ISM Exposed: How the ISM Sucker-Punched the IDF Again

By: Lee Kaplan
Published: April 18th, 2012
I’ve spent the last eight years of my life as a journalist under cover and reporting on the inner workings of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), in the United States and abroad. I’ve been through their training orientations and I have their training manuals. I operate a website where it lists the history, tactics, and media manipulations of the ISM and their leadership. I’ve also been responsible for the deportation of over 200 ISM activists from Israel, including some of their North American leadership.

At their orientation sessions in the US and UK in which I posed as an ISM volunteer, we were instructed that our purpose was to harass the IDF in any way possible in order to frustrate their anti-terror operations. We were informed that the ISM coordinates with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, which were constantly apprised of our locations in the villages. If we encountered armed terrorists while in the West Bank or Gaza, we were told, simply say hello to them and move on, as they were keenly aware that we were there to assist them.

In a recorded interview at the Ohio State national conference, Adam Shapiro, a co-founder of the ISM, personally told me there are plain-clothed Palestinian handlers at every ISM demonstration that direct the activities. I was also told about how ISM activists serve to draw sniper fire down on IDF soldiers when desired. Lisa Nessan, one of those ISM trainers, told me at an ISM Georgetown conference that standing as a human shield in front of an armed terrorist as he threw rocks or shot at an Israeli soldier was indeed considered “nonviolent.” Joseph Carr, a.k.a. Joseph Smith, another ISM trainer, told me in a recorded phone interview how he and Rachel Corrie retrieved the dead body of a Hamas terrorist in Gaza from a combat zone only weeks before she was killed by an IDF bulldozer.

When asked whether he feared arrest by the IDF back then he blithely replied ‘no’ because he knew that Arab snipers would be there to fire at them. Rachel Corrie, who was trained by the ISM and had read their manual, also knew that Arab snipers would shoot at the IDF soldiers driving that bulldozer had they exited it to remove her.

The ISM uses a motto coined by the late Malcolm X – “By any means necessary” – in implementing what they consider to be revolutionary tactics in bringing down the Jewish state, which they see as a first step in bringing down Western democracy. Lying and media manipulation are encouraged and elevated to an art form. Talk of ‘nonviolent resistance’ is solely for media consumption, since the ISM promotes armed revolutionary ‘resistance’ against Israel by serving as human shields for terrorists.

And so, it is in this context that for two hours leading up to the two minute video of Colonel Shalom Eisner striking Danish ISM activist Andreas Ayas, the ISM used their bicycles, bodies, and even physical assaults to obstruct the IDF in a closed military zone and prevent anti-terror operations. Earlier in the day, Colonel Eisner was struck by a stick-wielding ISM activist, leaving him with a couple of broken fingers.

11 seconds into the video Colonel Eisner can be seen ordering the ISMers to disperse, one of them to his right with a baseball cap. The Colonel is holding his weapon like a stick to create a line that should not be crossed. He holds the weapon in a way that suggests his hand is injured. Ayas has his back to the camera, and is facing the Colonel in the foreground.

The film is then manipulated by editing. The ISMer with the baseball cap walks behind Colonel Eisner to break up the dispersal line the Colonel set up with his weapon. ISM activists routinely mingle among the soldiers and police in attempts to separate and free their comrades that have been arrested, as this video in Hebron shows. The ISM activists are trained to scream bloody murder, tug on the soldiers, and create mayhem before the cameras. Most of all, they do not allow the police or soldiers to create a line. They faithfully followed the script in this episode.

At 13 seconds, the film has been edited to show Ayas defiantly facing down the Colonel instead of dispersing as the other ISMers are seen doing. A casual viewer might think Ayas was just standing there. The Colonel’s eyes widen as Ayas challenges him verbally and refuses to move. This fits the ISM playbook, as the activists are told the soldiers cannot and will not hurt them for fear of punishment; and in the unlikely event that they do, cameras will be there to grab an edited Kodak moment for their weekly propaganda videos on YouTube. The Colonel, faced with an unrelenting and unmoved agitator and trying to hold the line with a couple of broken fingers, struck Ayas. The Danish consul may be demanding an explanation, but Colonel Eisner did nothing more than the Danish police do to unruly anarchists, as this video shows.

