Breaking My Silence: An Arab Christian Speaks Out Oct 17, 2018 | by Yoseph Haddad

As an Israeli Arab and IDF solider, I served together with other Israelis: Jews of all backgrounds, Druze and Bedouin. We were all equal.

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Next week, Harvard University will be hosting the Israeli organization, Breaking the Silence, an organization funded by anti-Israel groups that incites against the State of Israel and defames the IDF. BTS members speak out against the IDF; they “testify” as former soldiers, but they do not tell the entire truth of situations – they distort the truth and they tell partial stories that provide a slanted and partial picture of reality.

They do this to serve their only purpose: to slander and defame the State of Israel and the IDF. We have so many enemies all around us who want to destroy us and it is the most painful when this defamation comes from within us. BTS will be speaking before the students of Harvard University, one of the most prestigious institutions in the world – a stronghold of future leaders in every field. Many of its students will go in to hold key positions of power and influence. In speaking before the students there, BTS will be shaping the outlook of these future leaders against the State of Israel, against our country.

Yoseph Haddad

I cannot be silent, I must break my silence. I served in the IDF during the Second Intifada. It was a difficult time. I also stood at checkpoints, stood guard, arrested people and fought in the Second Lebanon War. As an Israeli Arab and IDF solider in the Golani Brigade, I served together with other Israelis: Jews of all backgrounds, Druze and Bedouin. We were all equal, we were all brothers fighting side by side and I can testify that I served in the most humane and moral army in the world, with the highest code of ethics and human values. The IDF is an army that faces complex challenges and dilemmas in an explosive region, but it is an army that is level headed and always keeps as its ultimate highest value human life. The IDF is an army that will bend over backwards to save lives and to ensure that innocent individuals are not harmed, even if it means complicating the military operation.

It is possible that there were incidents that did not live up to these standards, but these were the exceptions; they were not the norm and they were not the code by which the IDF is guided. They do not reflect the IDF nor the State of Israel. I am proud to have served under commanders who not only turned me into a better soldier but into a better person. One of the commanders who most impacted me was Israeli Major Roi Klein, who lost his life while trying to save the lives of his soldiers. During the Second Lebanese War, I was badly injured after I was hit by a cornet missile that was fired by Hezbollah. My fellow soldiers saved my life while under attack; they risked their own lives to save mine. After my injury, I received full medical care from the State of Israel until I was completely healed.

I will not let BTS spread untruths and lies against my country. Two days after BTS takes it stand at Harvard University, I will be there to speak to the students with Reservists on Duty. The truth will prevail.

This op-ed originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

The writer, age 33, is an Arab Israeli Christian. A resident of Nazareth, he was injured in the Second Lebanese War while serving as a soldier in the Israeli army. A social activist in the Arab community, he is the CEO of the nonprofit organization Together – Vouch For Each Other, which builds bridges that bring together Arabs and Jews in meaningful social connections in Israeli society. He is also involved in public relations through the organization Reservists on Duty.

YNET: Documentation: Border Patrol Policemen Performing CPR on Palestinian Who Collapsed in Hebron 5.11.14; VIDEO: Border Guards quick actions save Palestinian's life in Hebron's casbah.

A police officer and a paramedic team quickly ran to the Palestinian, while reporting the incident and calling for additional medical help. Early examination of the boy showed he was not breathing and had no pulse. The Border Guards began to resuscitate him by performing CPR, while removing obstacles in his mouth that had caused him to suffocate.

The Border Guards continued their lifesaving efforts for several minutes until the arrival of a Red Crescent medical team. The boy was then brought to the hospital.

The spokesperson for the Border Guards told Tazpit News Agency that as it turns out, the Palestinian had been electrocuted. However, thanks to the efforts of the policemen in those first minutes after the boy's collapse, his life was later saved in hospital.

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תיעוד: שוטרי מג"ב מבצעים החייאה על פלסטיני שהתמוטט בחברון 5.11.14 

In 5.11.14 afternoon Border Guard policemen on routine patrol in the Hebron casbah identified a Palestinian boy lying unconscious on the floor. A police officer and a paramedic team quickly ran to the boy, while reporting the incident and calling for additional medical help.

Early examination of the boy showed he was not breathing and had no pulse. The Border Guards began to resuscitate him by performing CPR, while removing obstacles in his mouth that had caused him to suffocate. The Border Guards continued their lifesaving efforts for several minutes until the arrival of a Red Crescent medical team. The boy was then brought to the hospital.

The spokesperson for the Border Guards told Tazpit News Agency that as it turns out, the Palestinian boy had been electrocuted. However, thanks to the efforts of the policemen in those first minutes after the boy's collapse, his life was later saved in hospital.

סוכנות תצפית מדווחת:

חברון - כוח מג"ב נתקל בפלסטיני שהתחשמל, ביצע בו החייאה והציל את חייו

אתמול (יום ד') בשעות הצהריים, במהלך סיור שיגרתי באזור הקסבה בחברון שקיימו לוחמי מג"ב מפלוגה ל"ז, זיהו הלוחמים נער המוטל על הרצפה. קצין וחובש משטרתי שהיו בצוות הגיעו לנער במהירות, תוך דיווח וקריאה לעזרה רפואית נוספת.

