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Syrian troops shoot their own population (and worse). The Mexican government shrugs its symbolic shoulders as narco-terrorists assassinate politicians, judges and journalists. And an Israeli soldier smacks a Danish protester in the face with a rifle. As brutal as this sounds or looks, brutality is relative—especially when there are guns involved. IMHO.

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57 COMMENTS

  1. The existence of worse brutality or other rights violations elsewhere doesn’t excuse lesser brutality where it exists — particularly in a ‘civilized’ country.

    “Yeah, the government is confiscating all of your rifles and handguns, but you get to keep the shotguns. Hey, don’t feel too bad, you couldn’t even keep the shotguns in some parts of the world — go complain about North Korea first!

    • Face extinction on a daily basis in the life-or-death boots of the Israelis for a couple of days and I bet your attitude would change.

      • How sad armed man that are punks & cowards do what they do u say walk in there boots that see why they do what they do ignorance is bless walk a second in the poor innocent ppl shoes the slaves of Israel the unarmed Palestine ppl please don’t side unless u actually know & understand what your talking about take it from someone who was there & was only a child if u were in my place you’ll know the truth first hand there always gonna be armed punks that pray on unarmed innocent women & children & stand by as a men & watch your kids & women get beat abused raped & tortured then the world wonders why the men have no choice but to blow themselves up if u ask me if the Israeli communist coward army didn’t abuse the power & really wanted peace things like this wouldn’t happen hey don’t take my word for it just do what the person said walk in there shoes but walk in both ppl shoes than judge I’ve seen the truth & thank god Iam still here its sad how ppl that are first cousins & all don’t know how to be real humans just ask all yourselves imagine if another country invaded ares with help of others & then take all our freedoms & run around whipping the floor with us taking all our weapons ,food,water etc. then will we all understand we live great compared to most & take it for granted we cry when we get a new law passed or a ticket imagine if there’s no laws or freedoms & your always wrong because of who u are & your not one of the people that took over than talk to me & tell me what’s fair so please if u don’t know what your talkin about don’t well never understand the only way we will is if we had to live there in the middle of the B.S on both sides not just one then will u only truly understand life in Israel & other countries that are ran by the select evil few & yes like sadam & biladen all governments that kill ppl for nothing other than trying to survive after all none of us ask or choose were & how we are born Iam just sick of all the killing all over the world sometimes I really sit down & try to think what makes us humans better then animals I wonder can’t we just all get along & live in peace all mankind but Iam afraid it will never be short of a miracle like in the movies 2012,independence day , all movies were all mankind put differences & beliefs aside & work together for the common good to survive the end of days it sad that we all forget we are all humans but act like animals & like always the innocent & weak always get slaughtered for nothing at all sorry just wish we can all live in peace & stop hating each other for nothing who cares about what u look like or who or what u pray & believe in were all supposed to be human beings with brains not animals without brains sometimes I wonder peace for all mankind please god.

          • Sorry next time ill make sure my grammar is prefect. Plus Iam really sorry thats all u got out of it.

            • I do not expect perfection. A wall of text such as your post is difficult to read, and therefore many people simply won’t. The purpose of posting here is (I assume) to provide information. In order to do that effectively, one should attempt to make things as easy for the reader as possible.

              BTW, it sounds like you’ve got some experience in what I like to call the “sh!ttiest part of our world”. Your insight is welcome to this discussion. Just don’t get pissy if your 50-some-odd line run-on sentence receives some, ahem, constructive criticism.

        • Not sure where to start.
          I served in the IDF for four years. Served in Gaza, The West Bank, and the Golan.
          Almost lost my first wife to the dizengof center bombing. Was present to the aftermath of the line 5 bus bombing.
          Never once have I heard of a rape, or torture of an innocent person, woman or children.
          In fact we spent a lot of time providing help to those that needed it because the Hamas led government could care less about their own people. If you lived in Gaza and were a Fatah supporter you are an endangered species. There is video floating around showing Hamas members throwing Fatah supporters off roof tops. From operation Cast lead we have video showing rockets hidden in civilian homes, booby trapped schools.
          I am sorry but I have no sympathy for a group of people who call for the destruction of a sovereign nation, and who’s children play kill the jew.
          The Danish guy got what he deserved after he refused to disperse and the protestors were putting themselves and the lives of drivers on the road in danger.

