Joanna Paraszczuk of the JPost provides us with two reports on security personnel gone bad. One was
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced border policeman Atta Marai to seven-and-a-half years of imprisonment on Tuesday, following his conviction on 49 counts of bribery and breach of trust and one count of carrying out an act that could spread disease…at the time of his arrest served as commander of the al-Jib, or Givat Ze’ev, checkpoint…he took bribes from truck drivers to allow them to pass through the checkpoint from the West Bank into Israel without a security check.
Most of the vehicles that Marai allowed to pass in this way were carrying cargo from the Palestinian Authority, including eggs. Transferring agricultural produce, including meat, eggs and dairy products, from the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories into Israel is strictly forbidden because of disease risks.
The second matter was
Elite police unit officer indicted for stealing IDF arms. The particulars:
The Tel Aviv District Attorney’s office filed indictments on Monday against a police officer and three other men, accusing them of theft of weapons, conspiracy to commit a crime and illegal weapons possession…Among the weapons alleged to have been discovered in the defendant’s home were large quantities of rifle and machine gun bullets, snares, coiled wire trips, ignition devices and explosives…The indictment charges the defendant with stealing the weapons from the IDF base where he served from 2000-2003.
These were quite serious developments over a long period of time. And over at Haaretz, we learn of another incident of a similar character:
Military Police investigators arrested an Israeli soldier on Monday, following suspicions that he had leaked Israel Defense Forces operations in the West Bank to Jewish settlers. The soldier, a married man and father of two children, served in the Samaria Brigade''s rabbinate and has yet to be informed of the specific charges against him.
So, there has been no judicial judgment. No charges and no decisions.
But, as Haaretz emphasizes, this is quite serious because
Military Police officials have also indicated that the man had been a known propagator of the "The King''s Torah," a book written by the head of Yitzhar''s Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, which spells out the circumstances under which it is admissible to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel.
This reminds me of Yitzhak Zamir’s principle of law relating to “ideological criminals”, whom the former Supreme Court Judge Zamir noted (when he was Chief State Prosecuter), that
…these are the worst of criminals, since they not only break the law, but flout its authority, and therefore should be doubly punished. The very fact that they are idealistic people and in many ways positive characters should be counted against them, since it helps them find followers and spread their law-breaking further into the society.
That label was applied, at the time, to right-wing nationalists and for some reason, never is attached to left-wing radicals. Even in Israel’s media, can you recall when a left-winger was termed “extreme”? Even official communists are described in terms other than using the word “communist”. Consider MK Hanin Zoabi and her antics.
Yesterday, outgoing Yosh (Yehuda & Shomron) IDF Commander Nitzan Allon, as reported, said
"an extreme and marginal minority can bring about an escalation through acts that are called ''price tag,'' but which reach the level of terrorism."
And his commander, the IDF''s OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi issued a stern warning at the same ceremony
over the threat posed by far-right elements in the West Bank. Speaking during a ceremony to mark the replacement of outgoing Judea and Samaria Division commander Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon…Mizrahi warned that the IDF may have to "confront the extreme fringes on the right, who could bring the whole area to an escalation [in violence]."
Mizrahi also condemned ''price tag'' attack by far-right elements, which are launched on random Palestinian targets and security forces following the demolition of outposts. Addressing Brig.-Gen. Alon, Mizrahi said, "You''ve absorbed quite a bit [of hostile rhetoric]. In my view, this was unjustified. I think it is right to condemn people who were led by rumors."
He is correct – about rumors. And about aspersions.
Are you aware that two of the main suspects thought to have torched the mosque in the Galilee were released, just like all the previous three instances? After high-profile arrests and hearings, the police are unable to charge or accuse any “extreme right-wing nationalists” with crimes.
I do not know who is a guilty party and I do not clear anyone from suspicion. And I repeat my condemnation of the ‘price tag’ phenomenon.
But a media-generated campaign to impugn a legitimate political philosophy and policy of returning to the homeland by intimating criminal behavior is to be rejected. Recall, too, the coverage of Rabbi Shapira and Rabbi Yosef and the jump-on-the-bandwagon-of-condemnations of such organizations who have no idea or inside information like the ADL (although the ADL now demands a no-criticism policy towards Obama!).
Public discourse is the foundation of democracy. We cannot let the left get away with hijacking its ethics and procedures – for what price will we be forced to pay to re-obtain our national sanity?
After all, based on the first two cases above, of the border guard and the IDF officer, we could be justified, but prejudicially so, to presume the entire security apparatus may be problematic, if not downright criminally evil. And that is just how rabid anti-Zionists act.We cannot permit ourselves to become hostages of the radical left thinking mode.^