Deep Shame
What a confounding, contradictory and shameful contretemps, to be revealed to an worldwide audience divided between those who expected better, much better, from the State of Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces, and those who, on hearing the news find much to celebrate at the shame that some members of the IDF have brought to the country. There is nothing particularly new about the proven fact, witnessed time and again, about various countries' militaries behaving horrendously in times of warfare.With the United States it was the revelations that resulted from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968 when hundreds of Vietnamese civilians were murdered by U.S. army troops. It was thought to be a gross violation of official policy directives, but a succeeding investigation placed the responsibility for the event on General W. Westmoreland whose blanket policy of humane treatment of villagers was thought to have been misconstrued by troops entering four hamlets believing everyone in the Communist-controlled area should be killed.
A similar defining moment in the measure of how a respected military force could go wrong, occurred for Canada in Somalia, when a Somalian teenager, Shidane Arone, was beaten to death by soldiers from the Canadian Airborne Regiment. The Somali teen was apprehended attempting to take supplies from the Canadian base, when two members of the regiment captured, tortured and murdered him. An enquiry revealed that superior officers were aware of what was occurring, and did nothing to stop the horror.
Now, in Israel, two Israeli newspapers, Haaretz and Maariv have published accounts detailed by Israeli soldiers that validate the claims made by Palestinian Gazans who suffered humiliations and privation and preventable death during Israel's offensive 'Cast Lead' in Gaza. What all three countries, the U.S., Canada, and Israel have in common is that they have a free press able to freely publish information inimical to the reputations of their respective countries.
The 22-day conflict in Gaza saw many casualties from among the civilian population. Their Islamist terror administration, Hamas, was satisfied to create a human-shield situation of the Palestinians, knowing full well that sooner or later Israel would be forced to respond to the ongoing Kassam rockets launched against its own civilians. The Hamas elite, during the assault, sequestered themselves safely in underground bunkers, while members of their militia were picked off.
Israelis are afflicted with a horror of sacrificing their vibrant youth in the necessity of mounting a workable defence against the ongoing terror assaults and the promise of Hamas to destroy the state. Before the advent of the encircling Wall, suicide bombings were rampant occurrences. The society is imbued with a sense of their lives being precious beyond those of the lives of others; a not unknown phenomenon elsewhere in other world communities, both in the past and present.
Islamists often deride this social attitude common among Jews, enjoying their contrary statement of the value of life: their enemy values life, they embrace death. Death-dealing, in any event. And here then are members of the IDF, from infantrymen to squad leaders describing incidents of hateful abuse of Palestinians, and dreadful instances of soldiers 'following orders' to shoot at anyone approaching beyond a certain line.
In the process scrawling racist and humiliating slogans on the walls of homes they invaded, urinating on family portraits, bullying the elderly and frightening children, and in the worst of all scenarios, outright sharp-shooting a confused and fearful woman and child. The testimony given points to a policy during the operation that a soldier could shoot if he deemed someone to be suspicious, or present in a forbidden area.
The chief advocate of the Israeli army has ordered an investigation of these claims by the military police. The government will itself mount an enquiry, without doubt, once it gets itself in order. This shameful news has been disseminated widely, within the country and without. This is a country proud of its tradition of justness and it does not pleasure itself with causing the deaths of others.
It is, nonetheless, yet another lesson in human behaviour; no society is devoid of such problems, nor the presence among them of those whose ability to evaluate dire situations and to behave responsibly and morally is personally compromised.
Labels: Israel, Social-Cultural Deviations, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 20, 2009
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