  2. These soldiers don’t appear to be well prepared for crowd or riot control. They wander about and haphazardly herd the Danes away from some ill defined line.

    It seems to me that when the Dane decided to continue to push the line and the soldier saw him right in his face that the Dane had every right to expect to get stopped. What idiot approaches armed men in such a menacing way. He’s lucky he’s not dead.

      • And that was the hardest thing he could find to tap it on!
        In all seriousness, they weren’t out in Riot gear, and for the most part people were peaceful however in his statement on ynetnews he stated two more bus loads of people arrived, and the event organizer stated he had lost control. At that point a mob mentality can take over quickly and the soldiers did not have the gear to deal with it. In this case they picked a person and then showed aggression to disperse the crowd after repeated requests were ignored.
        I speak Hebrew and he said it in pretty uncertain terms. They wanted to instigate which you clearly see by the two women and one man who go running back out towards the soldiers. To be honest they are lucky the soldiers showed restraint.

  3. In the 60’s, 70’s, our police used night sticks pretty freely at anti war dem. Americans then didn’t think that was so awful, ( except for the folks on the left ) attitude toward Authority using force has changed, and of course these are Iraelis’, who, in the” court of international opinion” shouldn’t have any rights or even be there at all.

  4. I agree with jkp above. I don’t think the soldier in question committed a crime against humanity here, but it would be wise to do a formal investigation and figure out what the hell happened and whether anyone needs consequences or more training. I rather suspect that this is yet another stereotypical example of why you shouldn’t use soldiers for policing functions, though.

    Also, watching the video, it didn’t really look like the guy got hit super hard. I bet it hurt some, but he probably got knocked off his feet more from the surprise than the actual impact force. You’d figure that the camera would have panned all over his face if he was bleeding that hard. Gotta love those pre-positioned ambulances, too.

  5. So here is the skinny on this story. Lt. Col. Eisner (the man doing the smacking) was sent to keep that highway open. Protestors were trying to get onto the highway to block traffic. This was seen as a huge security risk, especially considering the high amount of traffic after the Passover holiday.
    Lt. Col. Eisner approached the crowd and told them to leave. He decided not to use tear gas or the dispersion kit he had in the vehicle because he felt it was an unnecessary use of force on a crowd this size and would most likely lead to great injury. It would also escalate the situation. And as we all know, deescalation is the best route.
    Long story short, the soldiers make the claim the protestors starting hitting them with sticks, and moments before this footage was shot, Eisner’s finger was broken. All Eisner had in his hands was his rifle. A few clean hits, good to go.

    At the end of the day, the protestors are candy-asses without anything good to do (other than spend dad’s euros to go protest in a different country). I personally think this is the treatment they should all get at the airport before getting sent back to Europa.

    • Interesting story, although I don’t make a habit of believing things posted in the comments section of a blog, so a citation is needed.

      Second, this was not made clear in Mr. Farago’s original post, so my criticisms of that still stand. Assuming this is true, it provides some context and may be exculpatory, but it is not clear that Mr. Farago was aware of this.

      • True dat: I added material after the original post. I apologize for putting your comments out of context.

        • Ben thanks for the link.. I was reading ynet and yediot ahronot looking for descent links as well.

        • Thanks. The article definitely puts a somewhat different light on things. Sounds like the soldier was in a difficult position, and while his actions might be more understandable, he clearly attacked someone who was (at the time) just standing there. It may be a case of the dangers of using the military as police.

          The official investigation will be interesting to follow.

