Officer: Checkpoint soldiers are moral

IDF soldiers manning security checkpoints in the West Bank are some of Israel's most moral citizens, IDF Personnel Directorate Head Major-General Elazar Stern said Tuesday.

Stern was answering questions by teenagers from the Kibbutz Movement, who asked about the placing of IDF soldiers in West Bank checkpoints.

"What kind of soldiers leave the checkpoints? I think they are great people, who are no less moral than anyone else in the country. The occupation causes immorality? These soldiers are not immoral, but exactly the opposite," he said.

Breaking planned arrangements, Stern decided not to deliver a speech to the teenagers, but to answer their questions, a large part of which were on the issue of "the occupation damages," but Major-General Stern defended the soldiers.

"I think the people standing at the checkpoints are the least immoral, including those who take a girl out of her home in a house in Nablus in the middle of the night in order to find an arms cache. Those same soldiers deal with difficult dilemmas, sorrowful dilemmas," the major general said.

Stern added that "the checkpoints graduates in particular turned into better people who don't violate the law."

"Among thieves, rapists, and those who hit their wives and children, there are very few who stood at checkpoints during their military service," Stern said.

Airport security procedures

Stern referred to his last trip to the United States a number a months go, during which he underwent a long and wide ranging security check.

"I was dressed in civilian cloths and the metal detector went off three times. They told me at the airport to stand with my hands to the sides, to spread my legs in front of everyone, and even told me to remove my skullcap. Why? Because a few years ago, a few planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and killed 3,000 people," he said.

"This does not happen here, even once. But if we don't put checkpoints in Kalandiya, or in every other place, within two days we will be at the funeral of a friend. The occupation does not make IDF soldiers immoral," said Stern, who emphasized that he accepted with understanding the security checks at the U.S. airport.

Stern praised the youths who volunteered a year of service before their draft, but said that kibbutz youths should join a broader range of units, rather than concentrate on a Nahal battalion.

"We need you to be in artillery, armored corps, Golani, or every other place," he said.