How would you treat the hen?

Okay, okay, I’m called TheMiddle, so let’s also ask what would happen if you’re a hen and the fox comes to guard the henhouse – how would you treat that fox?

Yariv Oppenheimer is the outspoken secretary-general of Peace Now, a movement that definitely seeks to remove the “settlements” in Judea and Samaria/West Bank, and return Israel to 1967 lines in order to, they claim, achieve peace with the Arabs. Notwithstanding whether they are right or not, Peace Now is loyal to Israel. So is its Secretary General. Ynet reports that the most recent reserve duty assignment given to Oppenheimer is…protecting a small and isolated settlement, Ateret, in the territories.

All credit to him, Mr. Oppenheimer didn’t write a letter of protest or launch a campaign to protest his reserve duty assignment. Nope, like most Israeli reservists, he packed his bags and headed out there to risk his life to defend the settlement deep inside the territories. Unfortunately, the reception he has received has been mixed and has included some negative comments by the very people he is there to protect. Okay, okay, first there was the juvenile but amusing replacement of his Peace Now bumper stickers with, uh, more right wing oriented stickers. But then came the petition:

“The soldier Yariv Oppenheimer is in the reserve company in our town…It is doesn’t need to be mentioned how he was worked indefatigably to erase the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. We must demand his company commander to send this man home. How much longer can we agree that an Israel hater of this sort is in our midst while keeping our mouths shut?”

Can you say “chutzpah?” Some residents signed that piece of dreck.

Peace Now wrote in response:

“Some of the settlers think that the IDF is their own private army and that they have the right to send soldiers on missions.”

Peace Now is, of course, absolutely correct on this one.

Fortunately, some “settlers” in the region have rejected the petition, including the head of the regional council to which Ateret belongs. While calling Oppenheimer an “anti-Zionist,” he claims that once the uniform comes on Oppenheimer should be treated with the respect accorded to any soldier in the IDF defending the country. Mean-spirited and false? Absolutely. After all, if he were an anti-Zionist Oppenheimer wouldn’t have agreed to serve at all, much less deep in the territories. Still, at least this is a more reasonable response to his presence serving his country to defend this settlement.

What a mighty tangled web we weave…

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themiddle

7 Comments

  • Many peace now soldiers in the past only joined the IDF so they could use their “experience” of being in the army to qualify them to bash Israel.

    They are NOT loyal to Israel. Many of them don’t want Israel to exist, and they (like the Palestinians) see reducing Israel’s size as the first step to achieving their goal.

    If I was an Israeli I wouldn’t trust a Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) member to protect me from getting killed, ESPECIALLY if I lived in a the West Bank / Gaza Strip.

    I would want them replaced because I’d be concerned for my life. I wouldn’t want them in the army out of fear that they would purposely sabatage it (as they have done before).

  • Uh, middeleh – Peace Now led the way in politicizing army service – by encouraging soldiers to refuse to serve over the Green Line.

    Remember?

    Would anyone want their village to be guarded by someone who has publicly called for them to be either uprooted or abandoned to their murderous enemies?

    Oppenheimer isn’t doing anyone a favor by serving – he’s simply doing his duty, just like the majority of soldiers opposed to the Gaza expulsion still did their duty. Nobody patted them on the head for it.

    And it’s likely that his willingness to protect settlements has to do with the changed political climate in Israel – in particular, reality’s total effacement of most of Peace Now’s claims, and the dawning realization by many erstwhile lefties that the West Bank is most definitely of strategic value for at least the next decade.

    Nice try though – dressing up Oppenhemer’s climb down as an exercise in self-righteous umbrage. Typical left-liberal ploy – let’s sidestep reality with some victimology breast-beating.

    Whatever…

  • I thought that was Yesh Gvul, not Peace Now.

    In any case, it doesn’t matter. He could belong to the Hermon Anti-Snow Brigade, the Shebaa Farms Belongs to Lebanon Council and the Golan Wine Should Be Made by Syrians think tank and as far as this issue, he is serving Israel and the IDF as per his duty and it’s nobody’s business to bitch and moan about it. It’s especially not the business of those whose lives and property he’s protecting with his own life.

  • Yariv oppenhaimer recieved money from the same people that were arrested in michigan and found guilty for financing terror groups such as hamas and hizbolla, collecting monies under the disguise of “humanitarian organization” recorded tapes and conversations were watched by senate anti terror committee. The us inteligence also released a warning the israeli fanatical ledft wing groups such as peace now recieve financing from arab terror financial supporters. yariv should be placed in prison