New rules: Israeli troops must fire in the air when engaging terrorists
DEBKAfile Special Report August 12, 2015
New rules of engagement were handed down Tuesday, July 11, to the Israeli military, police and Border Guard units serving in Judea and Samaria that effectively prohibit them from shooting Palestinians found hurling firebombs, carrying out knife attacks or other acts of terror. Henceforth, security forces are restricted to firing in the air. The new orders came from OC IDF Central Command Ronnie Numah. They are a radical departure from the present rules and the first broad restrictions to be imposed on the troops since 15 years ago, then prime minister Ehud Barak forbade security forces to shoot at Palestinian terrorists or their bases – only to turn their fire on vacant ground nearby. The second intifada had erupted by then.
The new directives are as follows:
Troops are restricted to firing in the air when they – or any other Israeli targets – come under Palestinian firebomb attack.
Ditto in the case of knifing attacks – even if this means letting the assailant get away.
They may open direct gunfire on armed terrorists only when they are caught red-handed on the scene. Once they escape, only firing in the air is permitted.
In general, troops and police are not allowed to shoot Palestinian terrorists in almost any circumstance unless their own lives are clearly in danger.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott have changed the rules in an attempt to reverse the rising spiral of Palestinian deaths in the course of recent violent engagements. It is also an attempt to cool flaming Palestinian tempers on the West Bank – especially since the arson murder of a Palestinian toddler and her father in the village of Duma earlier this month. The perpetrators have not so far been found or identified.
It is not known whether Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu endorsed the new rules of engagement.
According to our sources, they went down badly with many of the soldiers and policemen serving on the West Bank in security capacities. They believe they are being put in harm’s way and maintain that the new rules will open the door to an upsurge of Palestinian terrorism and cause many more Israeli deaths. One IDF officer commented wryly: “It has been decided that an increase in Israeli casualties is preferable to high statistics of Palestinian terrorist deaths.”
USA House Majority Leader McCarthy: Netanyahu ‘not interfering’ on Iran Prime
TOVAH LAZAROFF/J.Post/08/13/2015
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is advocating for his country’s best interests when he opposes the Iran deal and has not interfered in Washington politics, Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters in Jerusalem on Thursday.
“I do not see where Benjamin Netanyahu was interfering with anything,” said McCarthy, just one day after he and 35 other visiting Republican congressmen met with Netanyahu. The prime minister held a similar meeting on Sunday with a visiting delegation of 24 Democratic congressmen. McCarthy said that his group’s Wednesday conversation with Netanyahu lasted for 90 minutes. Netanyahu listened to the group and answered its questions, McCarthy said.
Congress is expected to vote by September 17th on the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program that was worked out between Tehran and the six world powers — the US, Russia, China, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In advance of the vote, the tension between US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu has increased. On Sunday, Obama told CNN that Netanyahu has interjected himself into Washington politics more forcibly than any other foreign leader. But on Thursday, McCarthy said that Netanyahu was simply doing his job as Israel’s leader. “He is elected by the State of Israel and voices the opinion of the state on security,” McCarthy said. Netanyahu “did not tell us how to vote. Much like every other leader of any other country, he conveyed what he sees. He was very open and I thought he was more concise than I have ever seen him,” McCarthy said. “I think from concerns that he has about the agreement the majority of the room has the same concerns,” McCarthy said.
Netanyahu spoke of what would happen 13 years into the future, when Iran has billions of dollars and the ability to produce atomic weapons, particularly in light of their support of terrorism today, McCarthy said.Given “everything I have seen from Iran, their policies have not changed,” he said. Iran has only increased its funding of terror organizations, McCarthy said. “One of the biggest concerns is the the billions more Iran would have [with the deal] what will they do with it, who would fund it,” McCarthy said. The Republican politician later told ABC Radio, that Netanyahu had spoken to his group about the danger a nuclear Iran posed to the US, when it had missiles that could reach the American shores. “I felt he made some of the strongest arguments [about the danger Iran posed] for America and the rest of the world. If we want to have security and a safe world, this agreement does not do it,” McCarthy said.
