IDF Lt.-Col. Shalom [sic] Eisner bashes demonstrator in the face with his M-16. (Still captured from YouTube video.)
Even Netanyahu has to pretend this is too much: Haaretz reports that the Israeli Prime Minister issued a statement condemning a senior IDF officer caught on video smashing a peaceful protester in the face with his rifle.
Here's the video of the commander, identified by Haaretz as Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner, and his men taking on the most recent existential threat to Israel. If you're short on time, just watch the first 15 seconds:
The victim, not yet identified in the published reports but apparently an international (if he'd been a Palestinian, no problem!), part of a protest bike ride, organized by Sharek Youth Forum, in the Jordan Valley on Saturday. Haaretz's original story said "some 250 activists, mostly Palestinian youths from the West Bank," participated; a report by two activists from the International Solidarity Movement says there were about 100 bikers. According to the ISM report, the bikers
rode approximately 5 kilometers before being blocked by Israeli occupation soldiers and jeeps at the entrance to Route 90. Soldiers informed the bikers that they would not be allowed to continue “for their own safety.” When activists peacefully attempted to continue on their way, the local commander of the occupation forces swung his rifle at the the head of multiple activists, resulting in the hospitalizations of the three activists and the detention of a man from Sweden.
The ISM report goes on to explain the motivation for the protest:
Palestinian drivers on Route 90, the Jordan Valley’s main north-south route, face regular harassment and attacks from Israeli settlers and soldiers. Palestinian drivers and cyclists are frequently pulled over and searched for no reason, and in some places Palestinians are even prevented from turning across the road at places Israelis have free access to.
The Jordan Valley faces a concerted Israeli campaign of ethnic cleansing towards the Palestinians living there. Demolitions of homes occur with frequency, and the Israelis are currently stealing the vast majority of the valley’s land and water. The majority of the fruit and vegetables produced on this stolen land are exported to Europe and North America. The bike demonstration was part of a day of demonstrations and festivities that included visits to villages, a youth dubke performance, and speeches. The events aim to send the message to the world and the occupying forces that the people of the Jordan Valley and Palestine refuse to cede their land to the illegal occupation and will continue to resist and remain on their land.
Naturally, none of that is included in either of the two Haaretz stories.
The paper does, however, make room for Eisner's claim that the young man he attacked had hit him and broken two of his fingers earlier in the demonstration. He probably could have gotten away with that story if the video hadn't surfaced. (Everybody knows that the IDF routinely allows protesters who assault and injure officers to stand around and continue their demonstrations, right?)
But once the ISM posted the video this morning, even the IDF had to distance itself from Eisner: A spokesperson issued a statement saying, according to Haaretz, "This is a grave incident. GOC Central Command Nitzan Alon ordered a thorough investigation in which the circumstances of the incident will be examined. Lessons will be derived and the appropriate steps will be taken." Next IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz got in the act, claiming that "The incident does not reflect IDF principles and will be thoroughly investigated." Finally, Bibi too piled on, declaring that "Such behavior does not characterize IDF soldiers and officers and has no place in the Israel Defense Forces and in the State of Israel."
Under the circumstances, it sounds as though Eisner's future in the IDF could be limited. Not to worry, though: for the long run, smashing a protester in the face on camera is probably a great career booster in today's Israel. He has already made himself a hero to many Israelis. According to Haaretz, Knesset member Michael Ben Ari, for example, issued this tribute:
"Well done to the IDF officer who did what Bibi and [Israeli Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak] Aharonovich have no brain or courage to do. Radical leftists must be handled with a heavy hand. There was a tangible threat to the lives of the soldiers and the officer had no other choice. If it was a settler who was beaten we would not have heard the cries of the hypocrites on the left. Turns out they are not interested in human rights but the rights of terrorists and pro-Arabs."
What a brutal asshole Eisner is. You can bet this was not the first time. You can see anger and brutality all over his face. May he do some time hell. No excuse for such violence. Israel can not stand all of these peaceful protest. Not going away
No doubt, Kathleen, Israel cannot stand all of these peaceful protests. By their behavior we know this to be true. MY QUESTION: Why don’t they just ignore all this? What harm? Is the “uppitiness” of the Palestinians and (ahem) foreign human beings that must be suppressed? OK, but why? should we ask white southerners about why the same sort of thing (suppressing “uppitiness”) was true in the American South before 1970 (and maybe sometimes also after)?
People with tiny testicles wielding way too much localized power. Must be a real release for Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner to plant the butt of an M-16 in the face of an unarmed, non-violent, non-resisting peace activist.
