Jews renew old bond with dogs to guard settlements

Reuters | 8/16/02 | Dan Williams

[kattracks]

TAPUACH, West Bank, August 16 (Reuters) - Jewish mysticism 
holds that dogs can sense the presence of the Angel of Death. 
    Now Jewish settlers are reviving an ancient partnership,  
acquiring specialised canines to fend off Palestinians waging a 
22-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation in the West 
Bank and Gaza Strip. 
    By night, settlers from the self-styled "Jewish Legion" 
patrol their hilltop communities with Belgian shepherds donated 
by foreign friends and trained to sniff out and pounce on 
intruders before they can go on shooting sprees. 
    "Generous donors from abroad -- gentiles and Jews alike who 
believe in our right to live -- supplied the dogs hoping they 
will prevent men, women and children being butchered in their 
homes," Legion director Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov said on Friday. 
    He said dogs were considered by ancient Jewish canon as 
gifted with a "sixth sense" for danger. They are mentioned in 
the Talmud as guardians of ancient Israelites. 
 "Our sages say dogs are blessed because when the Israelites 
fled Egypt at the time of Exodus, they did not bark and alert 
the Egyptians," Ben-Yaakov said. "They looked out for us then, 
and they're looking out for us now." 
    He declined to disclose how many of the dogs -- costing 
between $3,000 and $10,000 each -- had been deployed, saying 
only that they were already in use in several West Bank 
settlements which had suffered serious attacks.  
    In one of these, Itamar, two night-time Palestinian 
infiltrations in as many months killed nine people this year. 
    In nearby Tapuach this week, Legion trainers put a dozen 
trainee handlers through their paces with the dogs. 

TRAINING PROGRAMME A sleek bitch called Zara bared fangs on command and galloped across the settlement's open field to seize the kevlar sleeve worn by a trainer posing an attacker. The moment he put his hands up in surrender, she backed off watchfully. Smell becomes the animal's trigger after dark. "Fear, exhilaration and hatred make a person exude a distinctive odour, which the dogs pick up. Their rudimentary bomb-sniffer training means they are also sensitive to the presence of ordnance," Guy, a Legion trainer, told Reuters. Around 200,000 Jews live in 145 settlements built in the West Bank and Gaza since Israel took the two territories in a 1967 war. The international community regards the settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this. Though common household pets in Israel, dogs are not used extensively in its security forces aside from select police and army bomb-sniffer units. The Legion, and a government-backed initiative called Kalbi designed to supply Israelis with dogs trained to spot and subdue Palestinian suicide bombers, are recent exceptions. Some experts believe Jews are burdened by their unhappy history with the beasts. "Our problem is that the use of dogs by us immediately invokes memories of the Holocaust, because the Nazis used dogs in the concentration camps," veteran trainer Nir Harman told Israel's mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Palestinians are also uncomfortable with canine culture, shunning the animals because Islam considers them unclean. Many Palestinians also believe Israel's use of sniffer dogs at border crossing points in the Gaza Strip is designed to intimidate and humiliate them. Ben-Yaakov rejected such associations with his work. "Our dogs are not attack dogs, per se. They are defensive guard dogs trained to subdue, rather than kill," he said. ((Jerusalem newsroom, 972-2-537-0502, jerusalem.newsroom@reuters.com))

16 AUG 2002 07:12:30 Jews renew old bond with dogs to guard settlements

© 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

[Revelation 911]

what a cutie - bet its smarter than heck too

[tomkat]

waaay too spoiled, and dumb as a post,
but still sharper than his owner ...    

[4Freedom]

He looks smart enough to play dumb. What's his name?

[tomkat]

sorry, was away from the desk a while ...

'dusty', and yes, he's smart enough to act dumb when it suits    

[Don Joe]

"There is a prohibition against eating pigs, and one against handling the carcass of pigs. Handling a live pig is not actually forbidden, if I remember correctly.

"And before anyone asks, no, I am not a Rabbi."

I'm not a Rabbi either, but I'd think that a pig would be no more unclean than a dog, and vice-versa. As far as I'm aware, an animal is either clean or unclean. So if it's OK to use dogs as worker-animals (or for that matter horses), it should probably be OK to use pigs in the same role.

I do know that the Muslim thing about dogs being taboo is genuine. Devout Muslims will not allow a dog inside their house under any circumstances, even if it's one of their own working dogs.

[Don Joe]

"My dog barks angrily at the TV whenever he sees a raghead. And we didn't even train him. It's just a natural response to evil that all dogs have had since they first appeared around the campfires of early man."

Dogs really can develop "biases". I had a dog years ago that was raised by Mexicans. She was a large yellow lab. They were not particularly nice to her (I heard "stories" in the neighborhood about them kicking her and so forth), and she kept running away and coming to our place. We'd call and they'd get her, until one day they said to just keep her, so we did.

That dog did not like anyone that she thought even looked anything like a Mexican, it was uncanny. She would bark and growl at anyone with skin just a tad of a deeper complexion, including an Indian guy who was walking down the middle of the road, and my stepfather, who was Georgian (the Georgia that's next to Russia).

No one ever trained her to dislike anyone, she developed her own oddball defense mechanism on her own.

[Alouette]

My dog barks angrily at the TV whenever he sees a raghead. And we didn't even train him. It's just a natural response to evil that all dogs have had since they first appeared around the campfires of early man.

Your dog is not the only one.

[NYer]

"Our sages say dogs are blessed because when the Israelites fled Egypt at the time of Exodus, they did not bark and alert the Egyptians," Ben-Yaakov said.

Probably the basenji - the "barkless" dog.

The Basenji is a small, short haired hunting dog from Africa. It is short backed and lightly built, appearing high on the leg compared to its length. The wrinkled head is proudly carried on a well arched neck and the tail is set high and curled. Elegant and graceful, the whole demeanor is one of poise and inquiring alertness. The balanced structure and the smooth musculature enables it to move with ease and agility. The Basenji hunts by both sight and scent. Characteristics--The Basenji should not bark but is not mute. The wrinkled forehead, tightly curled tail and swift, effortless gait (resembling a racehorse trotting full out) are typical of the breed.

[Michael2001]

Somebody forgot to give the "Islam is peace" memo to the dogs

[Michael2001]

Does anyone know the extent of Muslim fears of dogs?

Perhaps they could be of use to our troops? "Come out of the cave with your hands up or we're sending in the dogs".