Mission Impossible - Political Leaders Are Putting Soldiers in an Impossible Situation

I suppose it depends upon your agenda, how you perceive the video images of a lone Israeli soldier being attacked by Palestinian women and children, in the process, bitten by a Palestinian 13 year old girl, as he attempts to detain a 12 year old boy with a broken arm who has been caught throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the latest weekly demonstration at Nebe Salah on the West Bank.

The pro-Palestinian narrative goes something like this… “Observe heroic Palestinian women and children battle against the brutish and savage Israeli soldier, as he violently apprehends an innocent Palestinian 12 year old by with a broken arm. See how the cruel occupiers target our children with wanton violence and how our brave women and children, like modern day David’s dare stand up to the might of the Goliath like Israeli military. This is just more proof of the evil occupation and victimisation of innocent Palestinians.

The pro-Israeli narrative goes something like this… , well actually there are more than one currently going around...

The first is, “Observe the outstanding restraint upheld by an Israeli soldiers under physical attack by Palestinian civilians as he attempts to apprehend a Palestinian stone throwing youth. Despite being repeatedly struck, beaten, kicked and even bitten, this soldier, who by the way is armed with an automatic weapon, refrains from any meaningful retaliation towards the women and children, even as they present a clear and present danger to his wellbeing, even his life. This is just one more example of the fact that Israel does not target innocent women and children and is verifiable evidence that Israelis go out of their way to avoid harming innocents”.

The second is… “What the hell is going on here? How can it be that an Israeli soldier is being physically attacked in the performance of his duty and there is no response? How can it be that yet once more, one of our soldier’s life is threatened and he does not properly defend himself? How is it that yet again an Israeli soldier is out there on his own, apparently without backup, suffering physical attack, apparently unable to defend himself? This is just one more example of the Israeli authorities tying the hams of our soldiers and making it impossible for them to perform their duties properly, not to mention safely. Moreover, it makes fools of the Israeli security forces and encourages further such attacks on soldiers by an emboldened Palestinian enemy which no longer fears the IDF.”

There is a third in Israel… “What the F***! is an Israeli soldier, apparently from an elite unit doing arresting a 12 year old boy, some reports actually state he is in fact only 10 years old. Who is the idiot that gave the order? Why the hell was he on his own and when will the government stop putting our soldiers in impossible, lose- lose situations, which ultimately damage the very fibre of our military and of our society as a whole? Just one more example of the Israeli leadership’s ineptitude and disregard for its young men and women serving in the field.”

The social media is awash with these images with the usual suspects thrusting and parrying in the electronic either. Of course scenes like this are mother’s milk to the pro Palestinian or perhaps that should be more accurately, the anti-Israel camp. It is well known that at these weekly demonstrations, the Palestinians invite the world’s cameras to observe the ruthlessness of the occupation by way of set pieces planned and orchestrated for the international media’s benefit. Indeed the 13 year old Palestinian girl seen biting the Israel soldier has been identified as Ahed Tamimi, a “star” of numerous set pieces often referred to as “Pallywood” productions.

Ahed is the daughter of Bassem and Nariman Tamimi, two well, known activist in Nebeh Salah. Even the UK’s Daily Mail News Paper, which originally printed a damning story of the incident, then raised itds own questions about the reliability of the video evidence based upon yet one more appearance by Ahed, otherwise known under her stage name of “Shirely Temper”.

The crazy thing is that despite being wholly aware of the intended script, it would appear that Israeli forces repeatedly fall into the well set media trap time and time again.

Those who are all too eager to buy into the anti-Israel narrative will not hesitate to castigate and condemn however, none of them will stop to think about perverse the logic of the situation…

Here we have a well, trained, physically, strong and highly capable combat soldier of the IDF, armed with an assault weapon, who chooses to endure the physical attack by Palestinian women and children, the obvious threat to his welfare not to mention the indignity, rather than use force to defend himself and remove the threat, which no doubt, he was more than capable of doing. He had no way of knowing if one of the women had a knife or not, yet he still refused to retaliate in any meaningful manner, while stubbornly attempting to perform his duty as ordered.

One can certainly question the validity and wisdom of detaining a twelve year old boy, even if he was throwing stones which by the way, for the uninitiated, often result in serious injury to Israeli civilians and security personnel.

For my part, Israeli soldiers are trained to tackle terrorists and armed combatants on the field of battle. They are trained to defend the country from a very clear and present danger to the State of Israel and its citizens. They are trained to stand up to and prevent those who seek to do harm, to inflict pain and suffering and more to their loved ones and fellow citizens. They are trained to act in a professional and, yes moral manner with strict parameters under which they can open fire and use what is known as lethal force.

They are not trained to combat civilian women and children. They are not trained to combat a hostile international media. They are not trained to combat so called “peace activists” who are in fact anti-Israel activists, who, ironically rely upon that very moral code in the IDF, which they deny exists. Only in the knowledge that the Israeli army will not target them, shoot them or harm them and with the confidence that the IDF does in fact go out of its way to avoid civilian or innocent casualties these so called activists backed up by their army of willing photographers and reporters can allow themselves to act as human shields and human obstacles, standing up to an Israeli military they know will not intentionally harm them.

In short, this episode is in fact just one more example of the impossible mission Israeli soldiers have been given by their leaders and I use the term “leaders” lightly. Israel today suffers from a wholesale lack of leadership, lack of vision and lack of direction. It is our young people, the best of us, those who have committed themselves, who give their all in order to defend their country and their people who are paying a terrible price.

Until Israel has a responsible leadership which can deliver a clear vision and sense of direction for the country as a whole, we will unfortunately see more of the same, where the military is asked to paper over the cracks in our lack of policies and our soldiers will continue to be tasked with what can only be regarded as mission impossible.