Why hasn’t the IDF, one of the most sophisticated and advanced militaries in the world learned a damned thing since the first intifada?

Ha’aretz

Look at this picture of an IDF soldier holding a Palestinian boy in a headlock. If you hadn’t been paying attention to the news over the last three days, would you have known it was taken recently? Of course, if you know a bit about military hardware or the changing fashions of IDF combat fatigues, you could tell by the fact the soldier was carrying a Tavor Tar-21 and by the stitching of his uniform that it had taken place in recent years, but aside from these minor clues, there is nothing to indicate that the picture wasn’t taken at any point over last 28 years, since the first intifada broke out in 1987. (There was stone-throwing in the West Bank of course before, but that uprising saw the average age of the stone-throwers go down into the early teens.)

Which raises the question: Why hasn’t one of the most sophisticated and advanced militaries in the world learned a damn thing in all this time? Let’s set aside for a few paragraphs the question of whether Israeli forces should be in the West Bank, the competing claims between the Nabi Saleh villagers and the neighboring settlement over the local spring, around which the weekly protests take place, and even stop asking for a moment which side’s leaders are more at fault for the lack of a viable solution. Let’s just ask why that picture is so unsurprising.

Shouting for help

Look at it again. Only one part of the soldier’s body radiates confidence. His right hand is holding on to the assault rifle, correctly pointing it towards the ground, and even though you can’t see it, you absolutely know all his fingers are around the handle, outside the trigger-guard. He’s a pro rifleman. All the rest of his body is shouting for help. He’s overpowered a child half of his size, who may or may not have been correctly identified as throwing stones, but the soldier doesn’t know what to do next. He’s been intensively trained by a crack infantry battalion to go after Hezbollah fighters in the Lebanese underbrush, but nothing in the few days he spent mastering the use tear gas and stun grenades before this deployment could have possibly prepared him for what he’s doing now.

And that’s before the mother and sisters of the boy start jumping on him and biting his hand. Unlike him, they’ve been in this situation dozens of times in recent years. They know he’s going to keep on using his strong arm to cling to the useless rifle, the other one to cling inexpertly to the wriggling child, while trying to keep balance on the rocky slope. Deployment after deployment, year after year, decade after decade, some of the IDF’s most accomplished combat units are sent to places like Nabi Saleh, Na’alin and Bil’in, where these dramas have played out with depressing regularity every Friday at noon, and insisted that they’re soldiers doing a soldier’s job, not glorified riot police. It’s no longer a tactical mistake, it’s a national headlock in which an entire army, and behind it a nation, remains in a state of denial that there are military solutions to the conflict.

Military ethos demands that a soldier never put down his sidearm while out in the field. But what happens when a soldier is in a position where he won’t possibly use his rifle? Sure, you can make an argument that a gunman or sniper will use the opportunity to open fire on the soldiers, but the sensible precaution against this is to position a second force well outside the perimeter of the rioting. Those who are tussling with civilians will find it very difficult to return fire anyway. But tactical common sense goes out the window when we’re in a national headlock.

Right-wing apologists of course have been quick to brand this as another “Pallywood” production and pointed out that the Palestinian family are known “troublemakers” who routinely stage such scenes. Let’s go along with their argument just for a couple of sentences. Whatever you think of the Palestinian national struggle, you don’t get to choose the other side’s weapons. The people of Nabi Saleh, with the help of foreign volunteers, put on the weekly show for the media because it’s compelling, it works. Anyway, if the only issue here was one of appearances, then why is the IDF providing extras every week for the show? There are much more effective ways of handling these situations which don’t necessitate such scenes. For a start, using properly-equipped police instead of soldiers who should stay on the perimeter.

