Azaria Verdict: A Letter To Armchair Quarterbacks/Backseat Drivers

Will we let the Elor Azaria verdict tear apart our social fabric? We are struggling to define ourselves as a modern nation built on the ashes of our ancient homeland and how we come out from this latest challenge will play a part in that, for better or for worse.

Dear Armchair Quarterback / Backseat Driver:

My chest aches when I see Elor Azaria and his parents, or even when I just think about them. I can imagine (or maybe I cannot imagine) the overwhelming burden of carrying an entire nation on their shoulders. That is what has become of their ordeal, an ordeal that should never, in my opinion, have reached the dimensions that it has.

Rightly or wrongly, three judges unanimously determined that Elor Azaria is guilty of manslaughter. There is now only one thing that can overturn that verdict and that is an appeal and it has nothing to do with the noise you are making in the streets or on the social media. Send in your petitions and demonstrate in the streets – I doubt this will have much, if any, effect; but if it makes you feel good, then at least be careful you do not add coal to the emotional fires of our aching nation as I promise to be careful myself.

There is nobody who is unaffected by seeing a young man handed down a harsh verdict for having killed a terrorist. I wish he had been there earlier and could have taken out his anger when the act was still in progress, something that everyone from top to bottom, right to left and front to back would have agreed was justified. I think we have mostly, if not all, reached the point where we prefer terrorists to be killed in action rather than wounded and taken in for questioning and imprisonment. But even that depends on the circumstances.

I am NOT sorry the terrorist was killed; please do not misunderstand me. I am sorry Azaria killed him in a way that contradicted, according to the court, Israel Defense Force (IDF) Rules of Engagement (ROE). I have no doubt soldiers in the field know the difference between the fatal neutralizing of the two terrorists who sought to stab our soldiers in Hebron that day: one a justified killing before the incident was contained and the other an unjustified killing that took place afterward. Remember, only one killing from that incident went on trial.

Niv Shtendel (Hebrew) and Jonathan Tobin believe that clarifying the distinction between the two killings — for soldiers and the general Israeli public — was behind the strong condemnations of Azaria’s act expressed by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and others. They did this viciously and far too early on to have had any salutary effect. Instead, they contributed to the fissure we are now experiencing, damaging the potential for productive debate and analysis among us, and making it hard to believe that the Azaria verdict was untarnished by political or diplomatic interests.

If we, the people of Israel, can rise above this horrendous start to dealing with the Azaria affair, perhaps we can drag our politicians after us. Is the demonstration in Tel Aviv last night (Saturday, 7 Jan) a start in repairing the hate?

Is Elor Azaria a Hero?

Pardon me for saying so, but I really do not understand why anyone considers Elor Azaria a hero. The court says he committed a crime and even if you do not accept that verdict, there is a long long distance between being innocent and being a hero. We are doing nobody a favour when we call him a hero.

Here are some people I call “hero”: Yonatan Azarihab, who pulled the knife out of his own neck and used it to kill the terrorist who sought to kill him and others; Haim Smadar, a security guard who threw himself on a suicide bomber and prevented many many deaths but not his own; “guitar hero” Yishay Montgomery, who hit the terrorist with his guitar, started a chase, and alerted others to the fact of the attack; Malak Farhan and Golan Yosifon, who stopped the terrorist attacker in Netanya’s market; Dafna Meir, who held the knife tight within her gut so the terrorist could not take it out and use it against her kids; and more. Tell me, please, how Azaria’s action comes close to theirs. He shot a wounded terrorist lying prone on the ground. Does not sound anything near heroism to me.

You might argue and tell me that the terrorist was still a danger, that Elor thought he had an explosive devise beneath his coat, that his hand moved. The three judges decided differently. They determined, based on the evidence before them, that Elor acted out of anger and not out of fear for himself or others. If you have read the Judgement itself and find discrepancies between the evidence and their description of the evidence, then I would be interested to hear about that. (The complete Judgement [in Hebrew] is available for download at no cost.) If not, why should your opinion be any more correct than my opinion?

Furthermore, if you believe that the public statements of Eisenkot and others sealed Elor’s fate in court, then you probably believe that your protests and petitions and demonstrations and cries “he’s a hero” will affect at least sentencing if it did not affect the Azaria verdict. If that is true, then you likely think that even if Eisenkot et al had not made those statements on the media stage, they could have pulled the strings behind the curtains. Only if that were the case, you would not have known about it. What you are saying, in other words, is that you do not believe that the military court system has any independence of thought and actions from the operational system of the IDF.

And from here, it is easy to lose faith in the civil court system as well. And this is where I see a huge problem in our society and that is exactly why the case was handled so transparently and that is why the verdict is available for anyone to read online. So if you are already sitting in your armchair, at least read the verdict yourself and come to your own independent decision regarding the authenticity and reliability of the judgement. I know, it is 98 pages long. So what! How long is too long to check if your assumptions are right or wrong on such a nation-shattering issue?

Don’t Write Off A Positive Ending to the Azaria Verdict Just Yet

The case is only part-way through at this point. Elor Azaria has yet to be sentenced. The verdict part is dry and follows rules of evidence and more. Sentencing is the part where heart can be brought in. I hope that the judges do that. And I hope they do that independently of whatever you and I think. I want the judges to be true to the LAW and, while it is important that they take social issues into consideration, I do not want the street to dictate to the court any more than I would like politicians or Chiefs of Staff to dictate to the court.

Here is Where To Get Out of Your Armchair or Move to the Front Seat and Drive

If you think the laws are not right – you want a shoot-to-kill-the-terrorist in all cases, then lobby the government through Members of Knesset you believe would push for that. If you think there should be a law that would protect all soldiers from criminal prosecution for acts done while in a combat zone even after the scene has been secured, then support the MKs who have just proposed this exact law and lobby the government on their behalf. Ditto for anything that has come to your attention as a result of this case and its (mis)management at any stage . . . if you think of a law that can improve the situation for soldiers, the IDF, and ultimately for all of us, then go for it!