by Oui
Fri Dec 27th, 2024 at 12:20:34 PM EST
No words ... confirms the worst possible scenario of war crimes by the Jewish State of Israel ... biblical insanity.
'When You Leave Israel and Enter Gaza, You Are God': Inside the Minds of IDF Soldiers Who Commit War Crimes | Haaretz Opinion by Yoel Elizur |
As a psychologist dealing with brutality in the military, I see how the government rhetoric of hatred is worsening the problem
Concern for the safety of family members serving in the army is part of family life in Israel. Like my contemporaries, I was a worried father when my children served in the Israel Defense Forces, and I am a more worried grandfather. I am horrified by the mass killing of civilians in Gaza and I am disturbed the impact of this brutality on soldiers' mental health.
Our soldiers are imperiled by the government's inflammatory rhetoric and weakening of the civilian and military justice systems. These policies undermine the IDF's code of conduct, support atrocities and increase the risk of moral injury.
Carrying the Torah as Hitler's Mein Kamps
Palestinians are equated to Al Qaeda terrorists which must be rooted out for Eretz Yisrael. Dehumanazing the civilian Palestinian national and its right for an independent state .... without a Palestinian State, the statehood of Israel is delegitimized by definition of the 1948 United Nations Security Council
Biblical accounts of G*d's people dealing with the Amalekites ...
[...]
I am not reassured when my grandson says: "Don't worry, Grandpa, I will refuse an illegal order."
I want to protect him and all others who are risking their body and mind when they serve in the IDF. I want them to know how difficult it is to stand up to a callous commander and to resist peer pressure encouraging brutality. I want them to know about the slippery slope of brutalization and get educated about the moral dilemmas they will face during wartime. This motivated me to write this essay both as a grandfather and as a psychologist who has researched soldiers' experience with brutalization.
Nuphar Ishay-Krien was the social welfare officer of two mechanized infantry companies stationed in the southern Gaza Strip during the first intifada (1987-93). She talked with the soldiers and they opened up to her. Four years later, I supervised her graduate research study of the companies' brutalization. She used confidential interviews to explore the moral drift, the brutalities and the consequent mental health issues. Our scientific article was later published as the first chapter in an edited book "The Blot of a Light Cloud: Israeli Soldiers, Army, and Society in the Intifada" in 2012.
The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu's Amalek Rhetoric | Mother Jones |
His recent biblical reference has long been used by the Israeli far right to justify killing Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis were united in their fight against Hamas, whom he described as an enemy of incomparable cruelty. "They are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world," Netanyahu said in Hebrew. He then added: "You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember."
There are more than 23,000 verses in the Old Testament. The ones Netanyahu turned to, as Israeli forces launched their ground invasion in Gaza, are among its most violent--and have a long history of being used by Jews on the far right to justify killing Palestinians.
Bush Had Gog and Magog, Bibi Has Amalek | Tikun Olam - 25 May 2009 |
The subsequent chapters reflected and expanded on our research. They were written by an interdisciplinary group of scholars in mental health, sociology, law, political science, communication, and philosophy. There were also writers, artists, and high-ranking retired army officers.
The power they received in the army was intoxicating: "It's like a drug ... you feel like you are the law, you make the rules. As if from the moment you leave the place called Israel and enter the Gaza Strip, you are God." They viewed brutality as an expression of strength and masculinity.
"X shot an Arab four times in the back and got away with a self-defense claim. Four bullets in the back from a distance of ten meters ... cold-blooded murder. We did things like that every day."
"An Arab just walked down the street, about 25 years old, didn't throw a stone, nothing. Bang, a bullet in the stomach. Shot him in the stomach, and he was dying on the sidewalk, and we drove away indifferently."
These soldiers were remorseless and did not report moral injury. Some of them were convicted by military courts. They felt bitter and betrayed.
A small, ideologically violent group supported the brutality without taking part. They believed in Jewish supremacy and were derogatory toward Arabs. Moral injuries were not reported in this group.
[...]
We needed leaders who would help us to courageously face our own darkness and strictly forbid a vendetta.
"War is a cruel thing," wrote Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror in "The Blot of a Light Cloud" and continued: "The real question is: how do you focus the cruelty on those who want to harm us and not on others who happen to be in the area."
In this context, our government's rhetoric of hatred and revenge, which has been reinforced by its determined undermining of the justice system, led to excessive retaliation and mass killing of civilians in Gaza. It provided a tailwind for atrocities by Callous and Ideologically Violent soldiers, increased their influence over the Followers, and sidelined the Incorruptible.
