When the Israel Defense Forces pulled out of Lebanon in 2000, Moshe Kaplinsky, then commander of the 91st Division, commented self-critically that "we talked to the soldiers" and not "with the soldiers." The open letter IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot plans to send all recruits on the disgraceful shooting incident in Hebron, and the discussions he plans to hold on the matter, are a refresher on the rules of engagement. The fight against the Palestinian terrorists has created multiple dilemmas among those who are ultimately expected to decide, with sound judgment and at breakneck speed, whether to pull a trigger or not. At a meeting with high school students not long ago, Eizenkot remarked that the adage "if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first" cannot be the IDF's motto. But he was not entirely correct. Eizenkot plans to launch a series of discussions over the incident -- a welcome effort on his part -- and I would like him to include in these discussions a certain formula that may be controversial: It is better to end up with one of the enemy dead than with one of our own injured. They want to kill, and we have to engage in an exhausting defense. That is why when it comes to the debate over the proper conduct toward terrorists, my view is this: In a violent incident, Israeli soldiers should use all available firepower to kill the terrorists, until the incident is over. Those eye-rolling, self-righteous people, who are also quite naive, maintain that terrorists should not be killed but only "neutralized" -- meaning, shot in the legs. That is not my opinion. A terrorist who arrives with a submachine gun and a kitchen knife or sharp scissors should be assaulted with as much force as legally permissible. But Israel has always known its limits. In 1957, the great military judge Benjamin Halevi said the illegal order to open fire in Kafr Qasim a year earlier was marred with a "black flag of immorality," despite the fact that it took place against the backdrop of the Sinai Campaign (Operation Kadesh). When it was revealed that the Shin Bet security agency carried out extrajudicial killings of terrorists in 1984 (the Bus 300 Affair), the State Attorney's Office and senior law enforcement officials made sure to take the necessary steps to shore up Israel's moral standing in the wake of this disgrace, even though Israel's leaders at the time, Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres, disapproved of that effort. Those two affairs showed Israel living up to its Jewish and democratic character (before this description became a Knesset bill). The problem is that in this recent case, the Hebron shooting, some on the Right -- Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, MK Oren Hazan and others -- have sanctioned the murder of an immobilized captive. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Eizenkot, according to right-wing detractors, are at fault for following the letter of the law, defending human dignity and thinking clearly. Unlike others, those two are not trying to seize the populist mantle by issuing a "license to kill" with no restrictions. Yes, empty the magazine on the terrorist, but never shoot before exercising good judgment.
