terrorists" have sent missiles into Palestinian residential neighborhoods or strapped bombs on their chests to blow up Palestinian cafes and buses. What Jewish terrorism are they talking about?
True, earlier this month there was an arson attack at the mosque in Tuba Zanghariya in the Galilee. While the media was quick to blame it on unknown Jewish assailants, it is hard to see why they would be the obvious or even most likely culprits.
Residents of Tuba Zanghariya torched their own clinic and community center. They routinely steal and kill livestock belonging to Jewish farmers in neighboring communities and set fire to their fields.
Aside from that, the police arrested two Jewish suspects but were compelled to release them this week due to lack of evidence. The police arrested a third suspect this week but failed to convince a judge to remand him to custody for 10 days. The judge scolded the police for even asking, given that they had no evidence of guilt.
Why would Jews from Judea or Samaria go to all the way to the Galilee to attack a mosque anyway? There are plenty closer to home.
The truth is that the "price tag" attacks are not acts of terror. They are acts of hooliganism and warrant criminal punishment. But their Jewish perpetrators are not terrorists. They are petty hooligans.
The fact of the matter is that there is no Jewish terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria or anywhere else. And there never has been. This was reported this week by Amir Oren in Haaretz.
Among other things, Oren's article dealt with the 1994 Shamgar Commission formed in the aftermath of Baruch Goldstein's massacre of Arab worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Oren revealed that following the massacre, the Shin Bet recommended forming fake Jewish terror groups in order to provide an organizational framework for would-be Jewish terrorists that would enable the Shin Bet to find and arrest them. The commission adopted the recommendation in its final report.
Obviously, if there had been a Jewish terror infrastructure, the Shin Bet wouldn't have needed to build fake ones.
So what has motivated Alon to focus his attention on fighting a nonexistent Jewish terror threat? Throughout his two years in Judea and Samaria, Alon distinguished himself as one of the most politicized IDF commanders. He consistently overstepped his authority, contradicted government policies and advocated positions of the radical Left. For instance, in an interview this month with The New York Times, Alon indicated that unlike the government, he supports a full IDF withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and doesn't believe that a withdrawal would be dangerous for Israel.
In the same interview, Alon reprimanded Congress for threatening to cut off US funding to the Palestinian Authority's terror-aligned security forces, claiming that they are a stabilizing force in the region. It is hard to think of another example of an IDF officer telling Congress how to spend US taxpayer dollars.
But while Alon's political activism is more pronounced than that of his colleagues, he is far from the only commander who misunderstands the responsibilities of the military.
Take the IDF's behavior on September 25, the day Abbas was in New York to request Palestinian membership as a state at the UN. A few hours before Abbas's speech, 300 Palestinians from Kusra in Samaria attacked a platoon of soldiers from the Kfir Brigade commanded by Lt. Maor Asayag. When one of the soldiers reported that his life was threatened, Asayag ordered him to use live fire to protect himself. His soldier's life was saved and a 34-year-old Palestinian attacker was killed.
For his actions, last week, Asayag was removed from his command and barred from further service in combat forces by his battalion commander, Lt.-Col. Yoav Tzikrun. Shocked and angry at their commander's removal, Asayag's soldiers wrote a letter to Tzikrun defending Asayag's behavior as exemplary. They also raised concern that he was punished for political reasons and demanded that he be restored to his command.
For their efforts, the soldiers received a harsh reprimand from Tzikrun.
Asayag wasn't the only victim of the IDF's decision to put politics before duty during the UN General Assembly session. That day the police, Central Command and the IDF Spokesman's Office falsely reported that the terrorist murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan was a simple car accident. The two were killed by Palestinians who threw stones at the windshield of their car as they drove along the highway. It took two days and a court order to force the IDF to acknowledge that the father and baby had been murdered.
Not surprisingly, the politicization of senior IDF officers has demoralized junior officers and line soldiers. Soldiers and officers who for years risked their lives in operations aimed at capturing the same terrorists who were just released for Schalit feel betrayed by their commanders who supported the deal.
As one officer told Arutz 7, "It may not be so nice to say it, but we are asking what the point was in taking all those risks? These aren't some amateur Molotov cocktail-throwers or stone throwers. These are real killers. We know them and their release is frustrating."
In the aftermath of 2006's Second Lebanon War, the IDF's senior officer corps was subjected to well-deserved public attack for its poor performance during the war. Not only did senior commanders fail to produce and implement a plan to defeat Hezbollah, preferring instead to let the politicians put together a "political solution." They failed to lead their soldiers in battle, opting to stay behind in air-conditioned command posts watching the fighting on television screens.
