The case of the Israeli soldier who shot a wounded Palestinian terrorist in Hebron continues to unfold.
After Senator Patrick Leahy outrageously suggested to the Obama Administration that Israel be investigated for human rights violations—a demand the Democrat from Vermont has not made of the murderous dictatorship that is the Palestinian Authority—an Israeli military court prolonged the soldier’s arrest for the second time, with the prosecution now charging him not with murder, as was originally suggested, but with manslaughter.
According to the prosecution, the soldier’s commander testified that a few seconds after he shot the terrorist, the soldier said he did it because the terrorist was still alive and he ought to have been killed. Still, unanswered questions abound, some that support the soldier’s case and some the prosecution’s. Why, for example, did the soldier wait a full 11 minutes to shoot the terrorist if he truly believed the man might’ve been wearing an explosive device under his coat? And if he truly believed the terrorist was strapped with a bomb, why didn’t he warn his friends or ask them to move away from the wounded Palestinian? On the other hand, why is the army claiming that the terrorist was no longer a threat once wounded, even though he was not checked by a sapper? And why was the army quick to accuse the soldier of murder before conducting even a preliminary investigation on the ground?
These issues will all be addressed as the case continues. Meanwhile, Israeli public support for the young soldier is overwhelming. According to a host of recent surveys, as many as 82 percent of Israelis stand with the soldier, and 57 percent believe there’s no need for any further legal measures. Spontaneous demonstrations of support continue to pop up throughout the country, including one on Thursday in front of the military courthouse where the soldier was being arraigned.
The outpouring of sympathy isn’t hard to understand. The young soldier, whose name is still being withheld, is, in many ways, the embodiment of the collective unconscious of so many Israelis, sent at 19 to a complicated war zone and asked daily to make split-second life-and-death decisions amid waves of stoning, stabbings, and shootings. The overwhelming majority of Israelis have stood in the young soldier’s boots, and can empathize with the confusion, the fear, and the rage that accompany the fog of war. The government’s decision to condemn the soldier immediately upon his arrest, then, may prove to be not only judicially imprudent but also politically disastrous.
Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.
