Many American police forces proudly engage in exchange programs with Israeli police, where they are trained in the tactics Israel uses to suppress the Palestinian population. Israeli police are at war with Palestinians both inside Israel and in the West Bank. This is not community policing, not by a long shot.
American police who receive this training undoubtedly bring back this warrior approach to their engagement with their own communities, especially minorities. It is certainly too soon to blame any specific killing by any particular officer on techniques or attitudes learned during such exchanges. But clearly such programs aim to influence police behavior when they return home, and it’s credible to believe that the type of adversarial, even provocative approaches to policing witnessed in Israel would have such an impact.
In Baton Rouge, after the killing of Alton Sterling, 200 protesters gathered downtown to non-violently express their opposition to the police murder. Instead of treating these citizens with dignity and respect, the local police cornered them on two sides and closed in. When the police finally reached the protesters, they began clubbing them mercilessly. They arrested people after beating them for no discernible reason. One person, interviewed on NPR, believed he would die right then.
While it is true, American police forces have treated political protest this way in the past (i.e. Chicago 1968), the most visible example of this sort of in-your-face policing is the Israeli police and border police. When police open fire on unarmed Black men without provocation, how is different is it from the shoot-to-kill orders given to Israeli police during the current Knife Intifada?
Tonight’s post offers the frightening irony that an Israeli-made assault rifle, the Tavor, murdered the three Baton Rouge police officers who were killed by Gavin Long in revenge for the Sterling murder. This isn’t just any rifle. The Tavor was developed for use by the IDF. It’s the preferred weapon of a number of élite commando units including Shayetet 13, the Navy SEALS who murdered ten Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara.
Now, the Tavor is being marketed around the world, including in the U.S. Don’t ask me why a gun used as a weapon of war by Israel is available to virtually anyone in America who can pay for one. But that’s another story.
Two years ago, I published a post on the Tavor with the ironic title, A Gun Unto the Nations (a parody of the classical Zionist slogan, “a light unto the nations”). It contained some of the material following here.
The Israeli weapon won the 2014 Golden Bullseye awarded by American Rifleman as the Gun of the Year. The police supply company PoliceOne, has marketed the Tavor to American police departments. 15,000 of them were sold in 2015. Apparently, they believe that American cities should become the same sort of battlegrounds that rage in occupied Palestine, and that they should brandish the same sorts of weapons. The official IDF publication, BaMahaneh, even ran the headline: “Tavor Conquers America!” Unfortunately, Long appears to have gotten the marketing message before the Baton Rouge PD.
Good things we don’t make trucks in Israel.
Guns don’t murder. People do. Specifically the black nationalist who chose to deliberately attack police in Baton Rouge following severe incitement by various “progressive” leaders who have been whipping up a storm of anti-police rhetoric, instead of dealing with the severe problem of inner-city crime – they’re attacking the one agency who has to deal with this.
Despite just being just 13% of the population, blacks are the offenders in approx. 50% of the murder cases according to the FBI –
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls
@ lepxii: GOd, I hope you’re not a demographer or pollster. Learn to read the charts you offer. You left out an entire group of offenders from your stats, Hispanics & Latinos. The stats identify murderers by race and ethnicity. You left out ethnicity. As a result you’ve levelled a racist slur against Blacks. That offends me.
Also, those stats only include murders in which there was one victim & one suspect. It does not include serial murders by a single killer or murders in which there were multiple suspects. Please don’t quit your day job & leave demography to professionals.
This is one of the oldest, hoariest slogans of the Gun Lobby. I can remember first hearing this faux witticism in the late 1960s. Even then, it struck me as superficially true, but fundamentally false. Me, I’d rather have people trying to kill each other the old-fashioned way: with their hands or a rock. There would be far less killing. You couldn’t just put a bullet in a chamber and pull the trigger. You’d actually have to work to kill. That would cut down on the death toll drastically.
“Guns don’t kill people, people do.” Yeah, but it helps a lot.
America’s gun laws, and free trade, allow for foreign arms to be sold.
Every American cop is strapped with a Glock (German) or a Beretta (Italian).
The Dallas cop killer used a Soviet made SKS rifle.
But if an Israeli weapon is bought and used, it’s suddenly ‘shame time’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_zrJVu6Mk
@ Trippin’ Jon:
Indeed it is. I don’t like the fact that Israel is one of the largest exporters of lethal weaponry in the world. That Israel arms some of the worst tyrants & bloodletters in the world. Exporting Tavors is only the tip of the iceberg.
“Don’t ask me why a gun used as a weapon of war by Israel is available to virtually anyone in America who can pay for one. But that’s another story.”
1. It’s called the 2nd amendment and it is part of your constitution.
2. Though very similar to the army version, this is the Semi-automatic TC-21 version which is slightly different.
And it is also made in the USA, by US workers, using a mix of US and Israeli parts.
@OneIsraeli: it is an Israeli weapon sold under license from the Israeli weapons maker who produced it. IAI also earns profits from every Tavor sold here. Hence, it’s an Israeli weapon. As they say. You broke (or killed) it, you own it.
Let me see if I understand – the planes used in 9/11 were Boeing, Boeing is an US company, therefore… the US was behind 9/11?
The lorry used in Nice was of a German make. Therefore… Germany murderous automobile industry is responsible for the massacre?
Just wondering how it works.
@ OneIsraeli: Invariably when one of you hasbara dolts says: “Let me see if I understand” it means that you don’t understand…anything.
Why do all of you act as if you stopped your intellectual development at age 4 (or is it 8?)? I never said that Israel killed the police officers. I said an Israeli weapon did. That is a plain fact. I also never said Israeli tactics killed Black civilians, but that it becomes increasingly likely that it is having an impact on policing of American minority communities. It’s only a matter of time before a police officer trained by the Israelis does kill an unarmed civilian. When that happens, things will become far worse for Israel. And it will happen.
If you have any other wild-eyed speculative jumps in logic to make, keep it to yourself.
Remember what I said about snark. It isn’t funny, witty or entertaining…except to you. The comment threads here aren’t meant for an audience of one (i.e. YOU).
It’s amazing how you are unable to realize that once you fall back to your puerile name calling, the game is up.
Don’t worry, Richard – it is obvious the blog is not here for my adjustment solely. Your other six or so adoring echo-chamber fans couldn’t live without it.
@ OneIsraeli: There have been 1 million site visits in the past year by hundreds of thousands of separate individuals. As for the six members of the echo chamber, that’s the six hasbarati like you who frequent this blog (at any one time).
Comments must be substantive. That is, they must offer an argument based on the post. If you comment strays from that format, you’re off topic as you are here.
Adjustment = amusement. Auto-correct strikes again.
That’s funny.
In the last decade, 1000’s of civilians were killed in the US in police brutality. But if one of them had visited Israel before, then obviously that will be the cause of it.
Someone is looking for arrows and draw a target around them.
If anything, the fact that no cop who visited was involved in such case may show they were equipped in Israel with toolset that helps them solve the incident in a better way.
The second amendment does not give us the right to buy military grade weapons from genocidal states like Israel. You want to follow the second amendment? Go and buy a musket and join a militia. Israeli terrorist police have infected the US police force like a very bad fungus and we Americans are allowing it to happen, justifying it by saying, “Oh, well, the guns/tear gas/military armaments are made in the US and give Americans jobs.”
What an evil point of view.
The specific weapon in this case is not military-grade, being semi-automatic, and it is not “from … states like Israel”. It is produced and sold in the US. Clear your own house before telling people what to do with theirs.
I’ll tell you what you can do with yours.
[Comment deleted: comments must be substantive & deal directly with the subject of the post]
Richard, can you enlighten me as to which part of “I’ll tell you what you can do with yours” is “substantive and deal directly with the subject of the post”, so I can better understand your guidelines?
Because God forbid you just delete those comments you don’t happen to like.
@ OneIsraeli: Yeah, you’re right. It was silly and gratuitous.
[comment deleted: I asked you to read the comment rules. You didn’t. If you choose to question my editorial decisions you will not be long for this blog. Your next comment rule offense will result in moderation.]
[comment deleted: you do realize I’m about to moderate you? If you comment again on questions of editorial judgment regarding how comments should be handled, you will be.]
@ Danny: No, the 2nd amendment doesn’t call for citizens to be permitted to own automatic weapons or assault rifles. It calls for a well-regulated militia’s right to be armed. Last I checked, individual gun owners aren’t part of a militia & so shouldn’t have the right or need to bear arms.
I am Jewish and have been at this for long enough to find hope for peace and any good future for anyone, least of all Jews a dim possibility. Guns ! weapons of slaughter! thank-you zionism, again! Hitler murdered 5.3 million (at least) of Jewery but he could not touch our honor, our good, our value to this world, but for the last 69 years zionism is succeeding where he and his abettors failed. It really is so F-in depressing I really don`t know how I go on.
So I saw your gallery option and thought more horror but we need to know, I cannot look away and think myself human. With the rest of your work what might I find? What I found was the reason to go on and to do so with Joy. I found the love of good people, children, of nature this world, of life, All of G-ds gifts and the knowledge that the human who posts such here, on this site does what he does for love and with that as our guide all good is possible. Thank-you, so much.
May you and yours always be as happy.
“Israeli police are at war with Palestinians”?
Seriously Richard?
@John F: Dead seriously. 200 Palestinian dead since last September seriously.
I tried finding a source for your figure can you please provide source? In any case how many were criminals? How many of those were terrorists? You give no evidence or breakdown that deaths from police activity are caused by a “war”, and not the more straightforward result of criminal and/or terrorist activity. In fact if it were really a “war” 200 is not a very large number since September considering the capabilities of the Israeli police.
@ John F: I’ve added up all Palestinian deaths in wars, major campaigns, etc. since 1948. I’ve consulted various online sites which estimate the deaths. Go through every major war, battle, military operations since then & do your own count. I think the number is conservative. But do the math yourself. See what number you get.
I do so love the Hasbara brigade claims (made so often around here) that Israeli police & military must be operating with great restraint because they “only” killed 200, or 2,300 when they easily could’ve killed more if they’d determined to engage in genocide & really used the full arsenal. DO you realize how moronic this sounds? Do you care?
So in other words the Israeli police haven’t killed 200 Palestinians since September. It’s just from some grand total of deaths in history divided by months or something? How does that make any sense that’s not actual reality
I guess we could also say that Germany has murdered 5000 Jews a month (or whatever it is) between 1939-2016
Not to mention that very few of those died in incidents involving the police. So even by your account it should be 5 max 10. You have better chance counting since the beginning of knife intifada when terrorists came into Israeli cities and were neutralized by the police.
Israeli forces have killed over 5,500 Palestinians during the period of September 2000 to November 2015. This figure excludes casualties from both the 2009 and 2014 wars in Gaza.
That is 367 Palestinians per year, but the average number is probably higher now.
– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/israeli-forces-have-killed-over-5500-palestinians-in-the-last-15-years-and-not-one-solider-has-been-prosecuted/#sthash.0JzXjS4j.dpuf
I agree entirely, John F. It’s absurd hyperbole to say these 200 deaths are war deaths. They are the result of many things – occupation, oppression, dispossession, land theft, property destruction, deliberate impoverishment, denial of human rights and attempted ethnic cleansing – but few would see these as the classic victims of war. Let’s call the denial of peace deaths.
For someone so attuned to Israel and so well-informed about the IDF, I am surprised Richard decided to label his illustrative picture with “IDF shooter” and leave out the name of Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, ex-military attache to Washington, who was at the time the first recipient of an operational Tavor.
Israeli master mind of killing at its best. Now in USA. ..harry while supply lasts.