Three division commanders and the OC Northern Command were removed from their posts for their normative and operational failures and then-chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz was eventually forced into early retirement.
It was widely believed that the public opprobrium forced the IDF's senior ranks to recognize that their duty is to defend the country, and to defeat the enemy, not to behave like politicians.
Unfortunately, the IDF's current behavior indicates that nothing has changed.
With the Muslim Brotherhood on the rise throughout the Arab world, and with Hamas coopting Fatah in Judea and Samaria, Israel needs the IDF to defend it. The current situation, where politicized commanders highlight nonexistent threats and punish committed officers for doing their jobs cannot be allowed to continue.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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It breaks the heart, boggles the mind, and tears at the soul.
Ever since the Lt. Oren Edri "affair" back in '94, I've been extremely wary, perhaps even cynical, about the (mis-)use of Israel's judicial and security aparatuses as political and career-advancing tools, often in ways that are deviously self-serving for those seeking status, influence, and wealth. I think this is what JFK meant by foolishly seeking power by "riding the back of the tiger."
Thanks again for saying what has to be said. I hope enough of us are listening.
re: Whither the IDF? Perhaps this article should have been entitled: Whither Caroline Glick?
Caroline, you were an officer in the IDF. You understand the reality facing Israel right now. In many articles you have described the insanity of Israeli policies. When will you step up and do something about it yourself? With God's help, you can do this!!!
Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry!
Padre Pio
Thomas K. Tomosky, Ph.D.
It is interesting how all of this downhill descent of Israel is happening under the quasi-right wing Netanyahu who has been given many
undeserved get out of jail free cards by his useful idiots who never hold him accountable for anything.
The false god of the political class is a dangerous wet noodle.
When IDF and Israeli government leadership becomes this perverted and attack the host cell instead of the Islamic cancer bleeding the nation dead at will then there is only one word to describe their actions and that word is evil.
This is the end result of secular Jewish rule which ignores God and has placed an evil foreign agenda (Road Map) above Him and who serve the lie above Him.
This ends bad for the godless,faithless,secular left and right of Israel as it always ends bad for the wicked who forget God and serve foreign gods.
"I overthrew some of you, As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning;
Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD.
“ Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
For behold, He who forms mountains, And creates the wind,
Who declares to man what his thought is,And makes the morning darkness,
Who treads the high places of the earth— The LORD God of hosts is His name."
Amos 4
I've been saying the same thing for years.
It's so painfully obvious yet most Israelis are so dumb they still have faith in the IDF.
Most of our institutions are crap - the police are worthless, our media is utter crap, our courts even worse. That the security establishment has turned to crap should surprise no one.
And just who is supposed to reform the IDF? Ehud Barak?
Here in the US, we have noticed a very similar situation within the general officer corp. This is regrettable because it does mean that it will eventually affect the entire force, and that means the destruction of the viability of the force and therefor, the nation. It certainly makes it easy for any enemy to act with impunity and repeatedly. Of course intelligence gathering and assessment will also suffer but that is the intension of those who succeeded in appointing these Political" officers in the first place.
It would appear that this is not a local situation nor does any phenomenon exist. This is obviously the implementation of a plan and it is not locally based. If we ask "why" these things are, then we will have the answer as to who, what, when, where, and how. But we already know that, so what's the point?
Bravo Caroline for finally bringing the IDF leaders to task for their disgraceful and yes, criminal actions against their fellow Jews. Is it any wonder that so many young Israelis today are reluctant to serve? Putting ones life constantly on the line is frightening enough, but knowing there will be no support from their superiors erodes their own sense of honor. It is time for a shake up in the IDF ranks. With increased violence on all sides Israel must once again regain their confidence in their military in order to survive. Shabbat shalom and G-d bless.
Prescient as usual.
"The current situation, where politicized commanders highlight nonexistent threats and punish committed officers for doing their jobs cannot be allowed to continue." Not allowed by whom? By the equally - if not more - politicised media, academia, or the High Court?
Shall we take our pick?
The IDF and Shin Bet high command are dominated by leftists chosen not for their ability to protect the country but for political reliability and to advance the enemy's interests. They have more than fulfilled those expectations. Those are not the kind of men for whom average Israelis want to give their lives. The rot in Israel's security services is complete.
this is not the only sinister thing that has been going in the IDF, what about the death of Emanuel Moreno in Lebanon? some believe it was a setup, because of his religious background, unfortunately the current IDF "leadership" is rife with leftists..please continue to expose them..
