New IDF protective gear against rocks - And for the rest of us?

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
20 May '13..

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: "This suit provides a wider possibility for the soldier to approach and even to run, and it gives the soldiers more confidence". Along with this we have "thousands of individual riot shields that are capable of linking up to create a defensive wall".

Is the idea to stand around until the Arabs get tired of throwing rocks etc. under the protection of lightweight protective gear and individual riot shields or is it to exploit the lightweight protective gear to facilitate detaining Arabs who engage in violence?

What's wrong with standing around until the Arabs get tired?

#1. Will they get tired or escalate?
#2. What happens to third parties who happen to be passing by the area and don't have the protective gear?

In any case, the equipment is a welcome development for a number of reasons:

#1. It is an expression of the commitment of the IDF to the safety of the soldiers.
#2. Reducing the danger to the soldiers in an incident provides the commanders much more latitude in handling the incident. ]

IDF Central Command receives new riot dispersal equipment

The new tools for minimizing violence in Judea and Samaria include lightweight protective gear for soldiers and an advanced GPS system for use by Special Forces

Date: 18/05/2013, 8:35 PM Author: Yael Livnat   http://www.idf.il/1283-18974-EN/Dover.aspx

The IDF Central Command has begun receiving new riot dispersal equipment, including protective suits for soldiers and an advanced GPS system. The new tools are being integrated as part of the IDF’s range of measures for curbing violent riots in Judea and Samaria.

He responded "I'd rather go to jail,"

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
12 December '12..

So spoke Elie this morning as we were driving in. For a change, I was driving and he was reading the newspaper. He would laugh at a cartoon and then explain it to me (including the cultural references I don't always get). There was a cartoon of Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman sitting with someone else - I think the Labor Minister. Bibi says, "the whole world is against us" and the Labor Minister responds, "yes, even the nurses." The nurses in Israel are on strike and Elie found the cartoon entertaining...

And then he got to an article about some soldiers who had left base without permission. They were driving away when they accidentally hit someone and in fear of being caught, ran. They were tracked down, though at first the news reported that the incident might have been an attempted attack. "Stupid," Elie commented. "They should have stayed and turned themselves in." Elie has never been one to accept weakness easily and something was done, responsibility had to be taken.

And then he got to an article that disturbed him greatly. Photographers filmed a demonstration in which Arabs were pelting soldiers with rocks. Rather than stand/respond, the soldiers were ordered to run for cover. Israel is doing all it can do to hold the ceasefire; and so soldiers are being given orders to withhold fire - at almost all costs.

"They should have shot in the air, not run. And if the Arabs still were throwing rocks at them, I'd have shot one in the legs to show them we were serious."

Why Palestinians Riot Over Jewish Heritage Sites

Moshe Dann
Frontpagemag.com
03 March '10

Last week saw an upsurge in Palestinian riots and attacks against Israeli vehicles in Gaza and the West Bank. What crime did Israel commit to invite the wave of violence? Israel’s government simply announced that it intended to honor the country’s heritage by including the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem in a list of Israeli national “heritage” sites.

The violence-fueled Palestinian reaction may seem entirely disproportionate to Israel’s offense. But a look at the historical background shows that it is not without grim precedent.

For several decades, Palestinians have been attacking Jewish worshipers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Tomb of Rachel near Bethlehem, and the Tomb of Patriarchs and Matriarchs, Machpelah, in Hebron. After the Oslo and Hebron Agreements in the 1990’s, attacks intensified.

To protect visitors to Rachel’s Tomb, a fortified building was built around the tiny, 19th century building that had been built over the tomb. That wasn’t enough, since getting to the building from the closest Israeli checkpoint, a few hundred meters away, exposed Jews to sniper fire and bombs from adjacent buildings along the road. A new road was built, therefore, surrounded by high cement walls.

Palestinian riots against the rights of Jews to visit holy and historic sites are nothing new. In Jericho and Gaza, ancient Jewish synagogues from the Talmudic period have been destroyed and are off limits to Jews.

