Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., February 17, 2008 Adar1 11, 5768 | | Israel Time: 03:56 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Rosner's Domain
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Advertising
Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File
Last update - 12:44 12/11/2007
The last victim of the human shield practice
By Israel Harel
Tags: victim

In movies, when the bad guy puts a gun to the hostage's head to deter the police, we're all against him. But when we defend ourselves from Palestinian terror, that image, which the terrorists and their supporters try to portray, is not a fair comparison.

If using a hostage can save soldiers trying to arrest a terrorist planning a mass terror attack, then it is necessary and should not be condemned.

Even B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - cites only one case, in 2002, when wanted terrorists shot a man whom IDF soldiers were using as a shield. As far as we know, this was the only such casualty, but it was enough to make the High Court of Justice end this practice.
Advertisement
Soldiers, however, are still being hurt by it. The last one was Brigadier General Yair Golan, the outgoing commander of the Israeli forces in Judea and Samaria, who managed, with intelligence and resolution, to foil most attempts to attack Israeli citizens. Until the camera captured an unusual incident - soldiers using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

Due to the High Court's ruling, the chief of staff reprimanded Golan and decided to withhold his promotion. This is the tribute given to a man to whom many owe their lives.

A considerable percentage of the petitions debated by the High Court, like the use of Palestinians as human shields, are matters of values and opinions, rather than laws. The justices rule on these matters based on their worldviews. In other words, if the High Court justices were to reflect the values and opinions of the entire population, rather than a certain sector, it is reasonable to assume that the issue of human shields would not have been even brought to court, or would have been declared legally legitimate and morally right.

But the motives of bodies like Adalah, Peace Now and B'Tselem, which drag the High Court to rule on such matters every other day, are not necessarily moral. They use moralistic arguments to undermine the public's confidence in the justness of the war on terror.

The danger of losing this war does not come from the banning of using human shields, but from the so-called moralistic arguments that defend this ban. The enemy, which is incapable of conducting an all-out war against us, chose terror - for it, all means are justified, including blowing up buses, banquet halls and packed nightclubs. So when we defend ourselves in the cruelest of wars, it is immoral to deny soldiers means such as human shields.

The army must conduct the war against terror as it does any war - it must aim to win, and not (as one of the Israel Defense Forces' headquarters puts it) "to reduce the level of violence." This is not, and must not be, the IDF's goal, unless it intends to allow the enemy to drag out the war infinitely, i.e. until it wears us down - for this is the purpose of terror - and to make our life in this country a misery.

It is no secret that we could have won some of the battles of the Second Lebanon War and have reduced the number of victims, had the commanders and soldiers not been afraid to shoot terrorists who were not wearing uniforms. It came out during the inquiries that certain commanders refrained from initiating offensives, for fear that if something were to go wrong, they would be embroiled in endless investigations and legal proceedings.