בבדיקה של השניים התברר כי הנער מחוסר הכרה ללא דופק וללא נשימה, והם החלו לבצע בו פעולות החייאה והנשמה, תוך הוצאת ההפרשות שהיו בפיו וגרמו לו לחנק, במשך דקות ארוכות עד להגעת צוות רפואי של הסהר האדום.

מדובר מג"ב נמסר לסוכנות תצפית כי בבירור מאוחר יותר עולה כי ככל הנראה הנער הפלסטיני התחשמל, ומפרטים שנמסרו למג"ב עולה כי פעולות ההחייאה הבסיסית שביצע הכוח המשטרתי בנפגע, בדקות הראשונות לאחר ההתמוטטות, הניבו פרי ותרמו להצלת חייו מאוחר יותר בבית החולים.

US sent 'lessons learned' team to model Israel tactics in Gaza operation

 

WASHINGTON --  The United States sent a team of senior officers to Israel three months ago to learn from Israel's tactics in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza over the summer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said on Thursday.

Dempsey praised the IDF for taking "extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties" in its war against Hamas. The militant organization, Dempsey said, "had become very nearly a subterranean society," burrowing underground and hiding amongst the civilian population.

"We sent a team of senior officers and non-commissioned officers over to work with the IDF to get the lessons from that particular operation in Gaza," he told an audience at the Carnegie Endowment. He referred to the group of officers as the "lessons learned team."

Dempsey noted Israel's development of new techniques, such as "roof knocking," warning residents of an incoming strike.

"They would display leaflets to warn citizens and population to move away from where these tunnels," the general said. "But look– in this kind of conflict, where you are held to a standard that your enemy is not held to, you're going to be criticized for civilian casualties."

Roughly 2,100 Gazans were killed in 50 days of fighting, in which Israel was targeting tunnel infrastructure and rocket launchers built and operated by Hamas.

Determining just how many of those killed were civilians and how many were operatives is difficult to independently verify.

Both Hamas and Palestinian Authority leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations envoy Riyad Mansour, accused Israel of committing genocide in the campaign. The PA has threatened in recent weeks to join the International Criminal Court and press Israel on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and Israel.

Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: A video that Israel haters don't want you to see

To the professional Israel-haters, obviously no country is as evil as Israel.

And the worst group of Israelis are Israeli soldiers and security officers, who we are told routinely torture and kill Arabs for fun.

And the worst group of Israeli security officers are those in Hebron, where they ruthlessly and maliciously attack children as policy.

So this video, taken in Hebron of Israeli border police giving food to a couple of kids - and their ecstatic reaction - must never be allowed to be seen, because it contradicts everything that every hater holds dear. 

Every anti-Israel NGO in Hebron sees scenes like this daily. I've seen them too. But these NGOs can't raise any money by reporting the situation accurately. The haters can't get gigs speaking at clueless colleges if they don't stereotype Jewish soldiers as evil.

So they don't want you to see this, because it threatens their livelihoods that depend on demonizing Jews.

(h/t Yoel)

UPDATE: I copied the video to YouTube so it would be easier to share.

IDF Soldiers Train for Urban Warfare

Walk into the IDF's Urban Warfare Training Center, and you feel as if you have entered a different world. The center is just a couple hours drive from Tel Aviv, but looks like a terrorist stronghold in southern Lebanon. This is where IDF soldiers from across the spectrum come to learn how to deal with the most complex challenges in modern urban warfare.

LAZERBEAMS: Ballad of the Medic

Here is a song by Yoram Gaon, an Israeli classic from my regular army days back in the early 1970's. It's entitled Baladat Hachovesh, "The Ballad of the Medic". It's about a medic who saves his buddy's life, but gets mortally wounded as he carries him to safety. I can't keep a dry eye whenever I hear this. It's the type of nostalgia that penetrates really deep, bringing back memories that can never be erased.

A prayer for the Israeli soldiers - תפילה לשלום חיילי צה"ל

מִי שֶׁבֵּרַךְ אֲבותֵינוּ אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקב הוּא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת חַיָּלֵי צְבָא הֲגַנָּה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, הָעומְדִים עַל מִשְׁמַר אַרְצֵנוּ וְעָרֵי אֱלהֵינוּ מִגְּבוּל הַלְּבָנון וְעַד מִדְבַּר מִצְרַיִם וּמִן הַיָּם הַגָּדול עַד לְבוא הָעֲרָבָה בַּיַּבָּשָׁה בָּאֲוִיר וּבַיָּם. יִתֵּן ה' אֶת אויְבֵינוּ הַקָּמִים עָלֵינוּ נִגָּפִים לִפְנֵיהֶם. הַקָּדושׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא יִשְׁמר וְיַצִּיל אֶת חַיָלֵינוּ מִכָּל צָרָה וְצוּקָה וּמִכָּל נֶגַע וּמַחְלָה וְיִשְׁלַח בְּרָכָה וְהַצְלָחָה בְּכָל מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵיהֶם. יַדְבֵּר שׂונְאֵינוּ תַּחְתֵּיהֶם וִיעַטְרֵם בְּכֶתֶר יְשׁוּעָה וּבְעֲטֶרֶת נִצָּחון. וִיקֻיַּם בָּהֶם הַכָּתוּב: כִּי ה' אֱלהֵיכֶם הַהלֵךְ עִמָּכֶם לְהִלָּחֵם לָכֶם עִם איבֵיכֶם לְהושִׁיעַ אֶתְכֶם: וְנאמַר אָמֵן

