Hearsay Doth Not An Investigation Make

Once again the Israeli leftist suicide squad trots out the hearsay express. This time it is in the form of Breaking the Silence. Around 30 IDF soldiers, almost entirely anonymous, have been giving testimony that they were told to essentially shoot first and ask questions later, during Operation Cast Lead earlier this year.

"We did not get instructions to shoot at anything that moved. But we were generally instructed: if you feel threatened, shoot. They kept repeating to us that this is war and in war opening fire is not restricted." [Duh]

"The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places. In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents."

I recently posted the text of a speech given by Britain's former commander for forces in Afghanistan who described the challenge of urban warfare when dealing with an enemy with no uniform, who hides among civilians. It ain't a walk in the park. Innocent people die, but that the IDF goes to greater lengths to protect civilian lives than any army on earth ever has.

There was also testimony of a "Neighbor Procedure" where civilians are supposedly forced to enter suspect buildings before soldiers. This accusation has been leveled before. I have seen video submitted to WITNESS of IDF soldiers having two Arab men stand in front of their jeep to prevent people from throwing rocks at them.

These are examples of some of the testimony. Bull dozers ripping down olive and orange groves, indiscriminate shooting of white phosphorus claims, and other things not considered "standard procedure" by the IDF were reported by these soldiers.

There's only one problem. With the exception of one Sergeant named Amir, the testimony is anonymous. No units are cited, nor are the names of commanding officers given. This is what we call hearsay. Supposedly these men are still on active duty. Frankly, I don't give a crap. If you're going to level these kinds of accusations, and you are truly interested in justice and the morality of the IDF then stand up. This testimony will not be investigated, the IDF will not investigate this without real witnesses and names. Hearsay is inadmissible.

If the IDF has officers in the field not conducting operations within their guidelines then those officers should be outed. If you're going to hide behind digitally masked video frankly you're a pussy.

Let's look at the opposite situation. There was a refusnik movement among soldiers in the IDF who refused to accept duty in Judea and Samaria because they considered it a matter of conscience. They were open about it. They stood up publicly. I have nothing but the utmost respect for that. This "breaking the silence" thing is nothing but crap being pushed by the Israeli left that wants nothing more than Israel to commit suicide, perhaps to enliven the leftist Jewish power structure that is giving way to more religious Jewish elements who have a vision that Israel stands for something beyond Tel Aviv discos. Either out yourselves and name names or shut the fuck up.

In a statement the IDF said:

"[The army]regrets the fact that a human rights organization is presenting to Israel and the world, once again, a report containing general and anonymous testimonies without ascertaining their details or reliability and without allowing the IDF, with minimal fairness, a chance to probe the affairs and respond prior to their publication".

"[The IDF] believes Breaking the Silence should encourage testifiers to break their silence and present specific claims in order for it to be possible to deal with the claims properly and investigate them, and not to hide behind anonymous testimonies."

The fact is that five other investigations of IDF conduct have been launched in the wake of OCL. The IDF has no problem investigating complaints. How can a proper investigation be undertaken if the witnesses will not name names? Even John Kerry had the balls to appear in person before Congress.

Let these soldiers come forward.