Defense Ministry employee dances on grave of IDF hero
Some of you may remember the story of Roi Klein HY"D (May God Avenge his blood), pictured here with his wife and children, who threw himself on a grenade at Bint Jbeil, Lebanon during the Second Lebanon War, thereby saving many other IDF soldiers.
I have no idea what precipitated the story below, but it is beyond disgusting and the Defense Ministry employee who did it ought to be dismissed.
Moshe Ben Zaken, an employee working in the office of Defense
Minister Moshe Yaalon, publicized (last week) an unusual post, in which
he slammed the conduct of heroic IDF soldier Roi Klein, who saved the
lives of his soldiers during the Second Lebanon War, when he lay over a
grenade during battle and was killed.
According to Ben Zaken, Klein jumped on the grenade, not out of bravery, but rather in order to cover up an operational error.
In an earlier post, I showed a video of the mother of Amr Abu Aysha, one of the two terrorists behind the kidnapping and murder of Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar. Aysha's mother, who is not the 'lady' in the picture above (she is the since deceased Umm Nidal, known as the 'mother from hell' during her lifetime), denied that her son was involved, but said that she'd be proud of him if she was. Bret Stephens asks what kind of society produces such mothers?
Here's my question: What kind of society
produces such mothers? Whence the women who cheer on their boys to blow
themselves up or murder the children of their neighbors?
Well-intentioned
Western liberals may prefer not to ask, because at least some of the
conceivable answers may upset the comforting cliché that all human
beings can relate on some level, whatever the cultural differences. Or
they may accuse me of picking a few stray anecdotes and treating them as
dispositive, as if I'm the only Western journalist to encounter the
unsettling reality of a society sunk into a culture of hate. Or they can
claim that I am ignoring the suffering of Palestinian women whose
innocent children have died at Israeli hands.
But
I'm not ignoring that suffering. To kill innocent people deliberately
is odious, to kill them accidentally or "collaterally" is, at a minimum,
tragic. I just have yet to meet the Israeli mother who wants to raise
her boys to become kidnappers and murderers—and who isn't afraid of
saying as much to visiting journalists.
You've also yet to meet the first Israeli mother who is happy when her son dies in battle, even when there is reason to be proud of the circumstances of his death. For example, while there was a lot of pride in what Roi Klein did during the Second Lebanon War, I don't recall hearing from anyone in Israel - family member or otherwise - who was happy about it. Read the whole thing.
The second part of Gilad Shalit's story is as incredible as the first. In essence, he invited himself to be kidnapped.
The use of the hand grenades that were thrown into Gilad Schalit's tank
casts doubt on the view that the main goal of the attack was to kidnap a
soldier. If the militants had wanted to kidnap a soldier, it is
unlikely that they would have thrown a grenade into the tank. They
wanted to kill, to cause as much damage as possible and then get away
quickly.
Somehow, Schalit survived the grenade blasts and exited the tank. As he
left the tank, he saw the terrorist climbing the front of the tank which
on the Merkava is referred to as "the knife."
In order to climb,
the terrorist needed to use both hands, which meant that his personal
weapon - a Kalashnikov - was strapped across his back. At this point, he
was in close range, making him an easy target. Schalit, who was sitting
on the dome of the tank, where the tank commander has a view of the
surrounding area, saw the militant climbing toward him but could not see
the second militant on the other side of the tank.
The militant
had still not seen Schalit, and Schalit could have easily moved his
hand 10 cm to take control of the .50 caliber tank machine gun and shoot
him, cutting him to pieces in seconds. The .50 cal is not a weapon that
you would want to have fired at you - its firing speed is lethal, and
squeezing the trigger is quick and easy. But that is not what Schalit
did; in fact, he did nothing. It is plausible to assume that if the
machine gun had been fired, it would have killed the militant climbing
the tank and caused the second man to flee. Even if it had not occurred
that way, taking control of the machine gun would still have given
Schalit, who was inside the tank with three guns and the main tank
cannon at his disposal, a marked advantage over his adversaries.
“You never thought to shoot the terrorist?” Schalit was asked during the investigation.
“No,” he answered, “I was completely confused. I did not think about anything. I was in shock.”
Seconds
later the terrorist noticed Schalit at the top of the tank and Schalit
shouted to him in Hebrew, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”
The
militant realized that Schalit was handing himself over, and leveled his
weapon at him. He then shouted at Schalit in Hebrew, “Come with me.”
Schalit climbed down from the tank, shaking wildly. The second militant
joined them, the two immediately understanding what a prize had fallen
in their laps: a live Israeli soldier who was not fighting back. This
was the prize that Hamas had dreamed of for years, and now here it was
in front of them.