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Advanced IDF training on riots in Judea and Samaria

The IDF held a special advanced training session focusing on riots today (Wednesday, February 27, 2013), in light of recent violent riots in Judea and Samaria. The training included a simulated riot to which IDF commanders responded. Commander of the Judea and Samaria Division: "Our emphasis is to operate precisely, selectively, professionally, with significant restraint, with an understanding that that's the right thing both ethically -- in line, of course, with the values of the IDF -- and in terms of the stability of the security situation."

Read the full article on the IDF Website: www.idf.il/english.

IDF soldiers disperse crowds in Hebron on Thursday

Israel Air Force Calls Off Airstrike When Civilians Seen Near Target

On Nov. 17, 2012, the Israel Air Force called off an airstrike when pilots spotted uninvolved civilians near the target. Watch and listen.

For more from the IDF:
http://www.idfblog.com/
http://twitter.com/idfspokesperson/
http://www.facebook.com/idfonline/
http://www.idf.il/english/

Top British Military Commander Tells U.N. Session: "Hamas drives media agenda, but IDF is most moral army in history of warfare"

During a time when so many in the United Nations, the European Union and the media are falsely equating the Hamas targeting of Israel's civilian population with the IDF's defensive and pinpoint strikes to stop the terrorists' firing of deadly rockets, the extraordinary U.N. speech below has never been more apt.

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"IDF Did More to Safeguard Civilians Than Any Army in History of Warfare"

UN Watch Statement to UN Human Rights Council
12th Special Session -- Debate on Goldstone Report
Geneva, 16 October 2009

Delivered by Col. Richard Kemp

Thank you, Mr. President.

I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.

Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.

The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.

The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.

 

Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.

More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas’ way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.

Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Yes, the IDF is the most moral army in the world

It has been difficult to determine the ratio of terrorists to civilians being killed in Gaza. Certainly through Saturday there were more terrorists killed than civilians, it appears that this morning the ratio may be about the same (although this Reuters article uses the more vague term "non-combatants" and the number of dead who are males of military age still seem to be higher than those of women, children and the elderly.)

It is hard to tell; since Gaza authorities are notorious liars and some lists of the dead include those killed by Hamas rockets.

The terrorist websites seem to have all agreed to not identify mujahadeen being killed as they did in the early days of the operation. We saw this in Cast Lead as well, as the public relations advantage of pretending that Israel is perpetrating "massacres" outweighs the normal lionization of brave fighting "martyrs." Some Arab media will say that Israel targeted a "civilian car" without noting that the people inside were leaders of Islamic Jihad.

What we don't know at all, and may never know, is the number of civilians who were killed by errant Hamas rockets and by secondary explosions of terrorist ammunition and weapons caches.

PCHR, notorious for not distinguishing between members of terror groups and civilians but somewhat honest in their descriptions of how people died, has not updated their statistics since Saturday.

It appears though that the ratio of civilians to militants to is still about 1:1, about what it was during Cast Lead. The IDF claims 1:2 this morning. 

For all the gruesome photos of dead people and sick photo-ops in Gaza hospitals with babies, it is a remarkable ratio for wartime, especially in urban areas that house legitimate targets. This is far better than the ratio of civilian to militant deaths in Afghanistan, in a far more rural environment. Outside of Cast Lead, it is essentially an unprecedented achievement.

Even more amazing is that there have been over 1000 Israeli strikes in Gaza since Wednesday, and the number of civilian deaths is still less than 50. If anyone needs proof that Israel is not targeting civilians, this is irrefutable.

It needs to be stressed that Israel has zero incentive to kill civilians, and in fact has every reason to avoid killing civilians. The hyperbole about bloodthirsty Israelis and "genocide" and "massacres" is just propaganda.

Unfortunately, the media rarely looks at context, and photos of injured people - real or imagined - is where the ratings are.

It is still notable that the Arab side gleefully shows videos of Israelis panicking during missile strikes and Israelis grieving over their losses. Video clips made by the mainstream media, meant to humanize Israeli victims of rocket attacks, are being shown by Arab websites to gloat. Even the regular Arab audience loves to see terrorized Israelis.

One side sends warnings to save civilians, the other sends warnings to terrorize them. One grieves when the other sides loses innocents, the other cheers.

This is the real difference between the two sides - one side really wants to attack civilians and cause terror, and the other wants to avoid it as much as humanly possible.