Why can't the media even attempt to understand Israel's side? A former IDF soldier does what the media won't ~ EoZ

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Why can't the media even attempt to understand Israel's side? A former IDF soldier does what the media won't

Last week a viral video was released showing Israeli security forces violently prevent a wheelchair-bound man from approaching a woman who was shot trying to stab an officer.

The Daily Telegraph wrote:

An Israeli police officer was filmed tipping a disabled Palestinian man out of his wheelchair during a confrontation in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Mobile phone video shows the officer knocking Majed al-Fakhouri backwards and sending him sprawling into the street as a crowd looks on.

The incident took place moments after a 14-year-old Palestinian girl allegedly tried to stab an Israeli police officer on Sunday afternoon.

The girl was shot by Israeli forces and Mr al-Fakhouri, who lost his left leg in a car crash a decade ago, said he was trying to reach her to give her first aid.

"I saw blood coming out of her arm and side and I thought she was going to bleed to death," Mr al-Fakhouri told The Telegraph.

"I tried to help her but a police officer stopped me and ordered me to go back. Then he turned me over and my head hit the ground."

Mr al-Fakhouri, 53, was taken to hospital but was not badly injured. The girl, Yasmin Rashad al-Zarou, was seriously wounded and taken to hospital by Israeli forces.

Really? A man in a wheelchair was going to give first aid to a girl lying on the ground?

In fact, she is a 21 year old and her real last name is Tamimi - meaning that she is likely to be related to the "non-violent" darlings of Western media. Arab media reported that she was killed, but she was being treated for her injuries in an Israeli hospital.

There have been lots of angry articles in the Arab media, spilling into the mainstream media, about how Israeli security supposedly doesn't allow any medical help to approach in situations like this. But I have not once seen any media try to find out about what Israel's procedures are meant to be for terror attacks, whether they make sense, and whether they are violating their own procedures. Without that information, no one can evaluate what is really going on.

A former IDF soldier, Robert Stark, wrote up exactly how and why soldiers are supposed to act in situations like these:

This was not a "crime scene" this is the scene of a terror attack. A still active scene which began only seconds before. At the moment the woman was laying on the ground, alive but neutralized, her bag was identified nearby and hadn't been checked yet. By protocol, this bag is immediately suspected to contain a bomb.

The security perimeter is set up for a few different reasons:

A. The fact there is one terrorist gives reason to suspect another one, an attack that is not yet finished. So, the perimeter protects the soldiers, and the civilians they are guarding.

B. The possibility the female terrorist's bag is a bomb can't be checked until the bomb-disposal unit arrives to investigate. Hence, no one can enter the area lest they die. That includes Arab neighbors taping this on their phones. Its for their own protection.

C. The scene has a wounded woman in danger of losing her life, the last thing she needs is a crowd of Arabs around her, who could try to "help" her which would interfere with the trained professionals including the near by medic from administering life saving first aid treatment.

D. The entry of any civilians, even just 1 unauthorized person, and especially the agitated Arabs, would defeat the purpose of A, B, and C, as well as create danger for the soldiers who would soon either have to be separated by the crowd of people who would likely also be tempted to storm in as well like a wave, or the soldiers would have to restore the integrity of the perimeter by shooting the Arabs who could be part of the terrorist attack. And then you would be bitching here about a video of IDF soldiers shooting at Arabs at close range with a death toll of who knows how many.

(After all, they are storming/confronting a security perimeter during an already started attack)

Now on top of all that, all of these suspicions and dangers, comes brazenly strolling in this man on a wheel chair. Of all times and of all places and of all scenarios, its THIS ONE, he decides to confront soldiers. He becomes the biggest suspect for "here is terrorist 2", simply because of how out of place he is at this moment. It would be crazy even for a man with fully functioning appendages to approach a security perimeter like this one, yet this guy has no qualms about it at all. In fact, he refuses to obey any kind of commands from men with guns, and is very adamant about getting inside.

So, worst case scenario, he has a bomb strapped under him or under his chair. Best case scenario, he is an idiot, and if he gets through, the perimeter is compromised -which means everyone is in danger and especially the woman on the ground who needs treatment. -because the other Arabs could follow him in.

I don't know any other country in the world where people feel brazen enough to stroll up to the face of soldiers and violate simple rules like "this is a crime scene, you can't enter" let alone "this is the scene of a terrorist attack". That in itself is evidence of how confident the Palestinian-Arabs are of NOT having their rights abused by Israeli soldiers.

Yet, here you are, talking about these soldiers corroded by "occupation" as if what happened was a man in a wheel chair was just strolling along not causing any trouble when an IDF soldier deliberately approached him and shoved him until the man fell.

I'm offended. Mostly because, it is common sense, that in any other country it is likely this man in the wheel chair would have been shot on approach by any other security force. Just like anyone who approached a closed security perimeter around an already commenced terror attack.

While it is true that tipping over the man might not have been necessary, the need to keep the scene empty was. And that basic fact is what was missing from coverage of this and similar stories.

It is true that the Telegraph asked for an official response from the Israeli police, but none of the media even considers the simple fact that their readers (and reporters) are completely clueless about military matters, and attempt to judge based on pure ignorance. Israeli officials don't help matters by not making this information easily available.

Even so, the lack of interest in balance by the media shows that this is just another form of anti-Israel bias.

(h/t Barbara)

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