November 27, 2023
Israel and Gun Control
By Jessica Geraghty
There are recent headlines and talk about Israel relaxing gun control laws and arming citizens since the Hamas terrorist attacks October 7th. But these narratives can be deceiving. One Israeli tactical expert, Yonatan Stern, has exposed some concerning actions on behalf of the Israeli government that tell a different story.
Yonatan Stern was born in Israel in 1984, and joined the Israeli police at age 16, after growing up in Hebron, where he witnessed constant terror attacks. At age 18, he joined the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), where he served for three years. He then attended college, where he studied government and counter-terrorism operations before moving to the United States in 2007. Several years later he founded the Cherev Gidon Israeli Tactical Training Academy. Cherev Gidon means “sword of Gideon,” referring to the military leader, judge and prophet whose victory over the Midianites is recounted the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. Stern brings a unique approach to firearms training that aims to address weak spots that he has identified in Americans’ firearm habits.
Is Israel Truly Willing to Give Citizens the Right to Self-Defense?
According to Stern, “almost nobody is allowed to own guns at all” in Israel. But most citizens enter the Israeli military at 18, and they are issued a rifle. Americans who enter the military are also issued rifles, but the difference is that American soldiers aren’t permitted to keep their rifles in their possession off base. “But in Israel it doesn’t work like that, in Israel, the soldiers usually leave their bases carrying their rifles with them,” says Stern. Upon discharge from the IDF, however, the rifle is taken from the Israeli soldier. And from the sounds of it, that soldier may never be able to even get a handgun, never mind a rifle, again. Images in the news recently of IDF soldiers carrying their weapons are contributing to public deception around the idea of “loosened” gun-control laws in Israel. “The problem is that people see these off-duty soldiers, very often who walk around in civilian clothes, carrying M16s on their back,” says Stern. “And the conclusion that outsiders come to, ‘oh look at that all these civilians in Israel are armed, they can just walk around lugging M16s on their back,’ and they see [Israel] as a gun utopia.”
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/11/israel_and_gun_control.html