    • Many were sent back directly from Ben Gerion or stopped from even boarding the flights.
      I served in the IDF for four years, and was also witness to the line 5 bus bombing, I was knocked out of my bed, and ran to assist those that survived, so this story hits home as it were. I also almost lost my first wife in the dizengoff center bombing.

      To that end to Abe, the Israeli’s are socialists not communists, they have a democratically elected parliament, and do not adhere to Marxist theory. The Kibbutzim have a more Marxist outlook but that has changed over time.

      The few minutes of video was a small part of approximately two hours. Things finally got nasty when the demonstration organizer stated to the IDF he had lost control of the protest. The protestors were asked to disperse and refused. Minus the single strike to the one protestor and a little bit of shoving and a few punches, it doesn’t look bad. I have seen frat parties that were worse than that!

      Abe by your post it appears you support armed struggle and the destruction of Israel? Hamas and other armed groups continue to launch rockets into Israel, detonate IED’s, and demand the destruction of a sovereign nation. You would think that eventually they would learn to focus on self reliance, and demand an end to their armed struggle.

      Yet Israel continues to provide electricity, water, fuel, and waste management as best they can. Instead of spending money on infrastructure and becoming self reliant they spend it on weapons. The reason the boarders, particularly Gaza are closed is because Hamas pushes for weapons of war and it is the only way Israel can slow that down.

  6. All in all, this was pretty non-violent stuff. The protesters were there to cause problems. in looking at what happened, the punk should have been smacked a whole lot harder. Have you ever noticed that the commies always send out the ugliest people that are available. Now if that punk that got smacked looked like a young Sophia Loren, I dare say they would have treated this in a whole different manner.

    • You should see what the Jordanian’s do to the Palestinians living there, this is nothing!

  7. It cracks me up that people who want to see the Israelis exterminated also expect the Israelis to treat them with the utmost respect and courtesy.

    • The virtues of being a EUtopian, I guess. Or EUnick.

      Who says the M4 is a plastic piece of crap that can’t even deliver a good buttstroke?

    • Can a person be against some of the policies of Isreal without wanting “to see the Isrealis exterminated”? That seems like a pretty big leap.

    • Let’s put this in perspective so folks int he US can make sense of it.
      This is just an exercise and not meant to portray those of us in the US side as uneducated individuals. I usually tell Pro PA folks this here in the US and it makes them finally think a little.
      So here it goes..

      Mexico hates us. Starting out they blew up our buses, and trains. Set off bombs in our shopping malls and hotels. So we tighten the borders down so no one gets across. We retaliate a little but nothing over the top.

      Now they launch tons of rockets at us. A busy weekend is a few hundred rockets are normal. A lot land in the Texas or Arizona desert, but a few hit San Diego, or Yuma.

      So we implement something called Iron Dome. It stops some of the larger rockets that can hit Dallas, Phoenix, or Los Angles.

      Canada doesn’t like us much either, but they are not launching rockets. At least not all the time. The last time they did we almost made it to Toronto with our tanks. They do hold rallies demanding we get wiped off the face of the map. Instead they give rockets, and weapons to Mexico. Brazil, and Panama also supply weapons and rockets to Mexico.

      Occasionally an IED takes out one of our boarder patrol, and every now and again they kidnap someone for a few years so we send back a few thousand known criminals to Mexico who arrive home with a hero’s welcome.

      You ready for the kicker?
      We supply Mexico with all it’s electricity, a large amount of food, we process their waste, and we continue to try and talk peace with them!

      This my friends is what Israeli’s deal with every day. This is what I dealt with and understand.

  8. What business would a Dane have in Israel-Palestine? Getting in between two warring desert tribes is pointless.

  10. That’s a pretty solid tan-belt MCMAP move right there – I remember practicing that at TBS. Nice to see that it’s effective.

  11. So a bunch of Danish pastries went to Israel looking for trouble, and then started crying when they found it. F^ck ’em.

    Oh, and need I add that if they were running their martyrdom operation in PLO territory and protesting for Israel, they’d probably be dead? And I’d still say f^ck ’em.

