"Terrorist" targets popular at West Bank gun range

Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:18am EDT

By Erika Solomon

EFRAT, West Bank (Reuters) - Sharon Gat, owner of the "Caliber 3 Company," steadies a little girl who comes up to his gunbelt. They're holding a rifle almost as big as she is.

They aim and fire at a cardboard soldier cutout. The girl is with a group of Israelis, Europeans and Americans on a tourist "anti-terrorism" shooting course in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"I think it's important for every Jew to know how to use a weapon and protect themselves," says Gat, and Israeli reservist. "And I won't lie or be a hypocrite, it's good money for me too." Gat's company normally specializes in counter-terrorism and defense training for private security firms and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The two-hour course for security-conscious tourists is a recent addition to its product line.

Not everyone thinks this is a healthy idea.

At the company's firing range in the Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, near the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, relatives from Israel, Canada, the United States and Belgium formed a group of 15 clients from 10 to 50 years old.

They shot everything from handguns to M-16 combat rifles.

James, an Ohio native who did not want his family name published, took the course earlier this month while visiting friends in Israel after a business trip in the West Bank.

"The most shocking part was when they had us shout 'terrorist' before getting into shooting position," he said.

He enjoyed the course and felt it was safe but morally questionable. "It could indoctrinate children with racist beliefs. It was sad to hear young kids express such racism. It makes the likelihood or reaching a peaceful settlement to the (Middle East) crisis seem more difficult." In the group before his, James said, excited children shouted to their parents about being able to "shoot the Arabs."

read on...
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE57K1BC20090821?rpc=60

Do you think the terrorists are right and those who want to defend themselves against them are wrong?

I don't understand that kind of thinking.

mark

Not so much that you have no right to defend yourself, as that you ought not have to worry all the time about defending yourself, and that if you are in that position, it's a problem. Real security is not having to worry about protection much.

However the writer of the OP is not present, as far as I know, and I cannot speak for what she intended.

Maybe we can speak to their neighbors who have been trying to kill them since they became a nation, and have so stated publicly many hundreds of times over the last 50 years.
ADDED: FWIW, those who want dearly to kill them repeatedly state they want to kill the JEWS, not
"Israelis".

mark

That is most likely something like this: http://www.letargets.com/estylez_ps.aspx?searchmode=category&searchcatcontext=~2

before opening fire constitute racism? I don't understand the interviewee at all. What would he want the trainers to shout? "Bunny rabbits!"? If they were shouting "Arabs!" or "Muslims" or "Palestinians" I could understand and agree with him. But "terrorists"?

ARE Arabs?

That everyone should be capable of handling a gun properly is a good idea, even in the US.

Reuters has a history of anti-gun propaganda, this article is weaker than most.

Aww, what cuteness flows from the mouths of babes.... What could possibly be racist about that? :eyes: