Alik Ron is one of the genuine heroes of the Entebbe rescue. He stood alongside Yoni Netanyahu, the lone Israeli casualty, when the latter was gunned down by terrorists who were holding 250 Jewish hostages in Uganda.
Years later, Ron was commander of police in the northern region of Israel. But it was a different Israel. The Israel that had rescued the Entebbe hostages was now ruled by a government headed by Ehud Barak, which whined that it could not rescue a wounded Druze soldier bleeding to death in Joseph's Shrine, under siege by the PLO barbarians. Barak tried to rescue the soldier by asking Arafat to intervene and call off his brown-shirts. Arafat declined. It was a Labor government that insisted there was no way to protect Jewish children on buses other than by offering Arafat his own state and eastern Jerusalem with the Western Wall as his capital. Entebbe did not exist for such people.
When the pogroms broke out in the Galilee in the fall of 2000, Ron commanded the small units of police holding the pogromchik savages in check. He had earlier warned the country of the dangers of radicalization of Israeli Arabs due to Oslo. The country did not listen. The pogromchiks were conducting Nazi-like "selections" in the Galilee, a bit like those that were conducted in Entebbe, to single out the Jews. Drivers were stopped and had their papers checked. If they were Jews, the Galilee pogromchiks beat them, lynched one woman, and burned their cars.
Ron ordered his troops to face down the thugs and hooligans. To keep things under control, he ordered snipers to take positions, just in case. Just in case happened. The hordes attacked his police with Molotovs and rocks, while threatening more lynchings. The snipers opened fire. They killed 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian.
The pogroms stopped cold.
Many believe Ron saved Israel. There is no doubt he saved many lives. The use of snipers under such circumstances is legal. Ron was pilloried on a technicality, that he had failed to get official okay before ordering fire from politicians sitting in air-conditioned offices. There was no time for such niceties.
Then, to coddle the pogromchiks, Ehud Barak set up a commission of inquiry. One wag described it as a secularist mikva (a ritual purification bath for leftist atheists). The commission decided to make a scapegoat out of Ron. Someone had to take the fall. It decided it should be the hero of Entebbe.
During the commission hearings, the members of the commission - a Supreme Court Justice, an Arab judge and a leftist professor - were intimidated by the behavior of the Arabs in the courtroom, some of them family members of those shot by the police, and ordered that glass shields be set up to protect the commission members from the violence of the threatening thugs. The commissioners cowered behind plate glass.
The commission ruled that Ron be prohibited from serving in the police in the future. He had already resigned before the commission assigned him his scarlet letter. Stoic as ever, he composed a poem about his ordeal.
Here is a loose translation:
?I viewed judges in their robes,
Sitting before the clenched fist of the rioters, raised in provocation,
The judges fleeing in terror through the back door,
Out of the ransacked courtroom,
?You fled once, you fled twice,
And you stopped the hearings till the glass armor was in place,
And I thought it behooves me to say,
That police on guard to protect their country,
Are not permitted a similar flight and abandonment of their posts.?
I would like to ask readers to send a card or letter to Alik Ron. He deserves some words of support and comfort. English is fine. Send them to Commander (Nitsav if you write in Hebrew) Alik Ron, Tel Adashim, Israel. That should be enough for them to get there.
Years later, Ron was commander of police in the northern region of Israel. But it was a different Israel. The Israel that had rescued the Entebbe hostages was now ruled by a government headed by Ehud Barak, which whined that it could not rescue a wounded Druze soldier bleeding to death in Joseph's Shrine, under siege by the PLO barbarians. Barak tried to rescue the soldier by asking Arafat to intervene and call off his brown-shirts. Arafat declined. It was a Labor government that insisted there was no way to protect Jewish children on buses other than by offering Arafat his own state and eastern Jerusalem with the Western Wall as his capital. Entebbe did not exist for such people.
When the pogroms broke out in the Galilee in the fall of 2000, Ron commanded the small units of police holding the pogromchik savages in check. He had earlier warned the country of the dangers of radicalization of Israeli Arabs due to Oslo. The country did not listen. The pogromchiks were conducting Nazi-like "selections" in the Galilee, a bit like those that were conducted in Entebbe, to single out the Jews. Drivers were stopped and had their papers checked. If they were Jews, the Galilee pogromchiks beat them, lynched one woman, and burned their cars.
Ron ordered his troops to face down the thugs and hooligans. To keep things under control, he ordered snipers to take positions, just in case. Just in case happened. The hordes attacked his police with Molotovs and rocks, while threatening more lynchings. The snipers opened fire. They killed 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian.
The pogroms stopped cold.
Many believe Ron saved Israel. There is no doubt he saved many lives. The use of snipers under such circumstances is legal. Ron was pilloried on a technicality, that he had failed to get official okay before ordering fire from politicians sitting in air-conditioned offices. There was no time for such niceties.
Then, to coddle the pogromchiks, Ehud Barak set up a commission of inquiry. One wag described it as a secularist mikva (a ritual purification bath for leftist atheists). The commission decided to make a scapegoat out of Ron. Someone had to take the fall. It decided it should be the hero of Entebbe.
During the commission hearings, the members of the commission - a Supreme Court Justice, an Arab judge and a leftist professor - were intimidated by the behavior of the Arabs in the courtroom, some of them family members of those shot by the police, and ordered that glass shields be set up to protect the commission members from the violence of the threatening thugs. The commissioners cowered behind plate glass.
The commission ruled that Ron be prohibited from serving in the police in the future. He had already resigned before the commission assigned him his scarlet letter. Stoic as ever, he composed a poem about his ordeal.
Here is a loose translation:
?I viewed judges in their robes,
Sitting before the clenched fist of the rioters, raised in provocation,
The judges fleeing in terror through the back door,
Out of the ransacked courtroom,
?You fled once, you fled twice,
And you stopped the hearings till the glass armor was in place,
And I thought it behooves me to say,
That police on guard to protect their country,
Are not permitted a similar flight and abandonment of their posts.?
I would like to ask readers to send a card or letter to Alik Ron. He deserves some words of support and comfort. English is fine. Send them to Commander (Nitsav if you write in Hebrew) Alik Ron, Tel Adashim, Israel. That should be enough for them to get there.