In Shechem, Nablus , the site of Joseph’s Tomb, was attacked by Palestinian mobs in 2000, fire-bombed and destroyed. A wounded Israeli soldier inside bled to death while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, negotiated with the Palestinian Authority.

(Read full article)
.

Welcome to "Just-the-Opposite Facts" Theater, Temple Mount Chapter

Yisrael Medad
My Right Word
01 March '10

IMRA's Aaron Lerner pointed me to this news item which informs us that Jordan has condemned what they call a "raid on holy Jerusalem site" and they further term it, but of course, a "provocation".

According the the official press agency version "Israeli forces...stormed Al Aqsa Mosque" [stormtroopers, got that?]. And what 'started' it all? Well, "Israeli police opened the Bab Al Maghareba Gate early today for the entry of zionist extremists" [but they do that every day, to everyone. it's called freedom of access and it is a fundamental legal tenet].

Don't these Arabs understand pluralistic democratic society existence?

Further, we learn that

"Jordan rejects any attempt by Israeli occupation forces to harm holy sites in the Palestinian territories," State Minister for Media Affairs and Communication Nabil Sharif told Petra. "Storming Al Aqsa is an affront to the will of the international community and such action will impede efforts to kickstart the peace process to achieve stability in the region and set up an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state," Sharif added.

(Read full post)
.

We Defeat Ourselves - JTA Blows the Call

Paula Stern
This is Israel
1 November 09

Last week, after more than a decade in court with appeals and counter appeals, an Israeli court finally ruled that an old man who had proven that he owned some property, had the right to evict Arabs who had squatted on his property, denying him access and failing to pay rent.

Finally, the man was clear to reclaim what the courts carefully had determined was his. The man went with several others to hand out eviction notices. The Arabs seemed to have been expecting them and began pelting them with rocks. In an attempt to defend themselves after two had been hit by rocks (one in the head and one in the chest), one 63-year-old man pulled out a gun and shot in the air.

As is often the case when an Israeli fires into the air, several Arabs complained to the police that they had been injured. One man insisted he had been shot in the hand and showed the police a scratch. Had the man been hit, explained the Israeli who shot in the air, the man would have lost his hand because of the nature of the bullets he had in his gun.

No, there were no injuries among the Arabs and the police quickly released the Jews that had been taken into custody based on Arab charges and complaints.

What is amazing, however, is how Israeli media covered the news report. I have heard the story directly from someone who was there, one of seven, the wife of the man who fired into the air. She explained to me that it was only when the Arabs started advancing towards her and throwing rocks at her, that her husband raised his gun.

This is Israel - we must defend ourselves. This is, as the man later told the police, our country and if someone throws stones at you when you have broken no law (unlike the people illegally living in the old man's house), you have the right to self-defense.

Yes, this is Israel, but sadly, so is the other side. I have doubts whether anyone from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) spoke to any of the Jews involved in the incident - it certainly doesn't seem so from the ridiculous headlines they used:
"Jews arrested in brawl over home ownership."

A brawl? Doesn't that give the hint of guilt on both sides? Jews with the backing of the Israeli courts went to issue eviction notices to illegal residents and were attacked with stones. This is a brawl? One wonders whether it is perhaps time to buy JTA a dictionary.

The absurd title is only one inaccuracy. Of course, no one was injured among the Arabs; no one was shot in the hand or elsewhere. According to the witness I spoke to, the police watched the video she had taken and quickly agreed that the claims were false and that there was no way any Arabs were shot by this man's bullets.

Also, telling, however, is the file name (URL address) of the JTA article. While they decided to be a bit more diplomatic in the headlines, the assumption of guilt was there in the file name: "http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/01/1008854/right-wing-jewish-activists-detained-after-brawl-with-arabs-in-jerusalem."
Related: Jerusalem: Arabs Stone Jews Serving Eviction Papers
.