The three of them, Schalit and his two captors,
moved quickly to the Gaza fence. At 5:21 a.m., they blew a hole in the
fence and entered a small tunnel underneath. Schalit went with them
quickly the entire way, without attempting to slow them down to save
time until the second tank or other back up could arrive. He simply went
along with them and ran toward the fence.
One of the militants
crawled underneath and told Schalit to do the same, the latter complying
immediately. The militants told him to move more quickly and he rushed
to obey. Afterward, his bullet proof vest was found next to the fence;
it appears he took it off in order to move more freely.
After
passing under the fence, the three headed deep into the Gaza Strip, with
all possible haste. An IDF tank arrived at the scene and at an
observation post locked a fix on the three, but permission to fire was
not issued. It was still not known that a soldier was being kidnapped.
They were already more than a kilometer in Palestinian territory.
Finally the tank opened fire, but only with its machine guns.
They
did not receive permission to fire heavy weapons, and the machine guns
missed their target. Schalit and his captors reached the first line of
houses where a tractor was waiting for them. They boarded the tractor,
which took them to a car, which in turn took them to another car. On the
way, the terrorists stripped Schalit of his army uniform and dressed
him in civilian clothing. Schalit was firmly in their hands, and five
and a half years of captivity had begun.
I don't know how the IDF does psychological profiling to assign soldiers to units, but this one was clearly a major mistake. I thought these comments were on point.
Schalit is an introverted young man who is both emotional and fragile.
It is likely that he should not have been placed in a tank unit in the
first place. Perhaps he simply was not fit for it. When his tank was
hit, he went into shock and lost the ability to act. The term "hero",
which was given him by IDF Chief Benny Gantz when Schalit returned to
Israel, is misplaced. Brigadier General Avigdor Kahalani, a tank
commander in 1967 and 1973, was a hero. Major Roi Klein, who died in the
2006 Lebanon War by jumping on a grenade to save his comrades, was a
hero. Lieutenant Colonel Avi Lanir, tortured to death by Syrian soldiers
during the Yom Kippur War, was a hero. The history of Israel and the
IDF is checkered with many stories of bravery, and Gilad Schalit is far
from being among them. He is in a way a type of anti-hero. He was a
soldier who was placed in a difficult situation and chose a path of
submission. There is no heroism in this story. This story is one of
humanity that is both sad and touching.
It
is possible that Schalit was never fit to serve as a combat soldier.
Still maybe it is the very fact that he served in the tank unit and
fulfilled his duty to his country even so that is his badge of honor.
Yet after all of this, we cannot forget that there is a state to
protect, one that is surrounded by enemies. Israel cannot afford to
allow herself too many stories of "bravery" like this.
The story's author then goes on to say that there is no lesson from Shalit's story. I disagree. The lesson is that we have to make the IDF into a professional army that does what is humanly possible to protect the country, and stop trying to make it into the country's melting pot. The IDF spends too much time making sure that people pass their matriculation exams and trying to assimilate misfits into Israeli society. That ought not to be their job. It's time for the IDF to turn professional, at least in the combat units.
The good news is that the town of Eli is finally going to get a real zoning plan and is going to become completely legal. The bad news is that the homes of the families of IDF heroes Roi Klein HY"D (may God avenge his blood) and Eliraz Peretz HY"D may not be included because aerial photos from 40 years ago (!) show unidentified Arabs cultivating the land on which those homes are located.
Mayor Eliraz says that there is no justification for leaving these homes out of the authorization process. “Just because there are some aerial photos from 40 years ago indicating that the land [on which the six homes were built] was being worked is no reason to destroy the homes now. For one thing, no one is claiming ownership over the land! Secondly, when Eli was built, no one was working this land!”
These points were researched and brought to the court's attention by the legal advisor to the Samarian Regional Council, who pointed out that despite concerted efforts by left-wing groups to find claimants, no Arab has stepped forward to claim the land. This, he said, makes it highly likely that the cultivation 40 years ago was done by usurpers and not owners and should therefore be considered ownerless by default. Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch responded that any land in Judea and Samaria that was once cultivated, no matter how long ago and no matter if unclaimed, must be Arab by default.
ayor Eliraz brought out a third, more basic point - namely, that the homes need not be razed under any circumstances: "If someone ever comes forward and proves ownership, there are many acceptable ways of compensating him – with no need to destroy the homes. Can you imagine if someone would come with a photo showing that his grandfather’s grandfather worked the land on which the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv now stand – would they destroy the building? Of course not. They would simply pay fair compensation.”
Since no Arab has come forward to claim the land and demand that the homes be razed, the radical-left Peace Now organization has done so instead, bringing the matter to the Supreme Court. The court is to issue its ruling in the near future, in which it will weigh the State’s declaration of intent to legalize and authorize the homes and the entire town with Peace Now’s claim that the homes were built without authorization.
Is there any other country in the Western world where this sort of thing would not be covered by eminent domain? Absurd. Totally absurd.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
