Dr. Yehuda Yifrach, head of the legal desk of the Makor Rishon newspaper,shared a shocking report in the Friday edition: A team of IDF sharpshooters and spotters deployed to ambush terrorists expected to attack the Beit El community from Old Highway 60 were instructed by direct order from the brigade commander in words which meant not to open fire unless it was certain that a terrorist attack HAD taken place. Yes. The instruction was NOT TO OPEN FIRE UNTIL THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY SURE IT WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK, THAT IS, NOT UNTIL THE TERRORIST TOOK A SHOT. Yifrach writes that the soldiers were very upset by the order which struck them as illogical and want to bring up the incident again and again until they receive an acceptable response from their superiors. Here is the event, step by step: #1. For two weeks the IDF sharpshooters and spotters were deployed in the location. #2. During the Sukkot holiday, when people eat outside of their homes, the spotter, using night vision, identified a suspicious car with two men inside approaching on the road and began to monitor it. #3. The spotter saw the vehicle stop and a terrorist, armed with an automatic weapon, get out of the vehicle. #4. The spotter saw the terrorist raise his weapon, position himself to fire towards the direction of the Beit El community and seek a target. The spotter waited. #5. The terrorist opened fire, spraying the Nizri family sukkah with bullet as the family ate dinner. One family member was lightly injured. #6. A sharpshooter then killed the terrorist with a shot fired from a distance of 240 meters. #7. The second terrorist escaped in the car and was captured later. It turned out the no one in the sukkah was murdered, a miracle if ever there was one, and since this incident did not take place in the Israeli Air Force, where near misses are investigated with the same vigor as tragedies, what transpired received the standard Israeli reaction: since things essentially worked out the incident was inconsequential. Now I am absolutely sure that if, thanks to the direct orders of the brigade commander, the NIzri family had been slaughtered that night, that the brigade commander would no longer be holding his command. There is also no question that if the terrorist had managed to slaughter the Nizri family with that first burst of gunfire that the rules of engagement would have been immediately revised so that such an incredibly immoral incident could never happen again. Instead we are treated now to talking heads ridiculing settlers who complain about the rules of engagement that endanger their lives. Disgusting. Dr. Aaron Lerner is editor of IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis, since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations.
