Recent YouTube video showing Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner striking an ISM foreign national made waves all over world.
By NAOMI RAGENShalom Eisner strikes protester(photo credit: Reuters)
The recent YouTube video showing Lt.- Col. Shalom Eisner, deputy commander of the Beka’a Brigade, striking an aggressive ISM foreign national in the mouth with the clip of his rifle, has made waves all over the world. As usual, as in the Mohammed al-Dura incident, the pictures, taken out of context and played without explanation, are hard to for those who love Israel to combat. After all, no one wants to attempt to justify the killing of a child (even though in the al-Dura case, it was staged and completely false) or the violent attack on a handsome blond Danish “peace activist.”Left out of the 60-second video, of course, are the two hours of physical attacks and provocations which preceded the event.According to Eisner, who has been condemned for not using the water cannon and gas grenades at his disposal, “There was no reason for me to fire a gas grenade as there had been no violence in the course of two hours of dialogue... I decided it would be better to let them calm down,” he told Ynet’s Yoav Zitun.But then, to his surprise, the 60 activists were suddenly joined by two busloads of ISM members who attempted to block Road 90, a major artery filled with holidaymakers heading towards the popular nature trails in the northern part of the country. At that point, protesters began attacking soldiers, leaving Eisner with a broken finger and injuries that required a cast on his hand. Taken by surprise, he used his weapon to deflect the attack. The ISM members, Eisner said: “risked my life and the lives of many others.” Still, the officer, highly regarded for his integrity, morality and professionalism by his fellow soldiers, admitted: “I should not have flung my weapon like that.”Unfortunately, 60 seconds is all the “flytilla” organizers needed to turn their failed propaganda stunt into another highly viewed media event blackening the face of Israel.When I first looked into this, what interested me was who these young people are who are willing to drop everything, hop onto a plane and fly to a country they have no connection with to attack IDF soldiers and risk Israeli lives on the roads. After all, they looked normal, like young people everywhere, filled with the same eager idealism that fuels the Occupy Wall Streeters and DCers, and Arab Springers. What is it that motivates them? What are they trying to accomplish? And so I did a little check on the organizers of the “Welcome to Palestine Campaign.”If you go to their websites, you would think that you had discovered a jewel of moral courage amid the garbage of modern life.Take the website of Friends of Freedom and Justice, which describes Bil’in as “a small peaceful village surrounded by hills and valleys...struggling to exist. It is fighting to safeguard its olive trees, its resources. People of Bi’lin are noted for their simplicity, hospitality and good nature.”You’d never know that the tranquil little village and its “aw shucks” bucolic residents have been involved in four years of violent protests against the security fence built to keep terrorists out of Israel. Or, as one IDF soldier told The Israel National News (Arutz Sheva), “One villager told me he is paid several hundred shekels each time he demonstrates.
It’s good business for them.” Nor would you imagine that even when their protests succeeded and the Supreme Court ordered the fence torn down and relocated, the riots only increased in violence.Another sponsor of the campaign was the Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theater Training Center, described on its website as “an independent center for artistic, cultural and theatre training which provides a ‘safe’ and healthy environment to help Palestinian children creatively discharge stress in the war-time conditions in which they live.”Who could be against that? Unfortunately, the founder of the center, Dr. Zoughbi Zoughbi, is a long-time member of Fatah, and his Wi’am Center for Conflict Resolution is a signatory to the Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.The Al-Awda Center in Beit Sahour, another campaign organizer, describes itself as “a broad-based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public education on the rights of all Palestinian refugees....”However, according to the Anti-Defamation League, Al-Awda – The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, is actually a grassroots organization that opposes Israel’s right to exist, is responsible for coordinating numerous rallies, demonstrations and events to condemn Israel and its policies.The village of Beit Sahour, known for harboring dozens of Bethlehem-area gunmen, including senior Hamas, Tanzim, and Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade terrorists, was infamously involved in the violent siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002, imprisoning 49 clergy and 45 unarmed civilians. In 2011, a terrorist cell was discovered in the village and its members put on trial for attempted murder, production of weapons and weapons trade, military training, throwing Molotov cocktails, attacking a Border Police vehicle... shall I go on, oh peaceful activists? OF COURSE, the part played by these organizations in the Welcome to Palestine provocation is minor compared to that of the International Solidarity Movement. So brush your golden locks out of your ears and eyes, Mr.starry-eyed Danish ISM activist, and listen up.Calling itself a “non-violent human rights organization that opposes terrorism and supports a two-state solution,” ISM openly incites violence and supports “armed struggle” against Israeli “occupation,” defined by ISM spokesman Raphael Cohen in 2003 as “The Zionist presence in Palestine.”Cohen admitted hosting terrorists Asif Mohammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, British citizens who entered Israel as “peace activists,” participated in ISM activities, then carried out a suicide bombing in a popular night spot next to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.On March 27, 2003, Islamic Jihad terrorist Shadi Sukiya was found with a handgun hiding in ISM offices in Jenin. Most famously, ISM’s Rachel Corrie – a hate-filled ISM activist accidentally killed while protecting a house being used for terrorist arms smuggling, has been made into a martyr, like the hapless Dane who didn’t succeed in getting himself killed, just smacked. Not to worry, world, the Dane says he’s fine. Which is more than we can say for Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner, who on top of his physical injuries has also been suspended from his duties in protecting our lives. Smart move, IDF! As I looked over the video with Eisner, it struck me how very non-violent most of it is, the IDF treating protesters with dignity and respect, in clear contrast to other recent videos posted on YouTube showing similar protests between young activists and security forces. Just look at the March 31 protest in Toronto, in which protesters are repeatedly and savagely clubbed, or the squashing of the Valencia protest in Spain in February, broken up with batons, rubber bullets and tear gas, or even the recent Occupy Protest on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge.But people won’t compare and contrast, will they? It’s hard to fight successful and clever propaganda. World history is filled with the sad evidence of young, educated, idealistic people who sided passionately with Hitler and Stalin, Mao and Che. There is no end to dupes, dummies and useful idiots who support terror and war in the name of peace and freedom. No end. Too bad in the heat of the moment Eisner wound up allowing himself to become a propaganda tool, used to convince the gullible and ignorant all over the world, and unfortunately in the Israeli leadership itself, that the provocateurs were the victims.Instead of cowering and bending under the onslaught of bad publicity, it would have been refreshing to see someone in our government standing up to shield our soldier, instead of flinging rocks and mud at his good name along with our enemies.