For those, like Annie, who beat up on me for my previous comments about the self-control of the IDF guys raiding the Palestinian home, perhaps you can now appreciate the difference between the choices being made at the level of person-to-person interactions. It was a choice of some Lt. Col. like this nematode that ordered the raid of the homes. It was the soldier’s choice to behave in a non-violent way in carrying out the orders. I did not see any malice in the eyes of that soldier.
But malicious Semites like this Eisner is the reason for the growing international hatred of Israel, it’s people, and it’s apartheid policies. Of course, Bibi sees it as a useful message to the left: don’t mess with Israel. But then Bibi is a malicious Semite, too.
As a result of the inevitable extension of hatred by association, the US is making itself a target of this same growing hatred. After all those M-16s are US weapons.
I hope the irony of this fat-ass being named “Shalom” will be lost on no one.
like Annie, who beat up on me
uh huh. your proportionality is showing again. denis, we all know we can measure any injustice against something worse. your argument doesn’t get better by repeating it. anything can be mangled thru a moral equivalency sausage mixer. perhaps you are so unhappy with the results of that last conversation you wish to drag it into this thread, or maybe it was so successful you feel like repeating it casting yourself as the victim of my abuse this time. and how could we forget
boring over-wrought cheap ad hominem ‘hater’ lingo. and your response? Are you taking a cheap shot because it applies to you?, see ya round. it’s always someone elses deficiencies, it’s never your argument that is deficient.
I bet my farm that Natanyahu’s DNA doesn’t have a drop of “semite” in it.
Some people are born semites, others self-appoint it – just ask any Russian israeli or that Peruvian Indian family that were converted by some Rabbi in the jungles of Peru, brought back to Palestine and were anointed semetic by some mystical israeli oil and given more rights than native semetic Palestinians.
Taxi, I was under the impression that “Semitic” was a spurious designation to begin with. It has no real meaning. Wasn’t it a spurious 18th or 19th century German designation for a group of languages they thought had a common origin, as if that has anything to do with the origin of the peoples involved, such as they understood “origin” before human genetics was correctly understood. That is, “Semitic” belongs under the rubric of spurious “racial” designations.
I can’t understand why the term is still in use. And we need to make up our minds whether the Israelis are European colonists and colonialists, or returning “Semites”
Does sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, and all the rest of the sciences which study humans in groups of one type or another recognise the term Semite in any objective way?
I’d love to see an independent DNA testing of
Bibi and 99 Ashkenazim
100 sephardic Jews
100 Palestinians
100 Samarians
and see who is linked to whom.
Semitic referred to those speaking Semitic languages of the middle east. Only when the ideas of race and people and soil in Europe took off did Maar attach it to European Jews when he wrote Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum (“The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism?)
Interestingly, this coincided with the rise of ideas behind Zionism and richly ironic that Zionism embraced the same language motivated by a perverse and bigoted wack job for self identity.
Before that no self respecting European Jew would consider himself a Semitic person anymore than I would consider myself an Eskimo.
So out of respect for both true semitic people and Jews everywhere, one should never ever use the expression anti Semitic or Semitic to refer to those of the Jewish religion.
Semitic is simple. It is a language group including Arabic and the defunct Aramaic. Hebrew is a pidgin of Greek and Aramaic. That is a much longer answer but Joseph Yehuda covers it well in Hebrew is Greek.
The use of semitic is a long and boring answer. The only interesting thing lately is the Israeli Defense Minister said a couple weeks ago that bad mouthing Palestinians and Arabs is antisemitic. Maybe reality is catching up with him.
“Semitic referred to those speaking Semitic languages of the middle east”
And what makes those languages “Semitic”? I am pretty sure that the designation “Semitic” is spurious, no matter who it is applied to.
It is just as spurious for Arabs as it is for Jews.
Do any modern studies, besides the ones studying the spurious designations of the past, use the term “Semitic” as a meaningful designation?
I’m pretty sure the term is more meaningless now than when it was invented.
“Interestingly, this coincided with the rise of ideas behind Zionism and richly ironic that Zionism embraced the same language motivated by a perverse and bigoted wack job for self identity.”
Yup, there’s that little wrinkle, too. Like I said, I’m pretty sure the term “Semite” is nearly as spurious as the all-purpose rubric “Jewish community”.
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages.
They are named after the Semites. This term was applied to the ancient peoples who migrated from the Arabian peninsula to Mesospotamia and the Levant.
Considering the mixing that has gone on over the last few thousand years, the original meaning of the term hardly applies to living people.