At 26 seconds we see Ayas in the foreground of the shot sporting only a cut lip with no serious injuries and fleeing toward the camera. However, in the same frame we can also discern Colonel Eisner trying to restrain the man with the baseball cap, who moved to where Ayas had been standing and refused to disperse. The Colonel attempts to arrest him but due to his hand injury cannot hold him, and another ISM activist grabs the man in the baseball cap and helps him escape. The interloper is arrested by other soldiers, while Colonel Eisner is relegated to a spectator’s role as he clearly cannot use one of his hands. The rest of the video shows female ISMers breaking the line and interfering with the soldiers again; another anarchist tactic is to send women in so it can be claimed the soldiers abuse the fairer sex. Be that as it may, anyone caught interfering with an arrest or even touching a police officer elicits an uncompromising response in any Western country. The end of the film shows a woman that had been arrested sitting next to the male ISM activist who had run interference on Colonel Eisen’s arrest, and the Colonel chatting with them.

As mentioned, ISM activists like Ayas are told during training not to fear or even respect IDF soldiers. They are told that the soldiers really have no authority over them and are under orders not to hurt them, and the activists are thus encouraged to challenge the soldiers at every turn. If instructed by soldiers to back up ten feet, we were trained to back up only five feet, in order to maintain a consistent and intense level of interference. In training we were told that the soldiers are allowed to detain us but not arrest us, and that the soldiers must call and wait for police, a wait that facilitates a getaway. We were told to photocopy our passports so that if detained, we could slip away. Our training emphasized that when in closed military zones, such as the one in which Ayas was struck, and if ordered to disperse or leave the area, that we must refuse and demand to see the soldier’s orders in writing.

This elaborate tutelage has essentially turned interference with the IDF into a titillating game for college anarchists in America and Europe, who are recruited for “summer vacations in Palestine” to mess with the IDF soldiers. In a perverse type of package deal, they can get that “revolutionary” experience and raise hell without the risk of being shot – as in Tiananmen Square or Tehran – or even endure the rough handling of an American police officer. Interfering with the IDF and aiding Arabs in attacking them has bestowed upon ISMers cult status within American universities, and now one university even has an ISM chapter dedicated to prepare students for such missions. Andreas Ayas wannabes are recruited every week on US and UK campuses, and Colonel Eisner was merely another pawn – and victim - in the ISM’s game plan.
These ISM activists from the US and Europe do more than just abuse free speech to interfere with the IDF, nor are they starry-eyed pacifists. They represent a definite security risk to Israel and are documented terrorist confederates. The ISM even organized an event called the Tel Rumeida Circus, which performed juggling and fire tricks at checkpoints to distract the IDF soldiers and facilitate the smuggling enterprise.
A Rogue’s Gallery
Paul LaRudee, one of ISM’s major organizers in the US, was caught and deported from Israel after I tipped off the Israeli government to the fact that he was traveling to Israel under an assumed name, Paul Wilder. Until that point, he had been slipping in and out of the country, regularly meeting with members of Hamas. After exhausting the appeals process in Israeli courts, he went on to Lebanon to assist Hezbollah during the 2006 war.

Paul LaRudee continues to hobnob with Hamas, having recently visited Hamas in Gaza to receive a medal the group had awarded him. He was among those arrested on the Mavi Marmara, where he was justifiably struck by Israeli personnel who were struggling to subdue him. Because their actions were justified, these personnel were not vilified in the media nor reprimanded by the government. But the only difference between them and Colonel Eisner is that their actions weren’t depicted in a grossly-manipulated video.