  12. Shameful and ignorant are the people whom ever thinks that a little violence is justified or should not be taken as seriously because there is larger violence out there.

    It all starts with little violence and then when your government takes away all your rights, comes in the middle of the night, beats or kills your family and you out of your home and take it. You then wonder how you got there. Believe me, this does happen and it did happen, I have seen it first hand.

  13. This video does not have to be compared to anything more violent. One smack with a rifle (minor pain) is not brutal.

  14. My position is that when armed authority figures tell me to disperse, my best option is to leave. To continue to confront armed authority after being warned, then what ever happens is on me.

  16. Most Israelis want peace with the Palestinians, and to live next to a stable, secular Palestinian state. There are two problems, though, that are keeping this from happening. First of all, the pernicious influence of Islamism in Palestine (and that of sponsor states, like Iran and Saudi Arabia), with all the violent antisemitism (and ethic cleansing of Palestinian Christians) that entails. Back when Fatah/PLO were the dominant force, a secular Palestine was a possibility…but that ship sailed long ago. And Israel’s awful proportional voting system, which gives fringe parties like Shas a veto on politics, is a major stumbling block. This is why, until recently, ultra-orthodox dodged both conscription and taxes, and why settlements are still being built on Palestinian land. The fact remains that both Jewish settlements have to be dismantled, and the Palestinian ‘right of return’ has to be off the table, for peace to happen.

    • Yeah like that is going to happen..
      Man you could print pages trying to get everyone up to speed on Middle Eastern Politics…

  17. Ok in response to ABC.
    I lived in Israel from 91 through 97. I served four years, in the IDF in Givati, plugat Sheked. That means almond regiment but I am sure Ben knows who they are.
    I am not Orthodox, and I am not a blood thirsty war monger either.
    It is my understanding the few minutes of video you are watching is the culmination of over two hours or so, where the IDF troops were trying to get the protestors to leave the highway area. They were intentionally moving themselves out into the roadway which was a danger to themselves and to drivers.
    Having served int he IDF I have seen peaceful quiet protests where individuals will be holding signs on the side of the road, singing, etc, but not putting themselves or others in danger.
    The haphazard manner you see is due to a single line of loosely nit soldiers trying to keep them from entering the intersection which was their goal. The line of soldiers does extend across the roadway.
    Mr. Eisner places a single strike on the one individual after which the soldiers become more aggressive, and push the crowd back. This was following a statement from the Pro Palestine organizer who stated he has lost control of the protest.
    To put this in perspective this was all from the pro Palestinian fly in which Israel and other countries did it’s best to mitigate. France, Germany, and the US and Canada all denied entrance on to flights to Israel if they were known protestors. Israel also turned back protestors at Ben Gurion airport as well.
    That was just the start.
    Actual protests on the ground were minimal this week which is good.
    I served in Gaza, The West Bank, and the Golan. It wasn’t the highest of tensions, but after the 5 line bus bombing everything hit the oscillator. I remember that morning well as I was thrown out of bed from the explosion. We all ran to help but there wasn’t much anyone could do, just blood and body parts everywhere. Family that survived were searching for what was left of their relatives, children, or spouses.
    To ABC, I can not understand how you can justify or not condemn armed struggle. As a member of the IDF I never was rude, abusive.
    The Hamas and other armed factions continue to launch missiles into Israel, and setup IDE’s as well as demand the destruction of Israel. While on duty I have seen Palestinian children play kill the Israeli. Yet Israel continues to provide them electricity, water, fuel, and food.

