"All That Intensive Training And They Run Like Little Girls" (video)

Here's how members of the IDF responded last week to provocation by Arab youths in the disputed territories throwing bricks and stones and yelling "Allahu Akbar".  They raised their shields to protect themselves from the relentless barrage of missiles and then fled for cover.

Although the missiles hurled at them had the potential to kill, they did not raise, let alone fire, their weapons.

"All that intensive training and they run like little girls; I'd be ashamed to be in the IDF after that," grumbles a commenter called Pesach on YouTube after watching the clip.

But it's that reaction on the part of the soldiers that bears out Colonel Richard Kemp's assertion that the IDF is an exemplary force: it's that army which, he testified following Operation Cast Lead, "did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare".

"Do these Islamist fighting groups ignore the international laws of armed conflict?" he has written.

"They do not.  It would be a grave mistake to conclude that they do.  Instead, they study it carefully and they understand it well.

They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it.  They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy’s main weaknesses."

Not that the soldiers' forbearance in the above video is appreciated by Israel's enemies: "Hitler 4 ever" is a recent comment beneath it on YouTube, for example.

Reports the Arutz Sheva news outlet:

'The incident in the video took place in recent days in Shechem. Three IDF soldiers were injured in the incident, with one sustaining an injury to his hand, and another a wound to his head. A third soldier was injured when a smoke grenade he was about to throw blew up in his hand. The three were being treated at a hospital in Petach Tikvah.

The incident was similar to another one that took place in Hevron last week, when IDF soldiers battled Palestinian Authority police and rioting Arabs. IDF officials said they considered the incident “serious,” and that an investigation had been opened.

Officials said that the level of Arab rioting in Judea and Samaria has climbed significantly since Operation Pillar of Defense ended, and that there were more reports of rock throwing and other terror incidents. Officials said that they had also been prepared for an increase in violence after last week's UN General Assembly vote raising the status of the PA in the world body. Many of the rioters are new Hamas sympathizers, the officials said, who have become supporters of the terror group in the wake of Operation Pillar of Defense.

Commenting on the Shechem video, the IDF said that the incident was being investigated. “This riot occurred during an illegal gathering last Friday in Kaddum, one of the most violent towns in Judea and Samaria. In the wake of the riot the IDF has updated its instructions for riot control by soldiers, using select, but moral, means to dispel riots but without using excessive force."

Viewers of the video expressed shock at the images, and many demanded that the IDF adjust its policies to enable soldiers to respond more effectively to situations like the one portrayed.... Commenting on the video, one viewer said that "the government is playing with fire. There is only so much patience that these soldiers can have in the fact of provocations like this. When a soldier picks up his weapon to defend himself and the hand-wringers all of the sudden ask why, they can watch this video to get their answer."'

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