Are israeli Teachers Really armed?

Somewhere in an alternative reality lies the gunloon universe where armed people walk about happy, but it's not really Switzerland, or Israel, as this blog post points out.  The post is written by Ron Cantor, the executive pastor of Tiferet Yeshua congregation in Tel Aviv who also leads a ministry in Tel Aviv called Messiah’s Mandate. His comment about this picture is:

There is a picture going around the Internet that I have seen about a dozen times today that claims that Israeli teachers are packing heat. Well, are they? The answer is “NO.”

The author then goes onto point out the realities of guns in Israel.  His conclusion:

Israel’s successful gun ownership laws both serve to make sure upstanding, brave and mentally sound citizens have access to guns, and that those who present even a minor threat are prevented from possessing one. It would be a mistake to use Israel as the poster child for more weapons in the US, as our success here is much more connected to limiting weapons and enabling strategies such as gates, fences and armed guards (not armed teachers), to protect our children. Sorry to disappoint, but the truth is important.

Yet another gunloon myth bites the dust. In fact, there was hostility when someone tried to form an Israeli version of the NRA in 2008.

Yet it remains doubtful whether pro-gun advocacy will become as important in Israel as it is in the U.S. "The general trend to transplant American ideas to other countries is often not successful or very useful," said Gerald Steinberg, chairman of political studies at Bar Ilan University and an expert on American culture. The arguments put forward by the Israeli NRA are not convincing, he told Anglo File.

"We don't need a situation where hundreds of people shoot in all kinds of different directions in the case of a terror attack. That's the job of the police or the army," Steinberg said. He said that if more people carried guns the chances of more people getting hurt would be greater than the chance of neutralizing an attacker more quickly. "The last thing we want in Israel is an American gun culture," he added. "Israel has enough dangers, and making it easier for people on the street to carry guns is not what we need."

Jon Stewart on Obama's Visit to Israel

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La Pierre's Lies about Israeli Schools Exposed

The Reporter

Israel's policy on issuing guns is restrictive, and armed guards at its schools are meant to stop terrorists, not crazed or disgruntled gunmen, experts said Monday, rejecting claims by America's top gun lobby that Israel serves as proof for its philosophy that the U.S. needs more weapons, not fewer.

Far from the image of a heavily armed population where ordinary people have their own arsenals to repel attackers, Israel allows its people to acquire firearms only if they can prove their professions or places of residence put them in danger. The country relies on its security services, not armed citizens, to prevent terror attacks.

Though military service in Israel is compulsory, routine familiarity with weapons does not carry over into civilian life. Israel has far fewer private weapons per capita than the U.S., and while there have been gangster shootouts on the streets from time to time, gun rampages outside the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are unheard of.

The National Rifle Association responded to the Dec. 14 killing of 20 first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school by resisting calls for tighter gun control and calling for armed guards and police at schools. On Sunday, the lobby's chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, invoked his perception of the Israeli school security system to back his proposal.

"Israel had a whole lot of school shootings until they did one thing: They said, 'We're going to stop it,' and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then," LaPierre said on the NBC News show "Meet the Press."


Israel never had "a whole lot of school shootings." Authorities could only recall two in the past four decades.

Wayne really had a bad day that day. What do you think about it?

Please leave a comment.

Cenk on the Latest Israeli-Palestinian Violence

From Israel home of gun freedom...

Or so some people would have you believe.

It seems that there has been a rash of domestic shootings

It seems that Israel's a booming private security industry allows for a loophole in the law allows guards to take their weapon's home. That's led to an alarming incidence of domestic gun-related crime against women. Israel's only disarmament lobby group has launched a campaign to tigthen Israel's gun laws before more women are killed.

Somebody say something about guns around the house being bad news for women?

Obama - The First Jewish President

Al Jazerra reports on Obama: America's 'first Jewish president'?

photo - Gallo/Getty

Obama is the "the first Jewish President". That's the title of New York magazine's lead article, written by John Heilemann and quoting a major Obama fundraiser.

Listening to Obama speak at the United Nations on Wednesday many would nod in agreement, not less in Palestine and the Arab world.

