Jerusalem – The head of Israel’s military said on Wednesday that he is opposed to lax rules of engagement that allow security forces to kill Palestinian assailants immediately following a terrorist attack.
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IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot met a group of soon-to-be conscripts at a high school in Bat Yam on Wednesday.
When asked by a student about the proper response to attacks similar to those seen during the past few months, the army chief replied: “The IDF doesn’t need to get swept up in clichéd statements like ‘Kill or be killed’ or ‘Whoever comes at you with scissors needs to be killed’.”
“The tools that are at the soldiers’ disposal are sufficient,” the chief of staff said.
In recent months, over 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians who have committed car-rammings, stabbings, and shootings in what is being called “the lone-wolf intifada” or “the knives intifada.”
Immediate steps by Israeli security forces in neutralizing the attackers have generated controversy, as some have argued that police and soldiers use excessive force in subduing the assailants.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom has perhaps been the most vocal critic of Israel’s response to Palestinian terrorism.
Wallstrom has called for an investigation of Israeli “extrajudicial killings,” prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to respond that such statements were “outrageous, immoral, unjust and just wrong.”
“I don’t want to see a soldier empty a magazine [to shoot] a young girl with scissors,” Eisenkot said.
On November 23, two Palestinian teenage girls were shot by security officers after stabbing a 70-year-old Arab man in the head with scissors in downtown Jerusalem.
One of the girls was killed and the other critically wounded.
Black and white CCTV footage of the attack released to the media shows the two female Palestinian assailants wildly stabbing the elderly Palestinian man in the head and then charge a police officer, who shot them.
Both terrorists ignored repeated warnings from the officer to drop their weapons.
“These days, you can find a knife in any kitchen and household,” he said. “The aim of terrorism is to sow fear and horror amongst the public. Terrorism succeeds when it prevents citizens of living their normal routine.”
The visit to the school, during which the army chief chatted with students as well as teachers and administrators from neighboring schools throughout Bat Yam, was aimed at preparing future enlistees to compulsory military service.
Eisenkot also held court on topics including the threats facing Israel and the readiness of the IDF in combating those threats.
He said that while the IDF has been strengthening its capabilities against conventional threats, its troops are devoting daily efforts to thwarting terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria.
Eisenkot said that the army is also making preparations for future confrontations with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“These are the challenges that the country has faced since its birth, and these challenges will be here in the years to come,” the IDF chief said.
It’s these mentally weak leaders that Gd forbid have Jewish blood on their hands.
keep filling’ em with hot lead !
If they are taken alive, they will have to be fed, housed ,and educated, finally they will be used by Hamas/ Hezbalah/ PA , as bargaining chips, ultimately to be freed in a prisoner exchange.
Finish ’em off now and you won’t have to deal with them again later.
they can do alot of harm with scissors and they must be deterred!!!! if they can put terror into us we gotta put terror into them!!
Right, like the idiot leaders before him who should have emptied their guns into rock throwing Arabs and we would have less terror and less Jews murdered and injured.
Leaders like him are stupid, stoopid, and just don’t inspire my confidence in his ability to lead…
Does anyone remember the October 21, 1990 murder of 3 Israelis in Yerushalayim by a 19-year-old Arab construction worker (Omar Abu Sirhan) from a village near Bethlehem? First he stabbed and murdered Iris Azulai, an 18-year-old female soldier, then he stabbed and murdered Eli Altaraz, a 43-year-old gardener. Then he was shot and wounded in both legs by Charlie Shlush, a 29-year-old policeman who was following rules of engagement to fire in the air or at the legs of terrorists. The policeman then approached the terrorist, who also stabbed Shlush to death.
I don’t know what happened to the murderer, but I imagine he was later released by Israel and given a hero’s welcome in some Arab community.
I am a law enforcement professional – his comments are completely in accord with use of force standards throughout the western world. Many of the comments here are completely ignorant, merely reflecting John Wayne/Rambo macho…and nothing else.
What a typically pathetic leftist apologist for terror, in his book, the proper response is just to nicely neutralize the terrorists, then let them eventually go free, so they can try again!
There most certainly is a need to pump bullets into any person who goes out with the intent to commit terror! Iron fist is the only thing these terrorist swine understand.
see ,thats the problem ,every pisher if he is some kind of a macher he has to say something negative in order to look somewhat important , big chuchem whats so hard to understand , although those arabs love to get killed and die for their good deeds its still a deterrent to others , so ,its a mitzveh to open ur mouth and talk shtussim