Jerusalem: Arabs Stone Jews Serving Eviction Papers

Hillel Fendel
IsraelNationalNews.com
1 November 09

(We had a very exciting Erev-Shabbat. B"H, we all managed to walk away reasonably intact.)

(IsraelNN.com) The final tally after an elderly Jewish man attempted to serve an eviction notice to Arab squatters on his Jerusalem property on Friday:

* Two Jewish men hurt by large Arab-hurled rocks, one in the head and one in the chest;
* one man in his 60’s who spent the Sabbath in prison after he shot in the air in an attempt to protect himself and those around him;
* press reports blaming the Jews;
* and a possible eviction of the illegal Arab residents later this month after 17 years of legal wrangling.

The incident began on Friday morning when Yitzchak Herskovitz, 78, arrived at his property in southern Jerusalem, between Givat HaMatos and the Arab neighborhood of Beit Tzafafa. The purpose of their visit: to serve a court-ordered eviction notice to the clan of Arab squatters illegally occupying the property. Herskovitz was accompanied by several others, including his lawyer, two armed men for protection, and a woman video-photographer for documentation.

Courts Rule in His Favor, Yet Arabs Still Remain

The Arab clan, known as the Salahs, has been found by two Israeli courts to have illegally taken over Herskovitz's property, and to have brought false evidence in the course of attempting to prove their own ownership. Despite these rulings, years of legal wrangling by the Arab clan have enabled them to continue to reside on property not theirs – nor have they totally fulfilled the court’s condition that they pay $250 of monthly rent to a third-party account.

“It’s been over a year that they have not paid,” Herskovitz told Israel National News, “and finally the courts realized that this basic condition has not been fulfilled, and ordered the eviction.”

To Herskovitz’s dismay, the eviction notice must be served not by the police or other state officials, but rather by himself. “I knew it would be difficult,” he said, “but it was much more than I bargained for.”

"They Knew We Were Coming"

Mordechai, a 63-year-old who came with Herskovitz, recounted: “Somehow the Arabs seemed to know we were coming, and as soon as we got there, there were about 20 or 30 of them waiting for us, and started pelting us with large rocks. Our car was heavily damaged, the windshield was smashed, and I realized that the people with me, including my wife, were in danger of their lives. So I shot in the air two or three times – and that enabled us to get out of there.”

But this was not the end. The Arabs apparently called the police, who took off after the damaged car – and arrested all the occupants, including Herskovitz. A lawyer from the Honenu civil rights group was quickly alerted, and his intervention helped achieve the release of all of them shortly before the Sabbath – except for one: 63-year-old Mordechai who had fired in the air in a built-up area.

“It’s a pretty frustrating thing,” Mordechai said afterwards, “to find myself in a position where I have to fire in the air to protect my own people in my own land, and the official police investigator, instead of showing minimal understanding, tries to trip me up and say things to incriminate myself.” Mordechai immigrated to Israel from a Western country six years ago.

“I told the investigator that I had absolutely no regrets," Mordechai recounted, "and that I would do the exact same thing again, in order to protect myself and others… This is a part of the Land of Israel that Arabs are trying to steal away from a Jew.”

After being taken away in leg-irons and spending the Sabbath in prison – a first for him - and after his wife was forced to desecrate the Sabbath and bring him medicines that he required – “I was taken to a judge at 6 PM, and the judge agreed that I shot in self-defense and to protect others. I guess he realized that a 63-year-old man with a pacemaker is not looking to fight a mob of Arabs for no reason… I was released on my own recognizance, with the only condition being that I cannot return to the area for 30 days; that’s OK, I can live with that.”

His gun was also taken away from him. Police promised to return it to him, but past experience shows that this could take months.

"My Bullets Don't Just Scratch"

The Arabs claimed, and some English-language media reported as fact, that four of their number were hurt. But the accused said, “I shot in the air, as the video shows, and the Arabs lied and claimed that I hit them. One Arab said he was shot in the hand, but the police agreed with me that had my hollow-point bullets hit him, his hand wouldn’t have been scratched; it would have been blown off. That’s why I was released.”