In a democracy, the military ought to be responsible to representatives in government. Inevitably, there is a certain amount of politicization of the military. But why should politicization of the military compromise national security? You would hope that representatives in government concern themselves with national security, else who, or what, could they be representing?
So who is it in government that is standing in the way of common sense national defense? And what does this represent? It represents the ghettoization of Israel. These elected officials in government represent a public and interests who do not see Israel as a state, but rather as a self governing, self policing Jewish quarter, existing with the permission of its neighbors and the "international community". When the IDF is punished for doing its job, it is because they have used lethal force to defend themselves without the permission of the "international community". And, as a Jewish quarter, they are not going to expect encouragement, just permission.
If the IDF wants encouragement, then they can easily get it hunting down Jewish terrorist, if they exist. And if they don't exist, the "international community" is going to have no objections if they invent them. This certainly falls in line with popular libels against Israel and if the IDF wants to act out the fantasy of Jewish terrorism, then in the eyes of the "international community", they are good Jews, worthy of encouragement and moral support. They can get the latest military hardware too, but only if they don't use it without the permission of the "international community". If they do, they cease to be good Jews and become war criminals instead. We are already seeing advances in fleshing out this fantasy too.
The IDF and the people of Israel have to got to realize there is no such thing as good Jews in the eyes of the "international community". And the high moral standards of Israel and armed Jews are one and the same as the valor it exhibits in human history in the defense of itself as a nation, a people and a body of belief.
Forming fake Jewish terror groups in order to provide an organizational framework for would-be Jewish terrorists that would enable the Shin Bet to find and arrest them has been an unmitigated disaster.
The most public example of this product of a warped mind has been the "organization" of Avishai Raviv that included Yigal Amir.
I remember well how the mainstream media fed us then day and night stories of this company "heroic" deeds.
I remember also the demonstration in Zion Plazza with the coffin and SS uniform on Yitzhak Rabin.
Nobody could then understand how this could happen.
But this was not freedom of speech. It was the product of warped leftist mind who mounted this provocation in the best tradition of Stalin.
The SHABAK leadership deserted its duty to protect the state and perverted into an enterprise to subvert democracy. They were blinded by their own lights and let Yigal Amir carry away the assassination.
Unfortunately, the history is returning.
How come that the "Price tag" continues unabashed?
How comes that of the authors of the multiple arson in Touba-Zangaryia have been arrested?
Can it be that this happens because these acts serve the purposes of Shalom Achshav & Co.?
Is Israel trying to commit suicide? If your reporting is correct then I don't see that Israel has a future. It's hard to say this but all the major economic, political, military and social trends are negative for the West which I now think is a lost cause, but I had thought Israel would be unbending and remain steadfast. Israel was the last part of the West that I thought would resist the tide. But if the self hating and self destructive inclinations of the West have come to domimate in Israel as well then the West is truly coming to its end. I see nothing on the horizon to turn this around. The West is on its death march.
What in the world gives?? Although why should Israel be immune from the Leftist virus that has infected the US and West and threatens the continued health of those free and representative societies? Alon DOESN'T BELIEVE that a withdrawal from Judea Samaria would be dangerous? What was this jerk the head of again? I'd have put him in command of the Tel Aviv sanitary facility. Is he for real? Is his Leftist brain so addled as not to recognize what happened when Sharon, the great Rommel of the Sinai, gave back Gaza, like an idiot, and now lies in a protected coma while Jews live daily in fear and suffer from terror. I'd bet on the settlers and religious Zionists before I'd put any faith in the Leftist 5th column now embedded in Israeli society and legal and military establishments. The arabs are fixing to liquidate Israel and all the IDF can worry about are the religious Jews? You MORONS!
God help us but Jeremiah's prophecies will visit the Jews again.
Perhaps Israelis should peacefully revolt. In any case, the abject failure of The IDF to protect Israelis can not be tolerated. Where is the outrage?
It seems when something goes wrong on the battlefield, political leftism does not save lives. Retirement and after-the-fact changes are just that. 2006 was noticed for its weakness--not the strong Isreal of the past. Weak leadership leads to like appointments that everyone pays for years after weak leaders are replaced. Idealism in the face of those who want your demise sounds nice, but does not keep you alive. "Far right" better describes the location on the front lines--excuse them if they want to live. You want to keep the land, you should settle it. It is not a football--otherwise, why are you there?
Alon and Tzikrun should be brought up on charges of treason. And so should those who brokered the deal that resulted in so many with Jewish blood on their hands to be freed.
It is demoralizing to face the incompetence of JINO's (Jews In Name Only). The enemy relies on these JINO's to turn a blind eye to reality, to swallow the land for peace nonsense, and to quietly bleed as they are murdered...all so as not to incite. Maybe to boogie men will go away if we just ignore them? How insane can one be?
