Israel's Death Squads

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-03-03 05:03:00 UTC
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The Israeli organization Break the Silence ("Shovrim Shtika") has brought forward the testimony of one of Israel's highly trained assassins.

As the critical moment approached, the sharpshooter said he began to shake from the waist down. "What happens now is I'm waiting for the car to come and I am losing control of my legs. I have an M16 with digicom [special sharpshooter sights]. It was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. I felt completely concentrated. So the seconds are counted down, then we started seeing the cars, and we see that two cars are coming, not one. There was a first car very close to the following one and when the truck came in, it came in a bit early, and both cars were stopped.Everything stopped. They gave us two seconds and they said, 'Shoot. Fire.'" Who gave the order, and to whom? "The unit commander ... to everybody. Everybody heard 'Fire'."

The target, Razeq, was in the passenger seat, closest to the APC. "I have no doubt I see him in the scope. I start shooting. Everyone starts shooting, and I lose control. I shoot for one or two seconds. I counted afterwards - shot 11 bullets in his head. I could have shot one shot and that's it. It was five seconds of firing.

"I look through the scope, see half of his head. I have no reason to shoot 11 bullets. I think maybe from the fear, maybe to cope with all the things that are happening, I just continue shooting."

This account is from an article in the British Independent, based on the testimony of a former member of an Israeli assassination unit. The article conveys the lies, brutality and bad luck that running a death squad entails.

Surely this is not the main point. The innocent bystanders deserve more sympathy, objectively. But I felt the anguish of the killer, the way that these memories continue to haunt him. I'm known many like him over the years - veterans who did things they don't want to think about anymore. The amazing film Gran Turino has this great line delivered by the hero, played by Clint Eastwood:

Walt Kowalski: [to Father Janovich] The thing that haunts a guy is the stuff he wasn't ordered to do.

Read more testimonies at Break the Silence.

One Shot is the title of a film by Nurit Kedar. I'd love to show a clip from it, but couldn't find any free video.

Charles Lenchner
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