However, the languages can still be called “Semitic” without implying that the speakers are pure-bred Akkadians.
“Semitic is simple. It is a language group including Arabic and the defunct Aramaic. Hebrew is a pidgin of Greek and Aramaic. That is a much longer answer but Joseph Yehuda covers it well in Hebrew is Greek.”
“They are named after the Semites. This term was applied to the ancient peoples who migrated from the Arabian peninsula to Mesospotamia and the Levant. “
Ho-kay! Glad that’s cleared up!
“Hebrew is a pidgin of Greek and Aramaic.” Please elaborate, especially on the Yehuda book and its methods.
Denis: “After all those M-16s are US weapons.”
Interestingly, the Israelis have their own rifle designs which seem to have replaced US weapons for front-line units. I wonder whether they deliberately use US weapons for internal suppression in order to deliberately associate the US with such despicable actions. It’s the same with tear gas, surely not beyond the competence of Israeli chemists to manufacture but instead imported from the US.
@ libra,
[a discussion, over 20 years ago, in NY about guns/rifles]:
“The M-16 really sucks.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Why do we use it then?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Coz it’s for free!”
Eisner is being interrogated right now by the Military Criminal Investigation division. It will be interesting to see if there is a statement by either the investigators, the government or Eisner following the interrogation.
@ Ira Glunts,
IDFers have shot and killed innocents. All those ‘immediate interrogations’ and ‘immediate investigations’ and ‘immediate actions’ lead to ‘immediate what,’ exactly?
Ha’aretz has identified the victim as a Danish national by the name of Andreas. He told the paper that he will be meeting with lawyers in Ramallah, and is considering filing a formal complaint against Eisner, who he says attacked him without any provocation whatsoever. Andreas categorically denies any violence on his part or on the part of any of the cyclists, Palestinians or internationals.
Here’s the report, in Hebrew:
link to haaretz.co.il
Cue the Zionists crying crocodile tears about the persecution of
GermanIsraeli soldiers inPolandPalestine“the God-given homeland of the Jews.”That is holodile tears.
Speak of the devil today Haaretz says exactly the same thing.
link to haaretz.com
Before we lose the protective shell
By Nehemia Shtrasler
The occupation has so corrupted Israel and its values that this is normal, and is praised by their representatives in the Knesset. What a hideous place.
And now you have rabbis and Danny Dayan lining up to condemn the action – not of the IDF soldier but the behaviour of government officials for suspending the soldier.
Eisner is ‘religious” where ‘religious’ means feral, brutal and with a deep and mental fetish for ‘the land’. So Moshiach can land.
538 BCE
The prophet Daniel receives the prophecy of the 70 weeks concerning the Temple’s destruction. (Daniel 9 : 1-27)
Why was the Temple destroyed? Because G-d wasn’t happy.
Are sociopaths such as Eisner really pleasing G-d today? Or is it the same failing as back in 538 BCE ?
Are sociopaths such as Eisner really pleasing G-d today? Or is it the same failing as back in 538 BCE ?
That would depend on what you think floats God’s boat. Eisner’s supporters seem to think the Holy One blessed be He finds the sound of rifle on cyclist jaw a pleasing noise.
For example:
From “Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, We Are Proud of You” (Hebrew; my translation): link to srugim.co.il
Even in antiquity when the temple was rebuilt the Jewish crowd needed the neighbours. And that is the way of the world. The notion that Israel can go it alone was nonsense 500 years BCE and is nuts today.
The Jewish people doesn’t have enemies. The enemies are within.
@ seafoid,
Q: The prophet Daniel receives the prophecy of the 70 weeks concerning the Temple’s destruction.
R: I was very, very drunk!
link to youtube.com
Jolly good
Hear, hear; a summing-up on an indisputably sound foundation.
Please. It is not an occupation. It is a totalitarian, military dictatorship.
“its values” – and what would they be?
Soldiers informed the bikers that they would not be allowed to continue “for their own safety.”
Just like the mafioso who instructs the store-owner that taking out extra insurance with the mob is in his best interest.
Some years ago, during the Oslo years, I went with a group of Israelis to visit Hebron. Our guide and host was a Palestinian Authority official. I had been to the Jewish parts of Hebron many times as a guest of settlers and the IDF. But this was my first time visiting the city as the guest of Palestinians. I was nervous but felt secure within the group and our safety was guaranteed by the PA.