    A little education:
    The Israeli’s are not communists, Israel is a socialist government with a parliament.
    Israel has dealt with the Palestinian’s for decades to try and achieve peace, but Palestinian factions have demanded the destruction of Israel.
    There was never a country or state of Palestinian.
    The Palestinian’s came from neighboring countries as cast off’s. In fact the term “Palestine” is illegitimate.
    The issues you complain about from Israel are reactionary. When they launch missiles, blow up buss’s Israel has to do something to protect itself.
    Restricting access to Gaza is due to the large amount of weapons, rockets and other war materials. If the Palestinians would have or switch to peaceful protest, and work individually towards self reliance, then peace could be achieved.
    Instead of spending money on infrastructure, like water treatment, waste handling, electric, they buy weapons and continue to demand our destruction.
    Personally I have no sympathy for the protestor who was hit or the people who continue to demand our destruction.

    • הרבה כבוד, אני לא יכול לדמיין את הטיוטה ישר לתוך האינתיפאדה הראשונה.
      לא ראיתי את שמך באתר זה בעבר, אבל מקווים לראות יותר ממך.

      • No problem Ben.
        My ex lives in Netanya with our three kids. I haven’t seen them in a couple of years now, so anything that happens in Israel is important to me.

  18. Apparently those eurohippies never got the memo “Don’t fvck with the Israeli’s”.

    @Sanchanim, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and completely agree with everything you’ve said here. I’ll definitely be using the Mexico analogy.

  19. I hope the author isn’t one of those “Israel can do no wrong .” types. Whether it was called for or not, I don’t think you can judge the Israel government on just one incident like this, instead you can judge them on them kicking out the original inhabitants of the land, and committing genocide against them. That doesn’t justify the crimes of Hamas killing innocents though. In the end, the west should have nothing to do with Israel anymore.

    • The “Israel can do no wrong” people are all americans who haven’t had any instruction or experience in actual Israeli politics and society. To criticize them is to criticize nothing. It is like being angry at a 5 year old New Yorker for liking the Yankees. They have no informed reason to like the Yankees, they just do. They don’t understand how baseball works, or even if they Yankees are a good team. They just know they love the Yankees.

      Second, how can you come to a judgement on about territorial claims of a sovereign nation based on this incident? And who are you to make this judgement? Or make a claim about original habitation being the basis to territorial claim of any sovereign nation.

      And the genocide issue sounds interesting. Are you aware that the international legal definition of the crime of genocide, found in Articles II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, is as follows:
      “Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

      (a) Killing members of the group;

      (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

      (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

      (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

      (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. ”

      Tell me, when has any Israeli government or military leader called out for this? But before you reply, read some information from this site. It is a good resource if you aren’t familiar with international law concerning genocide.
      http://www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm

      I don’t expect you to actually sort through an entire international law library, but this little bit of reading may be helpful to you.

  20. Hard to believe that Israelis would get angry at a bunch of European anti-semites coming to their country with the intent of destroying it.

    gosh, why didn’t they offer them coffee and donuts?

  21. Point: I don’t like police states.
    Counter-point: Israel NEEDS one.
    Point: That was brutal. And probably uncalled for.
    Counter-point: Cops in high-security-risk areas can’t afford to screw around. Sometimes they need to send that message to those who attempt to show the world on camera that they can get away with screwing with Israeli soldiers that, in fact, THEY CAN’T. COME HERE AND TRY THE SAME THING, AND THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.

    I approve. But only because it’s Israel. If it were downtown MyCity, that would just be excessive.

  22. I don’t care what the Israelis do in their country. I am just sick and tired of having to pay for it. It is way past time we ended all “aid” to every other nation, even Israel.

    • Actually Chris while agree that reducing long term the need for military assistance would be good on both sides, I think there are a few things to bare in mind.
      While labeled differently the funding isn’t much different than the discounts you saw in the US deal with Saudi Arabia for some fighter jets. The money is put into deals with local companies here in the US for things like the Iron Dome Project, or other systems.
      To that end the Israeli Defense Industries have also pumped out quite a few improvements on current US hardware as well. I think there are sales deals going on there back to the US. It is sort of a you scratch our back we scratch yours. The US also does training with Israel and I am sure they maintain a free fly zone for the US if it is ever needed. There are a lot of tactics and war doctrine shared and learned between the two as well, but it isn’t always news grabbing headlines.

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