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Israeli Military Presence in West Bank Justified to Protect Jewish Lives

[Jerusalem Post] Matthew Wagner - Maintaining an Israeli military presence in Judea and Samaria to protect Jewish lives is completely justified and overrides concerns over Palestinian suffering, according to IDF Head Chaplain Brig.-Gen. Avichai Ronzki, who has a rich military past in addition to his rabbinic training. "If you have intelligence information on someone who is about to perpetrate a terrorist attack, you are obligated to stop him. Having a presence in Judea and Samaria allows us to enter Palestinian towns when necessary to make arrests." "For more than two years now, there haven't been any terrorist attacks inside the Green Line, because we are inside the Palestinian cities foiling terrorist attempts." Ronzki says, "as commander of IDF forces in the Samaria region, I did what I could to alleviate Palestinian suffering. We put up roofing that would provide shade for people waiting at the roadblocks so they would not have to sit out in the sun. We would try to supply people with water. And to this day, when I see a lot of traffic at the roadblocks, I call headquarters - they all know me - and I ask them to send in more soldiers to process people faster." "But at the same time, I am very aware of the military justification for it. The IDF is constantly catching people trying to transport arms and ammunition, all the time. So you can't just do away with the roadblocks." "In the big picture, it is definitely moral to monitor people, arrest suspects, put up roadblocks...because all these things protect Jewish lives."
2007-12-07 01:00:00
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