Yitzchak Herskovitz, for his part, is up in arms: “I told the court that the police won’t help me, so the judge told me I should hire armed guards. So I did that, and now the police take away his gun! What’s going on here?”

Herskovitz says he plans to file a police complaint against the Arab squatters: “They smashed the car’s windshield, and wanted to kill me and the others with me.”

Though the Arabs crumpled the eviction notice, threw it on the floor without reading it, and then threw it back at the Jews, the woman’s video documents that they received it – and the eviction is scheduled for Nov. 26. Though past eviction notices have not been executed, it is therefore at least theoretically possible that Yitzchak Herskovitz might actually get to live on the piece of Land of Israel that he innocently bought so many years ago.
Related: We Defeat Ourselves - JTA Blows the Call
.

An Early Arab Attack on Petah Tikvah

Elder of Ziyon
09 October 09

I just came across a book called New Judea, published in 1919, discussing what Palestine was like at that time from a Jewish perspective. This episode, about Petah Tikva, was interesting: ln the course of a conversation, the old agriculturist related many episodes connected with the early history of the colony, one of which impressed itself on my memory. "It was a short while after we came to occupy this land," he said, "before a permanent buildings was completed, and we were all squeezed together in one old Arab mud hovel called "hushot." The place was then wild, and we were busy cleaning away stones, grading the land, making roads, defining the boundaries of our colony and ploughing the hard soil." "l was watching a field of wheat whose green crops had just made its appearance. One day while patrolling the wheat field, I noticed the Arab Sheikh, of the neighboring village, El Yehud, had turned his horses into our wheat. I chased the horses away and went over to the intruder and warned him not to do it again, as we would hold him personally responsible for all damages. The Sheikh glanced at me scornfully and turned away. A few weeks passed, the wheat field was already proudly waving in the air. l saw from a distance one early morning the Sheikh wrapped in a black "Abba" and a large "Kephiyah" on his head coming toward the colony. l gave a signal to my comrades. In a few minutes they were up and we assembled behind a cactus hedge to decide what steps to take with the treacherous intruder. After some discussion it was decided that we must once for all show the marauding neighbors that we do not fear them and that we are ready to repell and punish all attacks made on this colony. While reaching this decision we noticed the same Sheikh leaving the highway and turning his horse into the wheat. A few of us immediately jumped on our horses and chased after the intruder. He began to run and we followed him until we brought him to a stop. We brought him and his horse back to the village, where he was given a good thrashing, and we sent him off to his home warning him that if this happened again his punishment would be much more severe. He stared at us with an expression of vengeance and then spirited away among the hills. About a month passed and nothing was heard of the Sheikh. One morning we learned from one of our Arab laborers that we were to be attacked on a certain night of that week by the tribesmen of the Sheikh. Not knowing how many were coming, we despatched one of our men to the neighboring colonies for assistance. We did not notify the authorities in Jaffa, thinking it would be more effective and would make a better impression on the Arabs if we convinced them once for all that we did not fear them and that we could use firearms better than they. Pretending that it was a holy day, we dismissed all the Arab laborers for a few days so as to be sure that our enemies would not be informed of our plans, for we discovered that they were spying on us. On the afternoon preceding the night of the expected attack, a score of men and women, comrades, from Rishon L'Zion, Ekron and Katra, mounted on fine horses and armed with new guns at their backs, revolvers at their girdles and belts with cartridges around their waists, rushed on our villaee like a company of trained cavalry ready to close in on the enemy. They dismounted from the horses and sat down to consult with us about our plan of warfare. "Towards evening each man was assigned to a strategic position. We knew that they were coming down the main road and that they were to use our field of wheat as the fighting ground. Some of us concealed ourselves near the entrance of the village, behind piles of stones, other in ditches and behind hills; while still others were encamped behind the village houses that were in process of erection, and on the roof of the hut we were occupying. "The expected hour came. The vanguards, who were patrolling about the fields, having heard from a distance the trotting of horses and wild voices of people, signalled to us, They are coming! Be ready for action! As soon as the enemy entered the grounds of the village two shots were heard. We knew it was the signal for action. A volley of fire from our comrades of the lower side of the colony broke out. The marauders were quickly encircled by our men and they surrendered before we had a chance to fire a shot at them. They were completely taken by surprise. We made prisoners of about twenty Arab ringleaders, including the Sheikh, bound their hands and feet and took them the next day to Jaffa, where we gave them over to the authorities. The others did not need much warning. They were glad to be allowed to get away. "Since that incident," continued my new friend, "we gained the respect of our neighbors, and we have no organized attacks, except now and then individual robberies that may happen anywhere. Keep in mind that the area of Petah Tikva was legally purchased around 1883. .

