StandWithUs.com :: NORTHWEST

Last March, the US and international media broadly reported a few isolated and unproven incidents of alleged misconduct by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the response by Israel to eight years of terrorism and 8,000 missiles fired by Hamas at Israei civilians.

Israeli soldiers responded by working with StandWithUs International to launch a website to rebut the allegations and to share their personal experiences of serving in the IDF. The website, "Soldiers Speak Out" (www.SoldiersSpeakOut.com) tells the soldiers powerful stories.

The soldiers wanted to respond for the over 700,000 citizen soldiers and reservists who try to live up to its high ethical standards. Most Israelis and Israeli soldiers feel the media has been unfairly skewed against them. Soldiers feel a deep sense of injustice, including those who risked their own lives in Gaza to protect Palestinian civilians. These young soldiers are deeply moral and recognize that their service is vital to a country like Israel, which is constantly endangered by terrorists and hostile neighbors.

The soldiers' video testimonies highlight the soldiers' personal accounts of upholding the IDF's moral code. This independent initiative, developed with StandWithUs, is unconnected with either the IDF or the Israeli Government.

Now Northwest residents have the opportunity to hear these stories in person when two "Soldiers Speak Out" IDF soldiers, Inon and Lior, visit the Northwest from March 5 to March 9, 2009.

If you have not already heard from one of our cosponsoring organizations when and where they
are hosting Inon and Lior, please email us by clicking here or call us at 206.548.4350.

Inon is a 25 year-old law and government student. He served as a lieutenant in the Israel Defense Force's Golani brigade for four years and now serves in the IDF reserves. He fought in the second Lebanon War in 2006, leading troops in the battle against Hezbollah. On the website, Inon recounts how he and his unit were in combat with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon when they saw an elderly woman shouting out in pain. As he and a medic approached her in an attempt to treat her, they realized she was wired to a suicide bomb belt and was being used by Hezbollah as a human trap for the soldiers. "This is what we are up against," says Inon. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGD_hMaZFYY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-xfDcF13d0.

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Lior is a second year law student at IDC Herzeliya. He tells of a time he was manning a long-distance night vision camera watching over a no-man's zone in the middle of a combat zone when two people were spotted wandering back and forth. For eight hours the two people paced. The Israelis knew they were scouts for Hamas, but their identity could not be confirmed and they were not carrying weapons. As a result, the decision to engage was repeated negative and the unit of 16 soldiers waited without moving forward. Unless the IDF was sure that someone was a Hamas terrorist, they would not use force against them. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqHwwoeFkMk.