IDF urges crackdown on settler violence

[newyorican]

The Israel Defense Forces' General Staff believes that the time has come for the legal establishment to start cracking down on Israelis who use violence against soldiers and policemen in the territories.

IDF officers also want the political establishment to take a stronger stand against such violence and against calls for soldiers to refuse orders, saying this will encourage the legal establishment to act.

The IDF's sense of urgency on the subject was sparked by Monday's violent clashes between settlers and soldiers during the removal of two caravans from an outpost near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Dozens of settlers threw stones at soldiers and policemen, vandalized military vehicles and called the evacuating forces "Nazis." Three settlers and a border policeman were lightly wounded.

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/522672.html

Time to put the toothpaste back into the tube...

[The Magistrate]

1. This Is An Insance, Sir

Where the proverbial "whiff of grape" would prove salutory. All that is necessary is for the security forces to engage the recalcitrant settlers in the approximate manner they would engage Arab Palestinians clinging to an olive grove or a domicile, and the thing would sort out acceptably. Something has to be done to drive home to the settlers that the people and the government are not behind them any longer....

[pelsar]

2. perhaps it starting....

were going to need our own little "civil war"....the settlers, their kids (hill top youth) etc have been leading this country down a suicidal path for too long.

now it takes some strong political will and it maybe that only sharon can do it....

[The Magistrate]

3. If He Does It, Sir

More power to him....

He is not among my favorite figures in this matter, as you may have gathered, but whoever gets the thing done will be worth his salt and more.

"Anyone who hates children and loves whiskey can't be all bad."

[pelsar]

4. sharon...

neither is he mine...but life is not simple. It was he who helped radicalized the settlers...now I hope it is he who can rein them in.

theres is a lot of talk here about how the settlers wont be violent...I find that to be quite impossible......like all fanatics (btw this is not all the settlers, just a loud minority) they have their own convuluted morality.

[The Magistrate]

5. Indeed, Mr. Pelsar

My expectation is for some violence on the part of a hard-core among the settlers, and for precisely the same reason as you: they view it as moral question, which requires righteous violence to uphold all that is right and sacred....

"A nation is a group of people united by a mistaken view of history, and hatred for their neighbors."

[Lithos]

8. Sharon

I hate to say I support Sharon, but I hope he succeeds in reining them in.

L-

[pelsar]

9. Lithos....

join the club

[Violet_Crumble]

15. I'll join the club!

..but only if I get a spiffy membership card and a promise that I can still detest Sharon while wishing him success in any attempts to curb in the settlers...

Violet...

[pelsar]

16. violet....no problem

its a large club, so feel free to join...as far as the membership card, well we're discussing the political implications

card carrying member of the likud?
perhaps neocon member (temporary!)

[Walt Starr]

6. Are they going to bulldoze their homes?

What's good for one group of terrorists should be good for another, and an Israeli settler using violence is a terrorist every bit as much as a member of Hamas who uses violence.

[bemildred]

7. That has been considered under the logic of not leaving them

there for the benefit of the Palestinians, or so I have read. Of course
talk is cheap when it comes to I/P issues.

[TheKingfish]

10. So is it terrorism when settlers throw rocks at IDF? n/t

[IndianaGreen]

11. Settlers have not hesitated to murder Jews in the past

as one settler did when he shot an Israeli Jew at a peace demonstration. Understanding that by settlers we mean the ones living in settlements on the West Bank and Gaza, they are as ideologically driven as Hamas and Al-Qaeda!

[TheKingfish]

12. Yea just wanted to clarify

So if a settler throws a rock at an IDF soldier, i assume the IDF will bulldoze the Tel Aviv apartment building his brother lives in. Israel cannot afford to go light on terrorism!!

[IndianaGreen]

13. There have been human rights abuses on both sides

but I will add that were it not for the intifada, Israel would be consumed in a civil war, just as the Palestinians will be when they get their own state.

There aren't enough peacemakers in the region to make a difference.

[pelsar]

14. cant differentiate?

let me clarify for you...

there is a shooting war going on with the palestenains, there is not a war going on within the israeli society (at least not yet....its up for discussion here)

got it?

i'll try it this way: palesteniains attempt and succeed in killing israelis via rockets, mortors, suicide bombers etc, Settlers dont

is the difference clear now?
(actually the difference is quite obviouse, so I am curious as to why you posted it)

[TheKingfish]

17. From the original post :

"The Israel Defense Forces' General Staff believes that the time has come for the legal establishment to start cracking down on Israelis who use violence against soldiers and policemen in the territories."

So there is no difference, he is talking about settlers trying to kill IDF. I just wanted to know if IDF will retaliate with collective punishment, or whether they plan to 'respond weakly to terrorism'.