When an IDF Pilot Does NOT Bomb a Civilian Target Which Protects Terrorists, IDF Troops Die on the Ground

On Thurday morning, September 25th, 2003, the IDF surrounded a home in the UNRWA Al-Boureij refugee camp in Gaza, where an armed Arab terrorist leader was holed up.

The IDF did not call in an air raid on the house, since a family was there, acting as human shields for the terrorist.

Instead, an IDF infantry unit led a ground assault on the home.

As the ground assault commenced, the Arab terrorist opened fire and killed one of the Israeli soldiers, Sergeant Avihu Keinan, age 22, of Shiloh. Six other Israeli soldiers were soldiers were also wounded.

Other IDF troops returned the fire and killed the terrorist. When the troops entered the house where the terrorist had been hiding, they discovered an impressive arms cache, which included a complement of Kassam rockets and rocket launchers.

All this occurred on the same day that 27 reserve pilots of Israel’s Air Force publicized a petition in which they declared that they would not participate in any air raids on Arab civilian targets.

The petition was widely promoted over the past three months on the internet by Israel’s Communist Party, and circulated among hundreds of Israel’s reserve pilots by two groups called “Yesh Gvul” and “Courage to Refuse”, which have received more than $250,000 from the Shefa Fund in Philadelphia over the past two years.

The brochure distributed today by “Yesh Gvul” offers financial support for any Israeli soldier who will refuse Israeli army service anywhere beyond Israel’s 1949/67 cease-fire line.

Avihu Keinan’s father pointed to Israel’s policy of hesitating to bomb civilian targets that host terrorists as the reason for the death of his son.

Yisrael Medad, Shiloh resident provided the following moving account of Avihu Keinan’s funeral:

“The last person to speak at the funeral of Avihu Keinan HY”D was his father, Moshe.

Moshe opened by saying that he promised that he would not break down and cry and hoped that he would honor his son by keeping his composure.

He recalled that the previous evening, the Air Force Commander, in response to the letter of several pilots who will from now on refuse to participate in bombings of “civilian” targets, noted that the IDF was the most moral and ethical army in all the world.

Moshe Keinan rejected that.

He said that it was this policy that had killed his son.

If the IDF commanders who get their orders from the Minister of Defense and the Government of Israel, prefer the deaths of Jewish soldiers, our own children, over the children of our enemies, then this is not moral.

He demanded that 270 Captains, 270 Majors, 270 Colonels, 270 Generals all inform the Minister of Defense Mofaz, that they too are willing to put their insignia and ranks on the table. They must demand to be permitted to put an end to this violence. The Government of Israel must know that the army is unwilling to sacrifice soldiers only to be called the most moral army in the world. He asked rhetorically, is this the way the French, the British or the American army acts?

He then finished by singing a Yiddish lullaby which he had sung to Avihu when he was a baby. (Moshe Keinan is a Chazan, a member of Tel Aviv’s Cantorial Choir scheduled to tour the USA and Canada in a few months)::
“Mein yingeleh… Mein tayareh” (My young one, my cherished one)