In an interview in Yediot today, the commander of the Israeli Border Police Special Forces unit, Brig. Gen. Shlomi Michael, all but confirmed that his forces did a ‘Bin Laden,’ executing the two Palestinians who kidnapped and murdered three Israeli youth in the West Bank. Michael’s identity may not be reported in Israeli media, but I identified him back in 2012 (when he was still a lowly Colonel).
I continue to feel any military commander who executes captives or prisoners (and that’s what the Palestians were once they were located) should be held accountable for his actions. Not inside Israel of course, which is impossible. But outside Israel, perhaps he will be known and judged.
Here is the translation of the relevant portion of the interview:
One of the soldiers said to the others: “This is it. If the commander comes to talk to us here it’s a sign that this time we’re in the right place.” And that is indeed what the commander told them: “I want every moment for you to have before you the image of those dead boys. So that you remember well that this is the moment we’ve been waiting for.” Afterward, as darkness fell upon them, a few moments before he left…he said, “you know what we must do. You are ready for this mission and will carry it out well. Because now it’s happening.
“I don’t quite know how to say it: this is a cycle of blood (“blood feud”) that hasn’t yet been closed. It began with the kidnapping, continued when the bodies were found. Afterward, there was war [in Gaza], and finally when the kidnappers were found and liquidated. Did we then close the circle? Perhaps it’s more accurate to say we settled accounts.”
Israel is less and less a country operating according to any principles or values we’d recognize here in the west. It’s sunk increasingly into a vicious blood feud with its Arab neighbors.
It’s bad enough for two Palestinian troublemakers to take matters into their own hands and murder three Israeli boys. But when Israel brings the full force of the State down upon them and executes them in cold blood and brags about it in the media, this is unconscionable. No civilized person (unless they’re a pro-Israel true believer) can stomach this.
There will be a few who will point out what I’ve already noted above: yes, Obama assassinated Osama bin Laden. I’ve written denouncing that bit of state terrorism. It was inexcusable. But Bin Laden caused the death of nearly 3,000 Americans. The Palestinian suspects had killed three and they could easily have been apprehended and tried for their crimes.
The problem is that Israel doesn’t believe in legal process or rule of law when it comes to national security matters. Those are niceties reserved for Israeli Jews. When a Palestinian kills an Israeli it’s the law of the jungle. And nations that live in the jungle can die there as well. When the time comes and Israel needs the help of outsiders, why should they? Israel violates the norms of civilized nations, why should a civilized nation care when the chips are down?
Why shouldn’t the world instead embrace BDS? When faced with monsters like Brig. Gen. Michael (monsters who are totally normative for Israel) what’s the rest of the world to think about this country?
“..any military commander who executes captives or prisoners (and that’s what the Palestians were once they were located)”
Armed captives? Armed prisoners?
Any self respecting police force let alone a military unit can disarm 2 men armed with a rifle unless they intend to execute them. Oh & btw where’s the IDF video proving your case?
“It’s bad enough for two Palestinian troublemakers to take matters into their own hands and murder three Israeli boys.”
This was a well planned, badly executed, kidnapping attempt. The finances, $60,000 for weapons, cars and a land plot, came from Gaza. You make it sound like the kidnappers were out joyriding and decided to murder the boys. It was a planned kidnap, that went awry when one of the boys got caught using his cell phone.
@ Richard,
I’m soory Ricahrd but what you translated is nothing but jargon and doesn’t prove that they planned to execute them. Not if you read the Hebrew part and actually know Hebrew and come from Israel.
This is another article published today in mako which cleraly says exactly what I’ve wrote in the previous thread – read carefully and you’ll see that they called them out to surrender.
http://www.mako.co.il/pzm-units/border-guard/Article-c7fe12674c1d841006.htm?sCh=3d385dd2dd5d4110&pId=1898243326
@ shay: Lies. You know as well as I that chuslu means to liquidate them, as in “with extreme prejudice.” You don’t use that word before the operation unless you intend to murder them. Also, you don’t close a ‘circle of blood’ that began with murder unless you intend murder yourself, which is precisely what Michael executed (literally). This is an interview with the author of the crime. I’ll trust it rather than anything else you may produce for hasbara consumption.
I’ve offerend a number of time to consider your hasbara line if you can produce the IDF video of the killing. No one seems to have taken me up on my offer.
“You don’t use that word before the operation unless you intend to murder them”
Where did he use that word before the operation? In the article it is *after* the operation.
@ Elad: Nope. Some of the conversations recounted in my translation happened before the operation. But whenever the comments were made they were made by the overall commander of the operation AND the Border Police are known for their homicidal rage in their operations among the Palestinian community. You can spin this any way you want. But you’ll fail. It was cold premeditated murder.
[comment deleted–you’re done in this thread.]
@ Richard,
I am not lying. It is jargon – it is the term in military slang. If you want proof for that just read the article I mentioned – they used the same terminology ‘hisul’ while describing what happened from their POV which isn’t taget killing.
“This is an interview with the author of the crime. I’ll trust it rather than anything else you may produce for hasbara consumption.”
You used an Israeli news paper to make your point. How’s that not hasbara consumption? Because you misinterpeted what he’s actually saying? You know he’s talking in hindsight when he says that they ‘settled the score’.
By the way, the ‘autor of the crime’ isn’t even on the scene itself but in a more remote place as it is also mentioned in the snippet you published. The article I mentioned interviewed the equvillant of a company leader – which means he’s directly under the ‘author’ and was the one commanding the troops on the scene itself – this is exactly how you do an arrest.
About the video – Hey! I’ll just drop down to the local videomat and get it for you! (This is how you answer to hasbaristas when they ask for videos – at least in the same tone). There is no video that I know of the exact moment of the shooting – and you know that in many incidents in the past, video footage didn’t help – if you want to believe something no matter what is shown to you, you’ll find a way to dismiss it (quality of the video, it’s being edited, the source etc). I think in both threads I’ve explained myself enough so that if anyone of your readers is openminded would at least contemplate about it being an arrest.
Lastly, I’ll just put it out there – although you claimed that ‘ When a Palestinian kills an Israeli it’s the law of the jungle’ – the Fogels family murderers were arrested alive.
@ shay: Would you care to compare how many Palestinians suspected of murdering Israelis in cold blood were murdered compared to how many were captured alive? The numbers wouldn’t be in your favor, I guarantee.
@ shay: OK, so you can’t produce the video providing any evidence to support your claim. I’ll make it even easier: present the supposed weapon that the two Palestinians fired at the Israeli forces. That should be easy. Where is it?
@ Richard,
Once again, you think that if I show you a picture with M16’s, AK-47’s and a gun it would change anything? Will you really be convinced? I’ve read this blog (and others) long enough to know that you’ll never trust any picture I show. There is, though, an audio of the COM and some other videos of the arrest setup outside the compound.
You based your evidence on a source – which, as I said, learned to respect since I started following you, but know that he or they aren’t mistake free, and a very short paragraph from a newspaper that doesn’t say a lot, while there are many articles that describe what happened there and aren’t in agreement with your theory – why haven’t you used them as well?
I also know, that this is not the first time you translated ‘hisul’ as ‘liquidate’ and I hope that the article I linked proved to you that this isn’t always the case when describing a military action, but rather more of general term if you will.
About the ‘captured alive versus dead Israeli killers’ it would be interesting to see that statistics. Especially in the west bank.
It saddens me to read the headline: “Border Police Special Forces Commander Confirms Execution of Hebron Kidnap-Murderers.” Netanyahu practiced so much deception and subterfuge following the disappearance of the three settler teens that I’m not willing to convict these two Palestinians of the crime. Even the caption under the accompanying photo indicates: “Brig. Gen. Shlomi Michael publicly concedes execution of Palestinian kidnap-murder suspects. (Michael Kramer/Ynet)”
There are thousands of Palestinians, including many children, currently rotting in Israeli prisons on false charges or no charges at all. Israel considers all Palestinians guilty of something, even if only living on land it covets for itself. I call it the crime of Breathing While Palestinian.
Since these two young Palestinian men were never even charged, let alone tried and convicted, I refuse to refer to them as anything more than suspects.
@ Mary,
The commander didn’t admit to their ‘execution’ but to them being killed by his unit in the context of a gun fight.
I mean this is the SWAT commander, don’t you think that if the entire security services are trying to make it look like an arrest he knew to watch his tongue? I mean he’s the author of this crime – he would be the first to guard this secret!
By the way, if you wish to be accurate about the 2 palestinians you should do the same with murdered teens – they did not just ‘disappear’.
“There are thousands of Palestinians, including many children, currently rotting in Israeli prisons on false charges or no charges at all. Israel considers all Palestinians guilty of something, even if only living on land it covets for itself. I call it the crime of Breathing While Palestinian.”
So had they been arrested and tried will you say that justice was served? I doubt it.
@ shay: That’s a complete mischaracterization of what the commander said in the Yediot interview. He said nothing about a gun fight & used the term “liquidate,” which is almost always used in terms of an execution or targeted killing, which this was.
You’re done in this thread as well. Do not comment in this thread again.
“He said nothing about a gun fight”
That is another untrue statement, have you read the article? He describes the gun fight here:
http://imgur.com/PYaZkne
You can censor this comment as well…
@ Elad: I have no idea what article you’ve displayed at that URL since there’s no reporter or newspaper name on it. The Yediot article which is displayed here says nothing about a gunfight. But even if the portion of the article you’ve displayed is authentic, it makes clear that Israeli forces deliberately set a fire in the home which killed the second militant. Again even if the article you display is authentic it makes clear there was no attempt to call for the militants to surrender. That Israeli forces fired first on them. If the Palestinians fired at all (which is in dispute) the militants fired after first being fired on.
There are articles based on IDF or Shabak sources which claim there was a gunfight. But that’s bollocks. As I wrote in this post, that is the standard boilerplate story they wheel out every time they murder a militant they’ve determined to execute. Again, if there was a gunfight, let’s see the gun.
You are done in this thread. You and other apologists here have raised every argument that can be raised. Repetition is boring. So move on.
@ Mary Hughes Thompson: A point well-taken. I’ll keep that in mind when writing of this case again.
[comment deleted: you decided to ignore my request not to comment further in the thread. As a result you are moderated. Future comments will only be published if you respect the comment rules.]