The US president has embraced the rejectionist Israeli position on the question of international recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

But that's not a Jewish position. It's a radical Zionist position. Many Jews, including US and Israeli Jews, do not embrace such extremist views.

But the fact that Obama surpassed his predecessor George W Bush, the most radical supporter of Israel among all US Presidents, has left everyone in Israel dumbstruck. The latest Zionist US president sounded like Israel's own founding fathers.

Never have they heard a US president read straight from the papers of the Israeli government.

What do you think? Isn't it time for the U.S. to back down a bit from its staunch support of Israel? Instead it seems we're moving in the other direction. How do you explain that?

How can the entire world focus on the poor Libyans, who needed and deserved help to overthrow their oppressive government, while the Palestinians continue to be left out in the cold. Only the Kurds rival them for the number of people in an ethnic group without a country of their own. Isn't that what the 1st world countries are supposed to be trying to correct.

Does it make me cynical or a conspiracy theorist to suspect that decisions like these are made for political and economic gain and not for the moral principles we're suppose to stand for?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

2 Israelis Shot in Denmark

CNN reports on the arrest of a Lebanese Palestinian man in connection with the shooting of two Israeli men. The incident took place on the Danish Island of Fyn as the two Israelis were working in a shopping mall. The shooter was a Danish citizen.

Our frequent commenter Bob S., has posed some questions.

Police say the suspect has denied attempting to kill the Israelis but acknowledged carrying a gun Wednesday at the mall in the central Danish city of Odense.

Jacobsen says the two Israelis had been selling hair-care products when they were attacked. He says they were hospitalized in stable condition; one man was shot in the arm and one man in the leg.

Now, is this a "gun crime" or a hate crime?

Is the availability of the firearms the predominant factor in this situation or is it the religious factor that is predominant?

Denmark has a high rate of firearm ownership, but low crime rates....doesn't that contradict your 'easy availability of firearms theory?

If my blog ever gets popular, I'm gonna ask Bob to be a guest blogger. Those are exactly the questions I would have asked, perhaps from a different angle, but essentially the same.

What do you think? Hate crime or gun crime? What about his marksmanship? I'm laughing about that, but I'll bet those Israeli boys are thanking their lucky stars of David.

I guess Bob's final question there is going to force me into admitting something which I've never really denied, but which must be said now. It also relates to the Caracas story. Gun availability is not the only factor. I believe it can be a determining one, like in the case of Teah Wimberly, and perhaps in hundreds of Caracas shootings, but in all honesty I must admit there are other factors such as racial hatred and cultural mores.

What's your opinion?

Israel's Mob Wars

CNN reports on a fascinating situation in Israel. It seems that while the Israeli police and indeed the world have been focusing on Palestinian terrorism, mafia-like business has been thriving. Head of a powerful underworld family, Yaakov Alperon was killed instantly in a bomb blast, which in spite of the official family statement that those responsible will have to answer to God, will probably be followed by additional violence.




What do you think? Is it surprising that in Tel Aviv there are a number of organized crime families? How does this fit with what Bob S. has pointed out to us a number of times, that armed teachers in Israeli schools are responsible for the fact that they don't have school shootings? I had pictured Israel as an organized and apart from the Palestinian threat, fairly peaceful place, but this mob hit on Alperon makes me wonder. What's your opinion?

Paul McCartney Brings Peace to the Middle East

CNN reports on the upcoming concert of Paul McCartney in Tel Aviv.

After posing for pictures with fans outside the fortress-like church, McCartney was asked to respond to criticism from some Palestinians that his visit to Israel supports its occupation of the West Bank.

He said his visit Wednesday to the West Bank showed he was not playing favorites.

"I'm here to highlight the situation and to say that what we need is peace in this region, a two-state solution," he said, referring to Israel and a Palestinian state.

What occurs to me is, first of all, who could complain about a wish for peace. Did the Palestinians who criticized McCartney not think he was sincere in wishing peace for the reason? Or did they not know he suggests a "two-state solution?" Isn't that the very thing that supports Palestine?

The Insider contains the basic story along with some good pictures of Paul.

What's your opinion?