Golan, it may be assumed, will be promoted eventually. The IDF needs professional, honest and moral combat commanders like him. But due to the impossible and immoral limitations placed on the army, many talented officers are unwilling to place themselves in Golan's shoes and serve in combat duty. Consequently, it is doubtful whether more commanders with his kind of personal and professional caliber will serve in the IDF.
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Seeking refuge
123 Sudanese refugees infiltrate Israel from Egypt overnight.
Bracing for terror
Israel, U.S. fear retaliatory strikes after killing of Mughniyah.
  1.   Israel Harel as the reprsentative for the Israeli "disease" 09:41  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  2.   on an unreasonable proposal 09:50  |  zeev 25/10/07
  3.   Forget it ... too terrorist-like 10:06  |  Natallie Durson 25/10/07
  4.   Simply wrong 10:47  |  Ofer 25/10/07
  5.   Simply an appalling and reprehensible article 10:52  |  Johnboy 25/10/07
  6.   Justified 10:59  |  Murray 25/10/07
  7.   "Human shields" bad policy 11:22  |  Esther 25/10/07
  8.   swiss dino 1 11:33  |  realism 25/10/07
  9.   Swiss (Dino) 11:39  |  akiva (zionist) 25/10/07
  10.   Addendum to #7 12:01  |  Esther 25/10/07
  11.   the occupation is the cause of terrorism! 12:02  |  cristina 25/10/07
  12.   Great advice. Jump to it. And rip up the UDHR as well. 12:14  |  Nick Ferriman 25/10/07
  13.   # 8 realism 12:17  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  14.   Unbelievable! 12:19  |  Axel 25/10/07
  15.   # 9 akiva (zionist) 12:26  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  16.   racist-minded Harel..doesn`t believe non-Jews are human 12:31  |  Christian 25/10/07
  17.   Swiss (Dino),@#15 12:40  |  akiva (zionist) 25/10/07
  18.   A crowd of moral midgets 12:42  |  Goldberg 25/10/07
  19.   Israel Harel What the Hell are you trying to do? 12:43  |  Gil 25/10/07
  20.   Swiss (Dino) 12:52  |  Gil 25/10/07
  21.   Permissible language and fairness 13:01  |  Rowan Berkeley 25/10/07
  22.   Israel, man and country, has lost all moral compass 13:02  |  Clickfool 25/10/07
  23.   No reason to do it 13:15  |  Binaymin Dissen 25/10/07
  24.   # 17 akiva (zionist) 13:15  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  25.   LOLZ @ Israeli Mentality 13:17  |  Paul 25/10/07
  26.   # 20 Gil 13:18  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  27.   # 20 gil 13:21  |  Axel 25/10/07
  28.   Harel is a shameless Halakha-man 13:33  |  Tosefta 25/10/07
  29.   even if it works it is illegitim 13:45  |  Peter 25/10/07
  30.   What Utter Nonsense 13:52  |  Danite 25/10/07
  31.   To Mr. Harel. 14:11  |  M. Franks-Lhermann 25/10/07
  32.   Sorry, boys, this is a monstrous crime 14:32  |  newageblues 25/10/07
  33.   morality on it`s ear 14:34  |  peter 25/10/07
  34.   Time for Iran to move Iranian Jews to the... 14:42  |  Dutch Dirk 25/10/07
  35.   Have Harel and his allies considered the hatred such acts create? 15:00  |  newageblues 25/10/07
  36.   I fully agree,he is right 15:30  |  Redback 25/10/07
  37.   I am ashamed to be a Jew!!! 15:38  |  Walter Benjamin 25/10/07
  38.   Yes, this was a good tool used by the Germans from the Jewish ter 15:38  |  American 25/10/07
  39.   The problem with Zionism is that it is mainly supported 15:54  |  Andreas 25/10/07
  40.   #1 Swiss, You are dead wrong,more than ever before 16:31  |  TOMY 25/10/07
  41.   Use Robots 16:33  |  Yosemite 25/10/07
  42.   Of course saving Jewish lives while dispensing with Arab lives! 16:36  |  El-birawi 25/10/07
  43.   Think positive. 16:41  |  Axel 25/10/07
  44.   #5 Johnboy, the predictable, this is the best 16:43  |  TOMY 25/10/07
  45.   Nobody argues that lifes are beihg saved. 16:46  |  TOMY 25/10/07
  46.   Human Shield 16:50  |  Kevin 25/10/07
  47.   # 40 TOMY, is Israels army above the law (even Israels law)...?? 17:24  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  48.   El Birawi 17:25  |  Danite 25/10/07
  49.   to Axel #43 - adjusting to what? 17:26  |  zeev 25/10/07
  50.   # 48 Danite !!! 17:50  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  51.   What will the US House of Representatives say? 17:55  |  Tarik 25/10/07
  52.   Andreas 17:59  |  Danite 25/10/07
  53.   # 49 zeev 17:59  |  Axel 25/10/07
  54.   For once, a reasonable voice in the wilderness 18:00  |  B 25/10/07
  55.   to swiss(Dino), -YEAH... 18:16  |  Judah N. Wenkel 25/10/07
  56.   Harel is a racist............... 18:18  |  Deborah 25/10/07
  57.   # 54 B 18:25  |  Axel 25/10/07
  58.   Swiss(Dino) #15 18:31  |  ODP1 25/10/07
  59.   to Tomy #44 18:31  |  zeev 25/10/07
  60.   Get the courts off the battlefield 18:32  |  Ron 25/10/07
  61.   BUT... 18:33  |  Judah N. Wenkel 25/10/07
  62.   So the ends justifies the means huh 18:38  |  anonymouse 25/10/07
  63.   Upright Rowan Berkley or the Brit double morality in action 18:47  |  Absolute Sweden 25/10/07
  64.   to Tomy #45 18:49  |  zeev 25/10/07
  65.   When Israel Harel volunteers to be the shield I will listen 19:16  |  Pablo B 25/10/07
  66.   Danite, this is not a new phenomenon 19:19  |  Ibrahim 25/10/07
  67.   Not Just Wrong - A Mistake 19:22  |  Mark of Lewiston 25/10/07
  68.   #49, Zeev, you forget the merry Purim prankster 19:38  |  newageblues 25/10/07
  69.   # 55 Judah N. Wenkel 20:10  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  70.   # 58 ODP 1 20:20  |  Swiss (Dino) 25/10/07
  71.   #55 Judah N Wenkel armchair hero 20:29  |  Labhras 25/10/07
  72.   HUMAN SHIELDS / EXCELLENT TACTICS 20:32  |  Rep Tyle