Investigate the finances of Alon and Tzikrun. Are they being bought? It is not the first time one would betray their brother. Remember Cain? How about Joseph?
My stomach churns at such a betrayal.
Dear Caroline,
As usual a great article, I'm sorry that Israel is following the United States lead in deterrents to protect their citizens. The left, political correctness, and liberal ideas, have destroyed every country their listen to. I thought the leadership of Israel, after many of them have fought in the many wars, would know better. One solution might be for the soldiers to turn their guns on the air-condition tents of the leadership, and blow them away. Then turn their guns on the enemy and stop them, or make them pay a price for killing Jews. Then when questioned about destroying the leadership, just say were so used to protecting terrorist, we thought you might hurt them, so we stopped you. I know I'm talking foolish, but some day Israel's going to be hit hard, and major loss of life, will be the result of being hesitant to fight back for fear of the political correct crowd. When Israel prepared for war in the Old Testament, the call was for all the fearful and fainthearted to go home, lest they cause damage to their brethren in the fight. Wouldn't it be great if the generals and politicians, would just step aside and let someone take their place,that would protect and seek the welfare of Israel. It use to be done, and it worked, there is no shame of being afraid and going home. Next battle they probably had the courage to fight. God bless you Caroline
Ivan
For what it's worth, I happen to have a personal anecdote regarding Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi: His wife was my high school history teacher. I distinctly remember a comment she made at one time: The topic being discussed was the security fence (dubbed by some as a wall) along the border, and one of my fellow students said: "we are moral (musari'im)". The teacher's (Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi's wife) response? "No we're not.Don't fool yourself, we're not moral at all". Of course I don't remember the exact exchange, there was more to it obviously, but that's the gist of it. I'm quite certain she wasn't being sarcastic.
Think about what General Nitzan Alon said...the Palestinian Authority Security is a stabilizing influence in the area....if it wasn't such a stupid, ridiculous, and dangerous comment it would be halariously funny....Come on General face reality the Palestinian Authority Security are thugs and terrorists....
This is so depressing and enraging. I know not what to say. The world has gone mad. It is a difficult thing to witness. One feels so helpless in the face of it. And our voices seem so small against the backdrop of the rising tide of insanity.
The zionists are a minority in Israel, therefore there nothing to get surprised at the anti-zionist, immoral, feckless behaviour of the high rank of IDF,the politicians, the medias. the likud party is barely center-right, having left the zionist ethos into the dustbin in 1996 when Netanyahu signed the Wye Plantation retreat from Hebron. Since 1996 Likud or Labor nothing has changed , Israel is only using the backward gear, because the zionist parties are a minority, after the likud behaved like a transvestite.The only one option left to upset the ongoing slide of the zionism is to allow the israelis citizens living abroad to vote.They are much more patriotic than the likud and they will cast their ballot for Ihud Leumi or something close . Citizwens living abroad are allowed to vote either they are americans, britons, french, italians and it is the same right in every mature democracy. It is no simple coincidence that the anti-zionist parties :Labour-Shas -Meretz-UTJ-arabs,all oppose to the right of israelis living abroad to vote. Once Beilin asked on that subject said the same old lie : He would not accept citizen not fullfiling their military duties to send to war fellow israelis.It is very easy to unmask Beilin the serial lier , by answering that if such is the principle then arabs and orthodox should be prohibited to vote on the matter . Believe me Caroline there is a simple and demmocratic way to change hte anti-zionist slide and I have just pointed it out.
The only political tool to get rid of the leftist elite is to allow israelis living abroad to vote, then you will see a 500,000 out of 800,000 israelis casting their vote for thr truly patriotic parties. It is a well recognized right among mature democracies that americans, britons, french, italians etc.. are entitled to vote even if they reside abroad. Note that the serial lier Yossi Beilin , has always opposed the right of vote to israelis living abroad on the false ground that those israelis who are not serving militarily Israel could eventually send by their vote the local israelis into a war.It is very easy to unmask Beilin lousy argument and to impose the same vote limitation to all sectors of the israeli parliament whose constiutency do not serve ( Leftist, Arabs , Orthodox ) .The israelis living abroad are strongly patriotic and they want to keep a right to say into Israel ' affairs.It would be a big boost to the zionist camp to receive the stretched arm and support of Israelis living abroad
it's time to fold up the tent
Another answer to the futile lies of Beilin and co.concerning their doubt of the legitimate right of Israelis living abroad to vote into isaeli elections is to point that most of them fullfilled at some point their military duty.