Israeli IDF Officer Investigated In Beating Of ISM 'Activist'

This week, there were a number of 'Palestinian activists' from Europe in Israel,part of an organized effort to cause as much disruption as they could. A number of them. part of what was called the 'flytilla' had their tickets cancelled by EU airlines and were not permitted to leave their home countries,but a number of them, notably from the terrorist supporting International Solidarity Movement managed to get in.

What you're seeing above was a video made by the ISM that has been big news in Israel because it shows an IDF Lieutenant Colonel using the butt of his M-16 on a Danish ISM activist. Th eofficer has been suspended and an investigation is pending.

Now, let's hear the soldier's side of the story:

Lieutenant-Colonel Shalom Eisner regretted an incident in which he beat a foreign activist with an M-16 rifle on Sunday. "I should not have flung my weapon like that," he told his associates. "But those are 60 seconds out of a two-hour event," he noted.

...

Ynet has obtained Eisner's version of events as he told it to his associates. The deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Territorial Brigade said that after hearing of the activists' intention of blocking Route 90 he showed up at the scene and ordered the forces to prevent the blocking of the road.

"I explained to the activists that many travelers were using the road because of the holiday and that they are posing a major security risk," he said. Eisner noted he had done the same thing when groups of right-wing activists had tried to access the road for protests.

He said he allowed the activists to demonstrate inside the village of Ouja and ride off the road. "All was calm and in control and that is why I didn't bring a water canon and gave them 15 minutes to protest," he said.

"It was a group of 60 activists and suddenly two buses arrived and the activists all together called to block the road while closing our barrier. One of the Palestinian organizers told me at this stage that she no longer had control over the event."

Lt. Col. Eisner claims that some of the protesters started attacking him with sticks which caused one of his fingers to break. He also suffered a major injury in his wrist which required a cast. "The weapon was the only thing I had in my hands. The whole thing lasted 60 seconds, we prevented them from getting on the road and they boarded the bus. Obviously, they didn't show the part where they attacked us with sticks in the video."

A traffic jam in Israel in that area is a very different animal than one in say, suburban Philadelphia or Los Angeles. Highway 90 is the main north-south road through the Jordan Valley. You have a line of cars trapped who are sitting ducks for Molotov cocktails, sniper fire or stones through the windshield, and according to at least one of my sources some stones had actually started to be thrown by 'Palestinians' collaborating with the ISM 'activists' in the area, and it would only have gotten worse the longer it went on.

Also, you had a total of six soldiers against 200 'activists' and 'Palestinians'.

Israeli PM Netanyahu has condemned the soldier's actions, and as I mentioned a full IDF inquiry is proceeding.

But as far as I'm concerned Lieutenant Colonel Eisner did nothing wrong and behaved with admirable restraint. he probably prevented a number of serious injuries and possibly saved some lives by getting that road cleared promptly.

The only fault I have to find with him is that he used the wrong end of his M-16 on these people.

-selah-