Ourb group was strolling through the market when a patrol of Israeli paratroopers in full battle gear – M-16s, helmets, flak jackets, communications equipment – showed up. They had identifed us as Israelis. The soldiers told us they were required to accompany us. If anything happened to us, they would be held accountable. We told them that we feel perfectly safe and would prefer that they left. It was certainly less safe for us, as Israelis, to be associated with the IDF. The soldiers stuck around for a bit, kind of accompanying us, but, since they couldn’t tell us where to go, so it was a rather odd reversal. After a while they disappeared.
Killing Palestinians meanwhile goes unnoticed by our media.
>> “The incident does not reflect IDF principles and will be thoroughly investigated,” Gantz said.
He’s right. The Jewish State’s Terrorist Forces should simply have shot (Mr.) Andreas in the face with a tear gas canister or a rubber bullet. That would have reflected the JSTF’s principles more correctly.
But they didn’t.
Instead, they elected to suspend Eisner and most likely he will be discharged from the army.
most likely he will be discharged from the army.
oh please, spare us.
What should I spare you from, the truth?
link to ynet.co.il
‘In all likelihood: “Gantz will discharge Eisner”‘
Do you have examples of armies behaving in the same way in similar events?
“‘In all likelihood: “Gantz will discharge Eisner”- Oh well, if the man says so, it MUST be true…………
“Do you have examples of armies behaving in the same way in similar events?” Well err, actually no, that’s the point….
“Instead, they elected to suspend Eisner and most likely he will be discharged from the army.”
That video establishes beyond doubt a pre-meditated, criminal assault. Why is this pig not being criminally charged and serving time?? Or is criminal law only applicable to the gentiles?
“most likely” – You mean like the psychopath who rammed Rachel Corrie with his bulldozer for the unspeakable crime of trying to save someones home from being turned into a pile of rubble? What did he get exactly? Or the moron who fired a bullet into Tom Hurndalls head as he was trying to get two little girls to safety, leaving him in a coma for nine months before he finally died?
“But they didn’t” – ‘most likely’, because the thickos have finally woken up to smell the coffee: i.e. the fact the eyes of the world are upon them.
Too late, isra-hel: the coffee’s gone cold.
972mag.com’s coverage of this incident includes a few more interesting details. One is an as-yet unconfirmed report that the perp, Lt. Col. Shalom [sic] Eisner, is – or at least was – in line for promotion to Deputy Commander of Bahad 1, the IDF’s officer-training school. Reporter Ami Kaufman writes that “Leading Bahad 1 is considered to be one of the most prestigious jobs in the IDF” and several of its former commanders went on to become high-ranking generals or Chiefs of Staff.
Kaufman also reports that Eisner is the son of the late Rabbi Benny Eisner, “an icon of religious Zionism who also lived in the ‘Jewish House’ in Abu Tor, East Jerusalem.”
Meanwhile, the latest piece in Haaretz reports that the Danish ambassador to Israel has asked Israeli authorities for “clarifications” on the incident because Andreas Ias, the young man whose face Eisner smashed, is a Danish citizen.
Oh, and Israeli President Shimon Peres says he’s “shocked” by the incident
Peres is such a tart.
One of the architects of YESHA.
And he’s surprised.
Pull the other one, Simon.
Israeli tramps
I’d love to see this song covered by Dam or someone
link to youtube.com
Israel how, Israel how, how, how,
Israel you’ve gone too far
Israel you’ve gone too far and you should hang your head in shame
For these wounds I cannot stay, you’ve gone too far
You’ve broke my heart, you’ve gone too far
Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel,
On another note I have been reading my recently arrived Rose guide to the Temple
link to rose-publishing.com
and I note that the first 2 temples were destroyed because the people of Israel strayed from G-d. And I guess Israel has racked up enough G-d infringement points since 1967 to qualify for a third out.
And in another interesting twist the second Temple was built with the financial support of the Persians who now go under the name Iran.
But you won’t hear that from the Ziobots.
@ seafoid,
That deity has learned his lesson and now lets his chosen people punish themselves.
It’s a very confusing subject for me, this Choseness thing. I asked my Father about it, once (you didn’t ask him twice if you knew what was good for you) and he drew himself up to his full short and proclaimed: “Chosen People? Of course we are Chosen! Chosen to suffer! Go get me a beer!”
And that was the concept of choseness I took to heart. I’m up to about a half-rack a day now.
Wonderful letter from a University of Michigan student here:
link to michigandaily.com
It’s on full view in today’s ‘Michigan Daily’, serving 40,000 students.
It clearly condemns the “racist and illegal Israeli occupation, segregation and discrimination against Palestinians.”