Morally bankrupt

But it’s a morally bankrupt argument anyway and we shouldn’t indulge these stooges. No amount of PR and media management will make the occupation of another nation look good, regardless of whether you think this is all their fault and it’s not an occupation because, as Naftali Bennett says, a nation cannot be an occupier in its own land. If we’re not occupying territory, then we sure as hell are occupying another people, and at the end of the day Israel is doing a bad job of it because deep down the majority of Israelis know it’s wrong. They just haven’t found a way to get out of the headlock which makes them hope that we can just continue chucking the IDF at the problem and somehow, one day, it will go away.

Actually, looking again at the picture, there is one other detail which you wouldn’t have seen a few years ago. The soldier is trying to conceal his identity behind a badly constructed mask. Until very recently, you almost never saw servicemen in the West Bank covering their faces while trying to suppress riots. This isn’t for fear of being hauled in front of an international court – those tribunals never indict anyone beneath the level of senior commander. And while the soldier belongs to an elite battalion, it isn’t a special forces unit that needs to preserve its members anonymity.

Taking their toll

The mask is proof that the Palestinian stage managing, the dozens of cameras and the results immediately uploaded to YouTube, and in cases like this also broadcast in the media, are taking their toll. Whatever these men and their immediate commanders are telling themselves, the true underlying reason more soldiers are covering their faces is shame. They know our politicians have put them in an impossible situation where they can never win. No decent person, no matter his politics, wants to go home for Shabbat and see himself online manhandling children and women. Today’s young soldiers are by now a third generation enforcing an occupation that is eating away at our army and our society. Perhaps their shame will one day motivate them to demand real solutions from the politicians.

