Israel Matzav
13 December '10
On Twitter, Jennifer Rubin posted a link to this New York Times editorial, and commented, "should a court decide every time a soldier aims his rifle on the battlefield? obvious but NTY eds are insane.
Jennifer may have been surprised when I tweeted back that this is precisely how the IDF operates. No, we don't have a secret court to which the IDF turns before it decides to target a terrorist. But the government is involved in any decision to target a terrorist (certain targets must be approved by the Prime Minister - if the criteria are public I'm not aware of them).
In December 2006, the Supreme Court severely restricted the IDF's ability to execute targeted killings. In essence, it decided that terrorists hiding among civilians are civilians and not combatants. The court established four primary criteria that must be met in order for a targeted killing to be justified.
(Read full "Insane, but this is how the IDF operates")
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My heart bleeds for our soldiers. there is a similar system for British and US troops in Afghanistan. In fact a UK commander came up with a medal for those that did not fire their weapons when being attacked!!!
ReplyDelete"British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the NATO commander of troops in southern Afghanistan, proposed the idea of awarding soldiers for “courageous restraint” during a visit by Hall to Kandahar Airfield in mid April. McChrystal is now reviewing the proposal to determine how it could be implemented, Hall said."
http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/caat-anaysis-news/honoring-courageous-restraint.html