The iniquitous report of ‘Breaking the Silence,’ that
featured Israeli soldiers admitting crimes in Gaza, has been receiving widespread
media coverage in the foreign press as if it was some startlingly honest and
factual document. Of course! We are used
to Israel bashing in the media – up to a point!
I am certain that the amateur and deceitful BtS report will
be publicly amplified further by Israel’s enemies abroad who will, doubtless,
invite BtS people to parade their dreadful nonsense around campus’s and halls
as if it were some gospel direct from the Holy Land.
Journalist, Matti Friedman, divulged that the Israeli-based
left-wing BtS fringe group did not even produce their report and video in
Hebrew for local consumption, but in English for their European paymasters.
I, like so many Israelis, look on ‘Breaking the Silence’
as dishonest informers who will sell out Israel for a buck and a fleeting
moment of fame.
Their report is dishonest both in how it was obtained and in
the inaccuracy of its findings. They failed to offer their ‘evidence’ to
the IDF who have been carrying out a thorough and detailed post-operation
investigation of the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Unlike ‘Breaking the Silence,’ the IDF transparency is
proven by the fact that they are conducting their examinations under the scrutiny
of military and legal professionals, including those from overseas armies as
evidenced by a document I read entitled ‘Israeli Targeting; A Legal Appraisal.’
This is a professional and authoritative report. The BtS
report is neither.
This excerpt take
from the document, written by US Army military legal experts on IDF’s performance
in the 2014 Gaza conflict stated, “Israel’s positions on targeting law are
consistent with mainstream contemporary State practice. While some of them may
be controversial, they are generally reasonable and in great part closely
aligned with those of the United States. In the few cases where Israeli
practices and positions diverge from those of the United States (or the
authors), they nonetheless remain within the bounds of the broader contours of
the Laws of Armed Conflict.”
Coincidentally, the issue of these laws and the ethics of
armed conflict were openly discussed by military and legal experts at the
Shurat HaDin Conference on ‘New Laws for New Wars’ in Jerusalem, which
is further proof of the transparency of the IDF to open itself up to scrutiny.
In this light, and in light of the robust liberal democracy
that is Israel, it is preposterous for ‘Breaking the Silence’ to claim
that they had to hide the identity of the soldiers for fear of reprisals.
Further enhancement on the IDF ethics in armed conflict displayed
by our brave young men and women was given by Colonel Richard Kemp, former
commander of British forces in Afghanistan, who participated in the Jerusalem
conference and was in Israel when the BtS report broke.
I can personally vouch that Kemp was in Israel throughout
last year’s Gaza fighting. He conducted daily briefings not only with officers
but also with the regular soldiers as they emerged from the battlefield. He
debriefed both and reported on their exemplary conduct which compared, in his
professional opinion, very favorably with his British soldiers in similar
battle conditions. Unlike BtS, he took into account the complexities of urban
warfare.
On the ‘Breaking the Silence’ video which is replete
with inflammatory expressions such as Israel causing ‘deliberate mass
destruction’ and conducting ‘indiscriminate fire’ one unidentified person
is seen saying that he could fire his tank where ever he wanted and whoever he
wanted. The ignorant, or the malevolent, may choose to believe this nonsense
but anyone who does doesn’t know battlefield conditions in warfare. A tank is
not a one-man machine. There is a crew of young men bonded together with the discipline
and experience of training. The tank crew is usually in a convoy accompanied by
foot soldiers, engineers, and other personnel under the command of field
officers and under the close scrutiny of the command and control center.
If you listen to or read the BtS report you imagine that
Gaza, for Israeli soldiers, was some sort of Rambo-style computer game.
However, ignorant people with a hate for Israel will take it up and run with
it. They will call it ‘evidence’ and ‘proof’ against Israel and
convert this nonsense into ‘war crimes.’ This, for the European paymasters, will
justify the pay check to ‘Breaking the Silence.’
When I hear of Jews taking money to snitch on fellow Jews it
reminds me of the kappos in the service of the Nazis.
“Breaking the Silence’ is a nasty little left-wing group
that get their moment of notoriety and gelt for being deceitful informers. They
are not even honest informers as their method of information gathering and
reporting is dubious and unprofessional at best, and deceitful and malevolent at
worst. Neither are they accurate. They are unable to cross reference or
document any context and background in which battles were fought. Neither will
they hand over their documentation to the IDF.
They do not do this because this is not their mission. Their mission is
to serve their anti-Israel European taskmasters. They receive their money conditional
on dishing up specific numbers of complaints and ‘evidence’ of ‘crimes’
perpetrated by the Jewish state.
In other words, they have sold their sold to the devil, and
the devil owns them.
This is clear because, as so-called ‘former IDF officers
and soldiers’ their first loyalty should be to the State of Israel and the
IDF, and not to some anti-Israel foreign entity.
This report shows how low ‘Breaking the Silence’ has
sunk – not that they had any respectable standing in Israel. They are despised
in Israel people on the left and the right, including those brave young men and
women who put their lives on the line to protect them and us.
Sadly, BtS have other NGOs abroad who will eagerly amplify
their inaccurate message. NGOs such as UK’s ‘Yachad’ will pounce on
anything that BtS produce and invite them on speaking tours of Britain to
enhance their lies. They will also be warmly welcomed by BDS radicals.
Pity I didn’t feature them in my new book ‘Fighting
Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism’ because this is yet another ugly stain of Jew
hatred.
Who said you can’t be Jewish and an anti-Semite? With our
ingenuity, we even do this better than the goyim.
Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and
Anti-Semitism.’
He is also the Consultant on Delegitimization Issues to the
Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College in Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Breaking-the-Silence-20-317854
http://www.thetower.org/1999-watchdog-breaking-the-silence-was-paid-to-incriminate-idf/
http://www.thetower.org/1999-watchdog-breaking-the-silence-was-paid-to-incriminate-idf/
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