0 thoughts on “A Picture of a Headlock That's Worth a Thousand Words”
  1. DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?
    ALL NON JEWS ARE ANIMALS & JEWS HAVE BEEN KILLING “ANIMALS” FOR 3000 YEARS
    GOYOPHOBIA:
    THE HATRED OF GOYIM/GENTILES BY JEWS
    ALL NON JEWS ARE ANIMALS:
    GENTILES IN HALACHA
    Foreword — Daat Emet
    For a long time we have been considering the necessity of informing our readers about Halacha’s real attitude towards non-Jews. Many untrue things are publicized on this issue and the facts should be made clear. But recently, we were presented with a diligently written article on the subject, authored by a scholar from the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva — so our job was done by others (though we have already discussed some aspects of this issue in the weekly portions of Balak and Matot). Since there is almost no disagreement between us and the author of the article on this issue, we have chosen to bring the article “Jews Are Called ‘Men'” by R’ David Bar-Chayim (in Hebrew) so that the reader will be able to study and understand the attitude of the Halacha towards non-Jews.
    In this article R’ Bar-Chayim discusses the attitude towards “Gentiles” in the Torah and in the Halacha and comes to an unambiguous conclusion:
    “The Torah of Israel makes a clear distinction between a Jew, who is defined as ‘man,’ and a Gentile.”
    That is to say, any notion of equality between human beings is irrelevant to the Halacha. R’ Bar-Chayim’s work is comprehensive, written with intellectual honesty, and deals with almost all the aspects of Halachic treatment of non-Jews. It also refutes the statements of those rabbis who speak out of wishful thinking and, influenced by concepts of modern society, claim that Judaism does not discriminate against people on religious grounds. R’ Bar-Chayim shows that all these people base their constructs NOT on the Torah but solely on the inclinations of their own hearts. He also shows that there are even rabbis who intentionally distort the Halachic attitude to Gentiles, misleading both themselves and the general public.
    For the English readers’ convenience we will briefly mention the topics dealt with in R’ Bar-Chayim’s article:
    Laws in regard to murder, which clearly state that there is Halachic difference between murder of a Jew and of a Gentile (the latter is considered a far less severe crime).
    A ban on desecrating the Sabbath to save the life of a Gentile.
    A Jew’s exemption from liability if his property (e. g. ox) causes damage to a Gentile’s property. But if a Gentile’s property causes damage to a Jew’s property, the Gentile is liable.
    The question of whether robbery of a Gentile is forbidden by the Torah’s law or only by a Rabbinic decree.
    A ban on returning a lost item to a Gentile if the reason for returning it is one’s sympathy towards the Gentile and compassion for him.
    The sum which a Gentile overpays in a business transaction due to his own error is forfeit; whether a Jew is permitted to intentionally deceive a Gentile is also discussed.
    One who kidnaps a Jew is liable to death, but one who kidnaps a Gentile is exempt.
    A Jew who hurts or injures a Gentile is not liable for compensation of damage, but a Gentile who hurts a Jew is liable to death.
    One who overcharges a Gentile ought not return him the sum that the Gentile overpaid.
    A Gentile — or even a convert to Judaism — may not be appointed king or public official of any sort (e. g. a cabinet minister).
    One who defames a female proselyte (claiming that she was not virgin at the time of her marriage) is liable to neither lashes nor fine.
    The prohibition to hate applies only to Jews; one may hate a Gentile.
    One may take revenge against or bear a grudge towards Gentiles; likewise, the commandment “love your neighbour” applies only to Jews, not to Gentiles.
    One who sees Gentile graveyards should curse: “Your mother shall be greatly ashamed…”
    Gentiles are likened to animals.
    If an ox damaged a Gentile maidservant, it should be considered as though the ox damaged a she-ass.
    The dead body of a Gentile does not bear ritual impurity, nor does a Gentile who touches the dead body of a Jew become impure — he is considered like an animal who touched a dead body.
    One is forbidden to pour anointing oil on a Jew, but there is no ban on pouring that oil on a Gentile because Gentiles are likened to animals.
    An animal slaughtered by a Gentile is forbidden, even if the ritual slaughter performed was technically correct, because Gentiles are deemed like animals. (Daat Emet does not agree that this is the Halachic reason for invalidating a Gentile’s ritual slaughter — but this is not the place to delve into the subject).
    Their members are like those of asses” — Gentiles are likened to animals.
    Between the Jews and the Gentiles — In the Aggadah, the Kabbalah, and in Jewish Thought
    R’ Bar-Chayim’s arguments and conclusions are clear, Halachically accurate, and supported by almost all the existent major Halachic works. It would be superfluous to say that R’ Bar-Chayim fully embraces this racist Halachic outlook as the word of the Living G-d, as he himself pointed out in the “Conclusion” of his article:
    “It is clear to every Jew who accepts the Torah as G-d’s word from Sinai, obligatory and valid for all generations, that it is impossible to introduce ‘compromises’ or ‘renovations’ into it.”
    On the other hand, we want to make it clear that Daat Emet — as well as any reasonable people who do not embrace Halachic laws as the word of the Living G-d — are repulsed by such evil, racist discrimination.
    In the Hebrew text we have abridged the second part of R’ Bar-Chayim’s article,
    “Between Jews and Gentiles — In the Aggadah, the Kabbalah, and in Jewish Thought,” because, in our view, the Halacha is the law which obligates every religious Jew while concepts of the Aggadah, the Kabbalah, and Jewish thought are not binding on anyone, as our rabbis have already written:
    “And so the Aggadic constructs of the disciples of disciples, such as Rav Tanchuma and Rabbi Oshaya and their like — most are incorrect, and therefore we do not rely on the words of Aggadah” (Sefer HaEshkol, Laws of a Torah Scroll, p. 60a); we have expanded on this issue in the portion of Vayeshev.
    RAMBAM, BLACKS & APES
    Was the great and revered rabbi Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides) a racist?
    The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion refers to Moses Maimonides, a.k.a. Rambam, as “the symbol of the pure and orthodox faith.” His Guide of the Perplexed is considered the greatest work of Jewish religious philosophy, and his view of Blacks was pure Talmudic:
    1. “[T]he Negroes found in the remote South, and those who resemble them from among them that are with us in these climes. The status of those is like that of irrational animals. To my mind they do not have the rank of men, but have among the beings a rank lower than the rank of man but higher than the rank of apes. For they have the external shape and lineaments of a man and a faculty of discernment that is superior to that of the apes.”
    Several Jewish scholars have translated the “Guide,” interpreting the above passage as referring to Black Africans:
    1. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide of the Perplexed, translated and edited by Shlomo Pines; with an introductory essay by Leo Strauss (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), Chapter 51, pp. 618-19. Moses Maimonides, The Guide to the Perplexed, trans. and ed. Shlomo Pines (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1963), 2:618-19. Other translations use the term “cushites” or “blacks” in place of “Negroes.” See M. Friedlander’s translation (1904; reprint, New York: Dover, 1956), 384.
    2. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide of the Perplexed; an abridged edition with introduction and commentary by Julius Guttmann; translated from the Arabic; Dalalat al-ha’irin; English; selections by Chaim Rabin; new introduction by Daniel H. Frank (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1995), p. 185.
    3. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide of the Perplexed, translated from the original and annotated by M. Friedländer (New York: Hebrew Pub. Co., 1881), pp. 279-80. Here the word “Kushites” is used.
    One might also see Essays on Maimonides; An Octocentennial Volume, edited by Salo Wittmayer Baron (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941). Baron is quite explicit about the attitudes of Maimonides on slavery. On page 239, for instance, he writes, “For Maimuni [Maimonides] a slave is not fully human in matters of sex…”
    HOW TO CHEAT NON JEWS
    “If there was a legal case between a Jew and a Gentile (non-Jew), then the manner of judging between them is as I will explain: if we [i.e., a Jew] will win under their laws, we judge them according to their laws and say to them: this is your law! If it is better that we judge according to our laws, we judge them according to our laws and say to them: this is our law! And do not find it difficult, and don’t be surprised by it, just as one is not surprised about the slaughter of animals even though they have done no harm, for one in whom human characteristics are not complete is not truly a man, and his end purpose is only for ‘man’ [that is to say, the entire raison d’etre of the Gentiles is only for the benefit of the complete man —
    comment by Rabbi Y. Kapach shlita in his edition of Maimonides’s Commentary on the Mishnah], and the discussion on this matter requires a separate book.”

