[y.winter]

So about that...

• This Palestinian (and his friend) has been neutralized as they stabbed an Israeli soldier without the latter triggering anything. You know, this is how we say hello to each other on the streets here in Israel. Israeli soldiers are occasionally being confused with tomatoes and the Palestinian guys just craved a salad hence the knife.
• Yeah, they were terrorist.
• Elor (the Israeli soldier) shot the remaining terrorist dead (as the IDF judges declared today) and as being seen in this footage and another one.
• Did he have a good reason? He defends himself by saying it was self-protection and that he saw the terrorist trying to reach out for a weapon when he was on the ground. The judges have dismissed this claim.
• What would have happened had he not shoot him? The terrorist would have been driven to the Israeli hospital, getting medical care, recovering, going to jail where he'll get better living conditions than he'll ever get from the Palestinian Authority, keep promoting his idea from within the jail accompanied by his fellow Palestinian terrorists prisoners who were lucky enough to kill a few Israelis (damn it, he would've looked like such an amateur next to them), getting released from the jail back to where he came from just to get ready for his next terror comeback (hopefully a successful one this time).
• No Israeli would've received such treatment from the other side (terrorist or not).
• The soldier didn't act according to his commanders instructions. That's wrong. He's not there to do whetever he wants.
• However, the Palastenian is a terrorist and I can asure you he would've killed Israelis had he stayed alive, give it a year, give it a decade, it will happen. It happened before, not once, not twice.
• There was a massive media coverage in the local media, the people are divided whether he was right or wrong to do so. People have opinions and they are not afraid to say them out loud (unlike over the border).
• He has been found guilty by the IDF. The same ministry of defense which should have been "in his favor". But no, it doesn't work like this here - surprise surprise!
• The BBC can keep on bashing Israel/not calling a terrorist by his name. It's nice and easy to cluck while you sit in your office, watching the Thames flowing. I can tell you that - the Europeans are very naive, but the Islamic terrorism has started knocking on your doors too. I can tell you where this is all going.
• In general, not about the whole soldier-terrorist shebang. Israel is located in a problematic area (whether it's right or wrong, that's a whole new story). In 68 years it achieved more than any other country in the middle east, present and future. You can say a lot of bad things about Israel. Believe me, I can too. But it's the best place to find yourself in when in the middle east. The UK couldn't have dealt with the Palestinian situation any better. No one can be a saint and stay clean in a dirty game. I hope for the UK and the rest of Europe to never know how it really feels and have the comfort of shouting their tsk-tsk-tsk as loud as they can while they sit on the couch and watch the BBC.

*I'm Israeli, more left wing than right, agree with the soldier being guilty but at the same time I believe he saved lives. Yes, reality is complicated.