Here are a few more ISM activists I succeeded in getting deported from Israel.
Brian Malovany trains new ISM recruits on how to harass IDF soldiers. His father told me ISM is a cult. Brian managed to reenter Israel by obtaining an Irish passport. ISM encourages obtaining multiple passports and identities so as to be able to reenter Israel and continue the harassment of the IDF and support for the terrorist groups in their ‘resistance’.
Joseph Carr has boasted about entering Israel four separate times from four different entry points to continue his “revolution” against the Jewish state after being banned from the country. Carr has been linked to the deaths of members of ISM, as he suspiciously managed to capture their deaths with photographs, and has dubbed the deaths as “worth the price of the revolution.”
Deppen Webber was Paul LaRudee’s replacement until I got him deported from Israel only a few months ago. He is not Jewish. Webber turned up in Beirut just weeks ago, where he was helping Hezbollah organize the Global March to Jerusalem. ISM’s support for Hezbollah is patent, and in the US it works with Hezbollah-linked groups, especially in Shiite mosques.

Jeff Pickert was deported after my last visit to Israel because he was tasked with fomenting riots in a new Arab village in the West Bank that was intended to be the next Bi’ilin. Pickert was linked to a PFLP safe house in Chicago and was involved in the flotillas enterprise. He is now touring American campuses and churches on behalf of the ISM, recruiting for more ISM recruits.

I got Jonas Moffat, a professional ISM agitator, deported for security violations. He is the founder of the Tel Rumeida Circus and now has a sinecure, touring the globe to try and destroy Israel since he can no longer do so from within. Like other ISM activists, he assumed an alias so that he could reenter Israel, harass the IDF, and foment riots even after banishment and deportation.

ISM activities are not just limited to harassment of Israel’s security forces: they are behind boycotts of Israel; they are allied with neo-Nazis in the US, with Arab irredentist groups that are fronts for terrorists – particularly Hamas – in the US, and with Iranian interests. The ISM’s purpose is to destroy Israel’s sovereignty as a nation “by any means necessary” – by flooding the country with international anarchists who can create scenes such as those depicting Colonel Eisner.

Colonel Eisner, a hero of the 2006 war with Hebozllah in Lebanon, was set up by the ISM through video manipulation, and the Israeli government is once again falling all over itself just to fall into the trap. It appears that Israel’s leaders have short memories, as it was not so long ago that an IDF Navy SEAL, armed with a paintball gun, was literally disemboweled on an ISM flotilla ship and thrown overboard into the sea by ISM-affiliated activists on the Mavi Marmara. Colonel Eisner did nothing less than that Navy SEAL in protecting the People of Israel. And this disrespect of our soldiers and police must stop.

Colonel Eisner says he overreacted? The real overreaction was by the politicians and the media, who do not seem to fully apprehend ISM’s tactics and training and the context in which the episode took place, and who fear indiscriminate and sweeping condemnation by other nations. But Colonel Eisner’s contrition is understandable considering the unnecessary reprobation he received from Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF brass, who shot from the hip. But the fact is, it is the government that owes him an apology, as much as they owe an apology to that Israeli Navy SEAL for sending him on his mission with a paintball gun.
Colonel Eisner’s actions should not be considered a punishable offense, as they are an inevitable consequence of the monstrous worldwide campaign and solidarity network designed to defame Israel and the IDF. His actions should be understood as nothing less than the sensible application of self-defense in the course of maintaining order and preserving security, while under constant threat and stress. And it is the Israeli Foreign Ministry that should be asking for an explanation from the Danish Foreign Ministry: Why are you sending us your anarchists and subversives when you won’t even tolerate them on the streets of Copenhagen?

Lee Kaplan is an investigative journalist who has been published internationally and interviewed on over 200 radio programs and on television as an expert on the ISM. He is currently working on a book about the ISM and how it is part of the global war on terror. He can be reached at leekaplan@StoptheISM.com.