  2. ‘..the true underlying reason more soldiers are covering their faces is shame…”

    I don’t really trust this ‘shame’ excuse. I think it is more the FEAR aspect. .
    One can really know that he is doing something wrong ,but ,instead of remorse and repentance one can only feel FEAR that he may, somehow, sometime suffer the consequences of his actions.

  3. UNTIL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BEGINS TO HEADLOCK JEWS THE WAY THAT THEY HAVE BEEN DOING TO NON JEWS AND TREAT THEM THE SAME WAY AS THE BEAST THEY ALL ARE THOSE BEASTS WILLNEVER LEARN GET THAT TROUGH YOUR DAMN HEADS IDIOTS. THEIR BELIVE IS THAT IF A JEW GETS HUR BY A NON JEW THEN THEY WILL REPAY THE NON JEWS WITH 1,000 HURT OR KILLED NON JEWS IF 100 JEWS GET HURT OR KILLED BY NON JEWS THEN AT LEAST 10,000 NON JEWS WILL PAY FOR WHAT HAPEN TO THE 100 JEWS SO UNTIL AMERICA GETS THAT THROUGH THEIR BONE HEADS NOTHING WILL MAKE THOSE BEASTS LEARN ANY THING.
    EVERY TIME A NON JEW GETS HURT BY A JEW THE NON JEW SHOULD EXECUTE, 10,000 JEWS AND SO ON UNTIL THOSE BEASTS LEARN THAT THEY ARE NOT INDESPENSABLE TO HUMANITY.

  4. Those beasts are not even human. They do not know any thing about remorse or shame. They hide because they are nothing but a bunch of cowards. they are always hiding and changing their names.

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