Temple Mount: 'Palestinians' riot, dumb Jews close it down

Carl-Israel Matzav

04 October 09

The 'Palestinians' called for their 'people' to remain on the Temple Mount on Sunday to protect it from the Jooos. Instead of enforcing the law, the Israeli police shut the Temple Mount down. And then the 'Palestinians' threw stones down on the Jews below at the Western Wall anyway (fortunately, long after I left - I was there this morning from about 5:00 until 7:00 - so now you know why I haven't posted much today!).

With hundreds of thousands of people expected to visit the Kotel and the Old City this week, Jerusalem police on Sunday decided to close the Temple Mount – both to visitors and Muslim worshippers – after leaflets were distributed in Arab neighborhoods near the Old City calling on Muslims to "come and defend the mountain." The leaflets were given large amounts of exposure in local Arab media, and police are seeking to prevent Arab riots, especially on Monday, when the mass Birkat Cohanim (Priestly Blessing) takes place at the Kotel.

I won't be there for that either, but I do plan to be at the Kotel between 5:00 and 7:00 on Monday morning as well.

JPost adds:

At least 100 Palestinians on the Temple Mount are refusing to leave the area despite an Israeli decision made on Sunday morning to shut down the site due to security concerns.

The Palestinian Authority and the Waqf have instructed the men to arrive at the site on Saturday night and stay put, fearing what they called a Jewish takeover.

Approximately 150 Arabs hurled rocks and bottles at security forces in the Old City on Sunday morning shortly after the decision to shut down the compound.

Border police closed off roads around the Old City and dispersed the rioters into the neighborhood of Wadi Joz, where residents briefly joined in the disturbances.

I'm sure glad I didn't listen to the passenger who wanted me to drive through Wadi Joz (an Arab neighborhood along the the edge of the Jewish neighborhoods) on the way to the Old City this morning. I'm generally very sensitive to getting my car windows broken! Especially while I'm driving!

But guess what: The US State Department doesn't want me to be in the Old City this week either!

National Union MK Michael Ben Ari blasted the police for giving a prize to terror by closing the Temple Mount.

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) said that the closure of the Temple Mount Sunday morning by Israeli police fearing Arab riots was a "prize for the rioters." Police closed the site over fears that Arabs would carry out riots while hundreds of thousands of Jews visited the Old City for Hol Hamoed this week.

"I call on the Internal Security ministry to protect democracy and allow the entry of Jewish worshippers to the Temple Mount," Ben-Ari said.

Also on Sunday morning, the police turned back a group of 'Israeli Arabs' from Northern Israel who were headed to Jerusalem on Highway 6 (the 'trans-national highway') to join the rioters in Jerusalem.

Can you imagine the police in your city pre-emptively closing a site of international interest rather than confronting rioters? How long do you think it would take until the police had no control over the site whatsoever? What could go wrong?

Monday should really be fun. I should start by planning to park a 30-minute walk away from the Temple Mount....
.