University of Michigan students are moving to the forefront of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
does anyone know what was said by the soldier in the very last frame — the soldier who appeared to be guarding a handcuffed protester? The soldier looked/sounded like he was embarrassed/sympathetic.
Radical leftists = mainstream thinkers who will be running Israel by 2030 .
I beg to differ. This man is a senior officer in the most moral army in the world. This must have been the right thing to do.
Video is antisemitic
The internet is antisemitic
Video on the internet is whatever the Jewish version of the Antichrist is.
“is whatever the Jewish version of the Antichrist is.”
You don’t know? For Gawd’s sakes, seafoid, I’ve been commenting here for well over a year!
Is it some class of uberschmuck?
“Is it some class of uberschmuck?”
Well, people always say I am in a crass by myself, when I’m not outstanding in my field, of course.
Predictably, Haaretz looks around for a story to balance the IDF thuggery story and what they come up with is “Israel Border Police beat, detain 9-year-old Jewish boy in Hebron” The only grounds for balance is the number of lines and the size of the headline. The substance is vapid. The writer, Chaim Levinson, must not have much to work with, either in substance or skills.
“A Border Police officer choked the boy, and held him in the air for approximately 10 minutes.” Held him in the air for 10 minutes? Beg pardon?
When was the last time a Palestinian kid getting “detained” was reported by the Israeli msm? Any nonsense to divert attention from IDF thuggery will do.
I would not regard two stories about IDF violence as “balancing one another”. They both reflect negatively on the army.
On Persian support for Temple/Israelites – it’s interesting to look at Isaiah 45 and find that Cyrus, Iranian paragon, is God’s ‘Anointed’ (in Greek or Latin, ‘Christ’ – always gives me a bit of a shock). Darius the Great in his autobio inscription refers to himself as an ‘Aryan’ (ie Iranian). Ezra says that the sums subscribed by the Iranian treasury to the Temple were vast – (some question this!)
Antichrist = rebel against anointed king, I suppose – was originally a Jewish character. He is often supposed to come from the apostate tribe of Dan. Wilhelm Bousset’s ‘Antichrist Legend’ is quite a good read.
Cyrus was a forerunner of the President of the US in terms of role played towards the Jewish community. A legend of antiquity . Parsi kids are still names after him today. Maybe only Lincoln would get even remotely close.
Is that why Dan(iel) goes up against the royal palace under Cyrus?
Daniel and in fact the entire captivity is a fable written by the Greeks in Egypt. So is the entire Septuagint for that matter. You might as well ask after Jiminey Cricket.
Revelations 7 does not mention Dan among the tribes contributing ‘servants of God to be sealed’ – reasons not explained. That is quite likely the root of the story of the Danites’ apostasy.
According to the Book of Daniel (6/28) that prophet did indeed ‘prosper (katethune) during the reign of Cyrus’. It’s worth noting that the portrait of the Iranian Empire in the scriptures, Hebrew or Greek, is quite favourable, a fact of historical importance in itself. The actual historical value of the portrait is another matter, of course.
Cyrus tends to get a good write-up from most sources, even Greeks who might well have disliked the Iranian royal house. A copy of the ‘Cyrus Cylinder’, a proclamation by Cyrus dated to around 540 saying what a good idea it is that everyone should worship at their own historic shrines and that he has put this idea into effect, is kept at the UN. Its liberalism has been rather exaggerated. Its presence at the UN reflects the influence of the Biblical portrait.
“Finally, Bibi too piled on, declaring that ‘Such behavior does not characterize IDF soldiers and officers and has no place in the Israel Defense Forces and in the State of Israel.’”
Please. This action is Israel since 1948: mindless brutality.
It never ceases to amaze how unprofessional the IDF is, they have absolutely no discipline, actual skills or any idea of how serious weapons handling is – its something I saw when I witnessed the IDF training in the US.
Look at the way the guy handles his rifle. With his barrel pointed right at his buddy, and with his hands all over the weapons sights, potentially ruining his “dope” -military code for the zeroing of the iron sights. To say nothing of the fact that his weapon is loaded, probably with a round in the chamber.
Only a hack, part time security guard, mall cop type of “soldier” would handle a weapon that way. This is not a serious military. They are simple thugs.
Exactly. You can give a chimp a wrench but that doesn’t make him a mechanic.
“Exactly. You can give a chimp a wrench but that doesn’t make him a mechanic.”
Oh. No wonder my vehicles never get fixed.
>> Only a hack, part time security guard, mall cop type of “soldier” would handle a weapon that way.
Yup. Everyone knows that this is the right way to do it. ;-)