After the July 3 incident in which a Binyamin Brigade commander shot and killed a Palestinian youth in the West Bank who had thrown stones at him, the most surprising reaction was that of Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid, who was quick to support the officer. The incident took place when Col. Yisrael Shomer, driving near the West Bank village of al-Ram, encountered a stone-throwing ambush that smashed his military jeep's windshield. Shomer responded with fire, mortally wounding 17-year-old Mohammad Kasba, who later died of his injuries.

In the wake of this incident, the military police investigated whether the brigade commander had complied with standing procedures. The inquiry elicited great anger among the commanders serving in Judea and Samaria, who claimed that Shomer was in a life-threatening situation and there was no reason for an investigation.

Unlike the support that was expected from Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the chairman of right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi, Lapid’s warm embrace of the brigade commander aroused great interest and was featured prominently in the media. He did not wait for the results of the investigation, and shortly after the incident told the media, “The prime minister and the defense minister ought to fully back, in their own voice, the commander of Binyamin Brigade who shot and killed a terrorist that had thrown rocks at his vehicle. Rocks kill, and the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] should be able to defend themselves and know that the political establishment totally has their back.”

Against the backdrop of a rise in terror incidents over the past two weeks in Judea and Samaria an the UN Human Rights Council report that accused both the IDF and Hamas of war crimes in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer, such immediate and full backing by Israeli politicians merits discussion.