Haaretz Op-Ed Says Shooting IDF Soldiers Is Legitimate
An op-ed in Haaretz last week by Kobi Niv was headlined, “Shooting at Soldiers of Occupation is Legitimate.” It is sick.Haaretz Op-Eds Argue IDF Soldiers Are Terrorists, Israeli Vandals Are KKK
According to Niv, “Shooting at an occupying army is a legitimate action according to any law. And unfortunately, in Ofra and its sister settlements, in Hebron and its environs and in all the territories occupied in the 1967 war, we are an occupying nation and army. … These areas do not belong to us and not one person in the entire world … recognizes our rights or ownership over these lands. We are a nation, an army, a security service and settlers who are occupiers there.”
He goes on to say that it is the “right of any people around the world who are living under an occupation, … to rebel against the occupier and to try to remove him from their land. Thus, shooting at soldiers of an occupying army, in this case an Israeli one, is a totally legitimate action, by any moral or legal standard.” [Emphasis added]
A phrase mistakenly attributed to Lenin famously referred to those who work against their own people’s best interests — and in support of their enemies’ — as “useful idiots.” There can be no kinder words than this to describe Niv and all those who agree with him.
Within a week, Haaretz has managed to publish two Op-Eds demonizing Israel with main arguments based on blatant lies. Namely, shortly after recent West Bank terror attacks which targeted soldiers and civilians, and which claimed the lives of soldiers and a prematurely born infant, Haaretz argues that Hamas is a legitimate guerilla organization. And after Israelis were apparently responsible for vandalizing Palestinian property, a Haaretz column maintains there’s a “flourishing of the Jewish KKK,” that is similar to the American KKK “at its height.”David Singer: Trump Must Enjoin UN to Condemn Hizballah, UNIFIL and Hamas
In the first Op-Ed, Haaretz contributor Kobi Niv claims that the Dec. 13 terror attack in Givat Assaf, near the settlement of Ofra, in which two IDF soldiers were killed, is “a legitimate action according to any law” because the attack targeted “an occupying army” (“Shooting at soldiers of occupation is legitimate,” Dec. 21).
Kobi Niv is lying. As was widely reported, including in his own newpaper, not only “soldiers of the occupying power” were targeted in the Dec. 13 attack; a young woman who stood nearby, a civilian, was also shot from point-blank range and seriously wounded.
In the second Op-Ed, attorney Michael Sfard today labels Israeli settlers who are apparently responsible for the graffiti on the walls of Palestinian houses and who damaged Palestinian-owned cars a Jewish Ku Klux Klan (“The Flourishing of the Jewish KKK“):
We have to face reality. We are witnessing the flourishing of a Jewish Ku Klux Klan movement. Like its American counterpart, the Jewish version also drinks from the polluted springs of religious fanaticism and separatism, only replacing the Christian iconography with its Jewish equivalent. Like white racism’s modus operandi, this Jewish racism is also based on fearmongering and violence against its equivalent of Blacks — the Palestinians.
Like the members of the KKK, the Jewish rioters throw stones, shoot, and set fire to homes, and in one instance, even burned down a house with its residents inside. And like the American Klan at its height, the Jewish Klan also enjoys law enforcement authorities who turn a blind eye.
Is it possible to equate the actions of “the American Klan at its height,” to those of the “price-tag” perpetrators, however repugnant their actions?
“At its height,” the KKK murdered thousands of innocent people, mostly African-Americans. The lynchings, often hangings, were carried out in central squares and streets, in front of a large, inflamed crowd.
President Trump should urgently enjoin the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to condemn Hizballah and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) following Israel’s discovery of four tunnels dug from Lebanon into Israel.
Trump signed the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act (“HR 3342”) into law on 21 December demanding sanctions against Hamas and Hizballah personnel – foreign terrorist organizations proscribed under 8 U.S.C. 1189.
Trump is probably still smarting from the humiliating defeat – by the narrow margin of nine votes – of the American-sponsored Resolution at the UNGA condemning Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza for:
Resubmitting the Resolution to the UNGA would determine whether those countries that voted:
- repeatedly firing rockets into Israel
- using airborne incendiary devices
- constructing military infrastructure, including tunnels to infiltrate Israel and equipment to launch rockets into civilian areas
will be prepared to change their morally-reprehensible decisions.
- against the Resolution (57),
- abstained (33) or
- did not vote (16)
Hizballah and UNIFIL have to be made accountable for creating the current dangerous threat to peace and security on the Israel-Lebanese border in flagrant breach of international law and international humanitarian law.
How to Battle Hizbullah Rockets Using Artificial Intelligence
Amit Meltzer, former chief technology officer for a key Israeli government agency, discussed the application of artificial intelligence (AI) against Hizbullah rockets at a recent conference in Tel Aviv.
Israeli intelligence is constantly surveilling Hizbullah rocket crews and known or suspected locations of rockets. He said AI can collect massive amounts of data about the location of rocket crews before and during their preparations for firing rockets, in order to target those teams before they launch their rockets.
In some cases, AI can identify an operational window precisely for deploying paratroopers to deal with a Hizbullah threat for which aerial strikes may be insufficient.
Moreover, since Israel wants to be ethical and reduce collateral civilian casualties, AI can help calculate when and where a terrorist will be alone with a rate of precision that past intelligence could almost never approach.
Melzer also noted that there is "a big difference between intelligence collection by the Chinese versus the Russians" when they use cyber tools on Israel. Russia could pass on intelligence it obtains to the Assad regime in Syria. But in terms of retaliating, he said, "we also do not want a conflict with Russia."
In contrast, "the Chinese have no interest against Israel. They just collect intelligence on the entire world." The "chance they will give this intelligence to adversaries" of Israel is "much lower than with the Russians."