The overreaction of the world press to the idiotic behavior of the IDF soldier who bashed a statue of Jesus that was on a cross in the garden of a private home in Southern Lebanon is, while not unexpected, patently ridiculous.

The incident some days ago was regrettable to be sure.  However, our government and the IDF responded quickly by taking two people into custody whose activities that day were related to this incident.  The solider who wielded the axe was quickly sentenced to 30 days in jail while the case of the photographer is still under investigation.

In addition, the entire brigade was suspended from operating in sensitive areas and the IDF’s Chief of Staff was clear in his reaction when he said:

“This is a grave ethical incident that is out of line with IDF norms and values. We all swore the soldier’s oath upon enlistment—weapons are to be used solely for the purpose of carrying out the mission, and never for revenge. We will not accept such incidents within the ranks of the IDF.”

To my mind, this should have been enough to deal with a relatively minor incident for an army that has been fighting wars of survival on multiple fronts for the last two and a half years.  Yet, here is what a correspondent of mine based in........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)