Friday, January 27, 2012
A Learning Nation
The taking of the Turkish ship Navi Marmara left us a trauma: when attacked by a mob of unarmed Turks, our commando was forced to use firearms and kill nine. It was a major international scandal. But we learn. If anything, what distinguishes us Jews is that we are continuously learning. So the Israeli Army is learning Krav Maga (Contact Combat) to fight "white" that is non fire weapons encounters. Golda Meir lamented that the Arabs forced us to learn to kill, and learn we did. Now the Turks have forced us to learn personal violence, and we learn. We learn how to do "killer's eyes", how to develope a crazy berserk mood, how to cultivate and control a violent mindset and so on. We learn חוסן נפשי = spiritual stamina. Not what we Jews aspire to do or be.
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8 comments:
It's OK - what we aspired to be in Europe (peaceful merchants and scholars) didn't work out either. The Jews are a small people and we don't live on Venus by ourselves but on a dangerous planet. We have to do not just what we aspire to but whatever is necessary to survive.
K
In Israel we are trying. I understand that in the USA too.
The IDF has been training recruits in Krav Maga for decades. In 2007 the History Channel ran a series called "The Human Weapon." One of the episodes was all about Krav Maga as taught in IDF classes, and you can watch the whole thing on YouTube. Highly recommended as you meet the world experts who are all Israeli, and the whole episode takes place in Israel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dCR7IZMqnk
Police forces and the military use Krav Maga all over the world. In the U.S. we have studios all over the country. My daughter took Krav Maga courses. In my opinion there are three essential strengths for a human being: (1) the intellect; (2) the body; (3) the spirit. One cannot let any of three remain undeveloped. As a stool needs three legs; a human needs all three strengths. And I might add Jews especially need all three strengths because they live in a permanently hostile world. A Jew (at any age) must be prepared to defend himself at all times, and not rule out lethal force when that is necessary.
I know all that. Yet the Marino Commando in the Navi Marmara had to shoot and kill, what we dont want to do. Not Turkish allies. So this course was developed. I know krav maga but this clip is something else, its violence and brutality is uncommon.
The activity in your clip looks very similar to the practice sessions in the Human-Weapon episode. At first I thought it was the TV episode. Watch it and see if you agree. The following is a better link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8a3h1y9l7g&feature=s2l
As for the commando raid on the Motor Vessel Mavi Marmara, I have to assume that lethal force was necessary. However it does look like the planning could have been better, but as I was not there, I don't know for sure. I don't trust the press on this matter, or any other. We both know that Israel will always get condemned no matter what actually happened. As for Turkey, it does appear to be lost to the West. The work of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to modernize Turkey and loosen the grip of Islam is unraveling. Islam itself is the problem. Not "radical Islam" or other invented entities. Muslims do what the Koran tells them to do, and the Koran defines Islam. Individual Muslims might be moderate, but there is no moderate Islam as there is no moderate National Socialism or Leninism.
One thing I don't understand is why the flotilla was necessary in the first place? Egypt borders Gaza. Why does aid not flow directly out of Egypt to brother Arabs in Gaza across that border? Perhaps there is some agreement between Egypt and Israel that stipulates against that. I don't know.
Zarkov,
YouTube says that the clip you sent me is not available in my country. Why? That I dont know. Probably my internet address is in Pakistan.
Regarding why Navi Marmara was organized, the fact is that before that incident Israel had Gaza under siege and a tit-for-tat policy was followed. One katyusha fired, no baby-food for a week. One Grad, no cement for a month. One Israeli civilian killed, no medicine for a million Gazans, no permits for students nor urgent operations.
The system was hard but effective. Navi Marmara tried to make political capital from this policy and succeeded.
Yet the demonstration that we mean it and and are ready to kill not only Arabs but Europeans and other allies, caused Gaza to keep quiet since then.
J.
I have no idea why that YouTube episode is not available to you. Try finding another one with either a general google search, a google video search, or a YouTube search. Try something like "human weapon krav maga" or "history channel human weapon krav maga" (without the quotes of course) that should bring up a bunch. The episode is about 45 minutes.
Why would your Internet address be in Pakistan? Just find your IP address and see.
A little research answered by question about the Egypt-Gaza border-- Egypt was cooperating with the blockade. Now with Mubarak gone, the border (in theory) is open. However one article says that in practice the situation is about the same. Many Palestinians get turned back because Egypt won't grant them entry. Nevertheless, there is always the possibility that the situation will change in the future, and the sea blockade will become ineffective. That will cause a lot fuss if it happens. I'm glad I'm not a diplomat.
Actually, that Special Forces anywhere in the world are especially good at hand to hand combat is a common misconception. Most SF units train heavily with weapons because realistically, that is what is most required of them. They have little time left over for hand to hand, and in truth, much less need of it.
Krav Maga was actually eliminated for the most prestigious Israeli SF units a while back, because of the high rate of injury, and the fact that it was not deemed all that important.
It is probably good they are re-introducing it, at least to some extent, but an SF soldier will probably always be at best, as good as a hardened street fighter, not necessarily better.
As for the Marmara, much of it was simply the element of surprise, which plays a HUGE role in street fighting. Often, the stronger, better fighter will lose because he is caught off guard and is not psychologically prepared to bring a high level of violence to his opponent, who conversely stuns his opponent with an unexpectedly high level of violence right away. From the reports, the IDF entered the Marmar with the mentality of using *moderate violence*, not maximum brutality, (Israel always tries to use *moderate violence*, even in firefights) - which is EXACTLY the wrong mentality for a street fight. Then they suddenly met with maximum violence from the Turks - hardened street fighters in this case who were easily able to exploit the Israeli attitude of hesitation and *moderation*, as any street fighter will do- and were taken completely by surprise.
What is needed is for the commandos to NEVER again enter with a mental attitude of *moderate violence* - this can be exploited by much WEAKER opponents (its why size does not win street fights).
Besides, I think it is SILLY for Israelis to even care about competing with anyone in street fighting psychology and tactics, and to train for that. Using firearms in response to maximum brutality street fighters is a GOOD thing, it SHOULD be the response - rather than risk injury in a maximum violence street fight, EVEN if the Israelis become really good at it psychologically and physically and *win* (which I am sure they can do, if they have a mind to). Why let your enemies determine the terms of the combat? Let people know - you bring street fighters to the fray, we will simply gun you down.
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