Israel to arm civilians

[Thomas]

Hi blackops,
So you believe giving ordinary citizens the right to carry and use weapons is a good idea? What happens if they take the law into their own hands and start killing randomly. Who should be arrested? The people giving them permission to shoot or the guys doing the shooting?
I think you are walking on thin ice by arming civilians as the consequences of potentially innocent people being harmed could be huge and this could become an unnecessary blood bath.

In light of recent history with its neighbors. Israeli's are smart to arm themselves.


Guns: the must-have Israeli accessory - Times Online

Guns: the must-have Israeli accessory
Times Online
March 7, 2008


When Times reporter Sheera Frenkel was browsing through purses in a Jerusalem store recently, she found herself looking curiously at one of the bum bags which adorn the waists of so many Israeli men. Opening it, she was surprised to discover it was lined with thick foam cut out to fit a handgun and clip. “Until then I had thought it was a very badly misjudged fashion statement, but in fact it turns out that they are ideal for carrying guns,” she said.

There is a familiarity with guns in Israel that is rare among democracies, even in the firearm-friendly United States. Compulsory national service for both men and women of school leaving age means the majority of the adult population is trained in handling firearms. And while there are many illegal weapons in the system, it is easy - and in some cases actively encouraged - for civilians to acquire guns legitimately.

Members of the army, including reservists, are allowed to carry their weapons with them when they are off duty, and it is also common upon leaving the military for Israeli men to take armed jobs in security, a huge industry in a conflict-ridden country. Even if they then quit the sector, many simply hold on to their guns in order to protect their families.

In settlement zones, firearms permits are freely available. Any Israeli with a clean record can apply to carry a handgun, while in some settlements it is not uncommon to see young men with assault rifles slung over their shoulders. In the West Bank - as in Gaza until disengagement - almost every Israeli household owns a gun.

In the early years of the Jewish state, gun laws were comparatively strict, a hangover from the days of British colonial rule. But in 1974, an attack on a school compound in Maalot by three Palestinian gunman changed attitudes forever. Mourning the deaths of 16 teenagers, the nation looked for a way to prevent future atrocities, and increased gun ownership seemed the logical answer. Regulations were relaxed and all teachers at schools and nurseries were armed in order to defend their pupils against future aggressions.

Since that time, guns have become a commonplace feature of Israeli life, with few ever questioning the efficacy of the policy. Gun ownership has been credited with saving lives of Israelis under attack on numerous occasions, establishing a firm belief that only an armed community can defend itself against Palestinian terrorism.

In 2002, the Israeli Interior Ministry saw applications for gun licenses triple after an Israeli shoe salesman used his own weapon to fatally shoot a 46-year-old Palestinian man who had opened fire in a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing three diners.

However the arming of Israeli society has had some unintended, and distinctly undesirable, consequences. The ready access to arms within Israel has led to the emergence of clandestine networks supplying militants in the Palestinian territories, adding to the stockpiles of weapons and ammunition smuggled in from elsewhere in the Middle East. In November 2006, Israeli police busted a network of Israeli Arabs selling arms to militant cells in the West Bank, while in 2002 an arms ring involving Israeli settlers was uncovered. It is not uncommon for guns stolen from the military by Israeli soldiers to end up in the hands of the very people they are supposed to be fighting.

The 1994 massacre of 48 Palestinian worshippers in a Hebron mosque by Baruch Goldstein, a religious settler, and the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing Jewish fanatic, briefly exposed the country’s liberal gun laws to controversy and lead to a tightening of licensing procedures. However, with general crime and murder rates some of the lowest in the world, few saw the need to seriously reconsider the policy.

Such is the fear of terrorist attacks that weapons have become an unremarkable sight wherever Israelis congregate, whether in the cinema, the synagogue or at the market. While in the UK, a man strolling down a busy road with a handgun tucked into the back of his jeans would likely trigger mass hysteria, on the streets of Tel Aviv few would even flicker an eyebrow.

 

[matti]

I`ve read your posts, your hatred for Israel goes deep.

You can believe what you like but as an Israeli i can tell you that i want peace and friendship with all nations, i`ll quote you a line from the Talmud "Saving one life is like saving the world".

We will defend ourselves against all enemies that wish us harm, but i for one wish none of you any harm.

West Bank mosque torched in settler attack



A WEST Bank mosque was set on fire yesterday in what appeared to be a revenge attack by settlers just hours after Israeli security forces destroyed buildings at an illegal settler outpost.

Worshippers arriving for morning prayers in the Palestinian village of Qusra, south of Nablus, found the mosque on fire.

Slogans in Hebrew sprayed on the walls read “Muhammad is a Pig” and “Alai Ayin and Migron – social justice”, linking the names of two settler outposts with the slogan used by Israeli demonstrators in recent mass protests for economic reform. Only hours earlier hundreds of Israeli police had dismantled three buildings in a massive operation at Migron, the biggest illegal outpost in the West Bank.

No one claimed responsibility but it is believed that militant Jewish settlers carried out the mosque attack. Residents claimed that settlers had also attacked the village in the past.

A few years ago extremist fringe elements amongst the settlers, dubbed the “hilltop youth”, announced a “price tag” policy, whereby Palestinians and Palestinian property would be targeted in response to every move by the Israeli authorities to dismantle settler buildings. Militant settlers have set up more than 100 illegal outposts on hilltops across the West Bank, which, unlike the veteran settlements, were not authorised by the Israeli government. The international community considers all Jewish communities in the West Bank illegal.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad denounced the mosque attack as an act of terrorism. “These acts are what threaten to pull the region into a cycle of violence,” Fayyad’s office said in a statement, adding that the Palestinians themselves would not revert to violence.

Tension was high in the West Bank ahead of the vote at the United Nations later this month to endorse Palestinian statehood.

Some 200 settlers tried to prevent the destruction of the three buildings in Migron and six people were arrested during the clashes. The operation was briefly held up by a court injunction before the supreme court gave the green light for the demolition.

According to an earlier court ruling all Migron buildings have to be dismantled by March 2012.

Right-wing politicians, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, condemned the demolition. Likud Knesset member Yariv Levin called it a “cowardly, anti-Zionist action”.