RANT: THE MOST MORAL ARMY IN THE WORLD DOES THIS?

 

IN MY PREVIOUS POST I mentioned in a “FUN FACT” the episode of Israeli settlers in the West Bank vandalizing a neighbouring Palestinian farm and killing dozens of lambs (baby sheep). Their egregious behaviour was captured on CCTV video for all to see. But, instead of provoking condemnation from Israeli society, it was (and is) deemed acceptable, even admirable behaviour* by the majority of Jewish-Israelis. What kind of upside-down bizarro-world are we witnessing here? Something’s wrong. This cruel mistreatment of animals scarcely raises an eyebrow with most Jewish-Israelis; the lambs were Palestinian lambs, after all.

   

THIS PAST WEEK brought to the fore another video, this one recorded in July of last year and which went viral when the CCTV footage was made public. It depicts the sodomizing, using various objects, and gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner, at the infamous Sde Teiman prison camp in southern Israel where many Palestinian prisoners were sent following the October 7/2023 Hamas attacks. It is a disturbing and disgusting display of wanton cruelty that is a war crime in anyone’s books and should be considered a criminal act of the highest order by any sane government finding such abuse in its institutions. Not so in Israel.

IIRC, five IDF prison guards were remanded into custody pending charges. Early in the investigation they were to be questioned by the military police, but protestors at the Sde Teiman prison forced their release, complaining not about the despicable nature of their crime, caught red-handed on video, but rather the ‘injustice’ of holding IDF troops in custody, let alone charging them with what many in Israeli society do not consider a criminal act; abusers of Palestinian prisoners get an free pass by most Israelis. Meanwhile the trial of the five soldiers—on a lesser charge of “severely abusing” a Palestinian detainee—continues.👉NOTE: They were not charged with the more serious and consequential offence of rape.  

IN THE MOST RECENT turn of events in this sordid affair, two of the accused, wearing masks to conceal their identities, attended a procedural matter brought by their lawyers before the Israeli Supreme Court as part of their case. In the anteroom of the SC, groups of supporters applauded them vociferously, lauding them as heroes of the state. Also, this week came to notice the conclusion of the investigation into who had leaked the CCTV footage of the sexual attack to Israel’s Channel 12 television station. It turns out the leaker was Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the head of the military’s criminal prosecutions department. She admitted her guilt in the matter and resigned her post. She then went missing for two days until she was found, in good health, remanded and charged with “obstruction of justice, unauthorised publication of classified material, and misleading senior officials during the investigation.” (Siasat) They are preparing to throw the book at the disgraced whistleblower. 

 

👉NOTE: Far more outrage (PM "Bibi" Netanyahu blew his stack!) was expressed against the leaker and the harm she did to the reputation of what Israeli officials call the “world’s most moral army”, than about the clear-cut facts of sexual violence and brutality perpetrated by soldiers of said moral army. Tomer-Yerushalmi is no radical. She fully subscribes to IDF goals and operations. She acted, she says, to demonstrate her service has agency with respect to bringing to justice wrong-doings committed by IDF personnel; leaking the video ensured proper attention to the case. This was her rationale for the leak and to ensure the CCTV video was not overlooked or lost. Surely, such a cut-and-dried case against these rapists warranted prosecution to the fullest extent of military law, and would put to rest complaints about their being relatively few guilty verdicts achieved by her agency, along with most prosecutions being stayed (not acted upon) with respect to IDF troops accused of crimes. In fact, according to studies:

 

 “Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.” (Guardian)

 

The British NGO Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said the low prosecution figures “suggested Israel was seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’ by failing to conclude or find no fault in the vast majority of cases involving ‘the most severe or public accusations of wrongdoing by their forces’”.

 

WANT TO BET the perps walk? Stay tuned for more news about the "world’s most moral army" from the world’s most moral country.

  

Cheers, Jake. __________________________________________

 

* IN A RECENT POST, Catlin Johnstone examines Israeli cultural norms and notes there is a word in Yiddish, “shitat matzliach” (shee-taht mahtz-lee-ach "the method that succeeds"), which is a common expression in Israel, describing how Israelis “test boundaries” in their social interactions. The word suggests they will push boundaries to see “how much they can get away with”, withdrawing for the time when they meet resistance, until they can once more “push the envelope” as we say in English. Phrases in English that are similar, such as: “putting one over”, “pulling the wool over their eyes”, “testing the waters”, let the buyer beware”, etc., are seen in specific instances of business transactions, for example. Other phrases might indicate advances in science or technology gleaned from 'pushing' the boundaries of experimental science. In other cases, such English phrases suggest an interaction that is deceitful and improper. Shitat Matzliach seems to suggest a way of interacting that is more commonplace in Jewish-Israeli life, and I’ll make the case it is also present in Israeli diplomacy and how Israel conducts its international relations. 

We’ve seen, time and again over these two painful years how Israel forcefully attacks another country (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, in addition to Gaza and the West Bank), eventually bows to pressure from the international community (primarily the United States), then  inks a ceasefire deal, only to immediately break it and begin bombing once more with the excuse of “security issues” or whatever. They push forward with their attacks, stop when they hit significant resistance, (say the Trump White House complaining there were too many deaths in Gaza) but ‘ratcheting up’ their efforts and never quite returning to pre-pause levels. Shitat Matzliach writ large.

👉A comment by ret. U.S. Army Colonel Larry Wilkerson comes to mind. In looking at the international community’s laggardly response to the Gazan genocide, he said we have, as a collective, become “inured to bestiality.” By this he means we have grown accustomed to the mass murder conducted by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), and what we once would have found shocking, immoral, illegal and unacceptable, we now acquiese as the new norm. How else to explain Western governments continued relations with an apartheid, genocidal state?¹ Wilkerson suggests we are being ‘groomed’ to accept the unacceptable, one step (one massacre) at a time.

 

THERE IS ANOTHER word in Yiddish (Catlin notes) that describes those who let ‘boundary pushers’ have their way with them, that don’t push back or not at all. They’re called “freiers” (fry-er “suckers”, “patsies”). Until recently, I think many in Israel looked upon the international community as a bunch of freiers. [I like the words: putzes or schmucks. Ed.]

 

1. Recall that in the 1980’s the international community increasingly turned against South Africa’s apartheid rule that created a ‘two-tiered’ society of minority white rule over its majority black population. Along with imposing onerous sanctions on South Africa, in 1985 the UN General Assembly voted to revoke South Africa’s participation in the GA’s legislative work. It was restored to full UN membership in 1994 when Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) came to power. I personally think Israel’s membership in the United Nations should be revoked until there is a just and lasting peace in the Levant.