Does this man represent you?

Before and during the disengagement from Gaza, one of the recurring tropes heard from the the center/left of the Israeli electorate was that the settlers were acting violently and against the laws and interests of the country... therefore they deserved whatever violence came their way from the uniformed representatives of the state (i.e. IDF, Border Patrol and Police).

Through the lens of time I think that most reasonable people would have to agree that the actual number of people who acted violently against the laws, interests and representatives of the country were such a tiny percentage of the disengagement's opponents as to be statistically insignificant... and certainly not representative of the mainstream center/right. 

This is not to minimize the serious nature of any violent acts, but rather to make sure we're all on the same page about whether such actions were a right-wing trend and/or in any way representative of the way the settlers and their supporter comported themselves before and during disengagement.

In short, while the acts of a violent, misguided few should certainly have been universally criticized and renounced, one would have to admit that it was terribly unfair of the mainstream center/left (i.e. Labor voters) to condemn the anti-disengagement movement as if they had condoned and even supported such actions... or for anyone in a democracy to suggest that anyone "deserved what they got" (including blatant brutality).

Fast forward a couple of years to, well, yesterday, and see how things look in the mirror.

Yesterday a group of extreme left wing activists took it upon themselves to try to dismantle an IDF roadblock at the entrance to an Arab village called Semo'a in the South Hevron hills.  They have attempted (unsuccessfully) to dismantle other IDF roadblocks in the past few weeks, but in this case the army got wind of their plans in time to completely head them off, and sent a group of [mostly] reserve soldiers to confront them.

At some point, as the soldiers attempted to disperse the activists, the confrontation turned violent and pushing turned to exchanging blows... and even a few well-documented jabs with rifle butts and barrels.

It is important to point out that, just as with some of the extreme right wing elements in Israel, there are those on the extreme left with a well-documented history of fomenting violent confrontation with the police and army.  Not only that, unlike their right wing counterparts, those on the extreme left are quite media-savvy and made sure to invite plenty of press to the site to provide coverage of their actions and any subsequent confrontation.

Some like to call these extremists 'anarchists', but in fact, that is an unfairly oversimplified characterization that seems (IMHO) intended to distance the bad actors from some of the more focused extreme left wing agendas.

Anyhoo, back to yesterday's action.  We now had a situation where a security roadblock that was put in place by the IDF under direct orders from the Defense Minister was being dismantled by a group of people who felt they were not obligated to obey the lawful orders of the government's representatives to leave what had been declared a closed military zone. 

Instead they refused to stop their illegal actions, thereby forcing a physical confrontation with the soldiers. 

Thanks to the extensive media presence on site, much of the confrontation was captured on film.  As I mentioned earlier, in order to carry out their orders to stop the activists from removing the roadblock and force them to leave the area, the soldiers had no choice but to physically engage the crowd... and in some cases it appears that some of the soldiers may have used excessive physical force to do this.

Now, in a democracy... especially one with a healthy media... one would expect the government to open an investigation into the incident... review the testimony of the soldiers and their officers... view the media coverage and interview journalists on the scene... and in the end release their findings along with some assignation of blame, and perhaps level charges against some of the participants on one or both sides.

And then there would be Amir Peretz's way. 

Instead of following the logical course of action I've outlined above, the Defense Minister immediately made statements to the press that the soldiers had used excessive force, and criticized them for clashing with the left wing activists.

This is the head of the Israeli military chain of command, mind you, taking sides with lawbreakers who forced a confrontation with soldiers who were following his legal orders, without any investigation or inquiry whatsoever!

Where are the statements from the disengagement era center/left that "acting violently and against the laws and interests of the country make one deserving of whatever violence comes their way from the uniformed representatives of the state"?   Even the veritable pogrom at Amona was defended with that flawed logic by the center left... so what changed yesterday?

What changed is that the activists were ostensibly acting on behalf of the Arab residents of Semo'a... a nice lefty cause... apparently a fact that made Peretz (the head of the largest left wing faction) forget for a moment that since he is Defense Minister, the soldiers were actually acting on his orders.

So here it is... I'm a big man.  I can honestly say without reservation that these extreme left wing activists are in no way representative of the mainstream Israeli center/left, and should in no way be allowed to tarnish the mainstream social and political agendas of the left. 

So why is there this deafening silence from that segment of the political spectrum about yesterday's events?  Why is nobody from the mainstream left criticizing those who acted violently against the interests and representatives of the state?  Why is there no criticism of a defense minister who would rather abandon his men in the field than actually open an organized investigation of the events?

I leave you to draw your own conclusions.