Patrick Cockburn: In Israel, detachment from reality is now the norm
All these years on from Sabra and Chatila, has anything changed?
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Independent Minds
I was watching the superb animated documentary Waltz with Bashir about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It culminates in the massacre of some 1,700 Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in south Beirut by Christian militiamen introduced there by the Israeli army which observed the butchery from close range.
In the last few minutes the film switches from animation to graphic news footage showing Palestinian women screaming with grief and horror as they discover the bullet-riddled bodies of their families. Then, just behind the women, I saw myself walking with a small group of journalists who had arrived in the camp soon after the killings had stopped.
The film is about how the director, Ari Folman, who knew he was at Sabra and Chatila as an Israeli soldier, tried to discover both why he had repressed all memory of what happened to him and the degree of Israeli complicity in the massacre.
Walking out of the cinema, I realised that I had largely repressed my own memories of that ghastly day. I could not even find a clipping in old scrapbooks of the article I had written about what I had seen for the Financial Times for whom I then worked. Even now my memory is hazy and episodic, though I can clearly recall the sickly sweet smell of bodies beginning to decompose, the flies clustering around the eyes of the dead women and children, and the blood-smeared limbs and heads sticking out of banks of brown earth heaped up by bulldozers in a half-hearted attempt to bury the corpses.
Soon after seeing Waltz with Bashir I saw TV pictures of the broken bodies of the Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs and shells in Gaza during the 22-day bombardment. At first I thought that little had changed since Sabra and Chatila. Once again there were the same tired and offensive excuses that Israel was somehow not to blame. Hamas was using civilians as human shields, and in any case – this argument produced more furtively – two-thirds of people in Gaza had voted for Hamas so they deserved whatever happened to them.
But on returning to Jerusalem 10 years after I was stationed here as The Independent's correspondent between 1995 and 1999 I find that Israel has changed significantly for the worse. There is far less dissent than there used to be and such dissent is more often treated as disloyalty.
Israeli society was always introverted but these days it reminds me more than ever of the Unionists in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s or the Lebanese Christians in the 1970s. Like Israel, both were communities with a highly developed siege mentality which led them always to see themselves as victims even when they were killing other people. There were no regrets or even knowledge of what they inflicted on others and therefore any retaliation by the other side appeared as unprovoked aggression inspired by unreasoning hate.
At Sabra and Chatila the first journalist to find out about the massacre was an Israeli and he desperately tried to get it stopped. This would not happen today because Israeli journalists, along with all foreign journalists, were banned from entering Gaza before the Israeli bombardment started. This has made it far easier for the government to sell the official line about what a great success the operation has been.
Nobody believes propaganda so much as the propagandist so Israel's view of the outside world is increasingly detached from reality. One academic was quoted as saying that Arabs took all their views about was happening in Israel from what Israelis said about themselves. So if Israelis said they had won in Gaza, unlike Lebanon in 2006, Arabs would believe this and Israeli deterrence would thereby be magically restored.
Intolerance of dissent has grown and may soon get a great deal worse. Benjamin Netanyahu, who helped bury the Oslo accords with the Palestinians when he was last prime minister from 1996 to 1999, is likely to win the Israeli election on 10 February. The only issue still in doubt is the extent of the gains of the extreme right.
The views of these were on display this week as Avigdor Lieberman, the chairman of the Ysrael Beitenu party, which, according to the polls will do particularly well in the election, was supporting the disqualification of two Israeli Arab parties from standing in the election. "For the first time we are examining the boundary between loyalty and disloyalty," he threatened their representatives. "We'll deal with you like we dealt with Hamas."
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Comments
This article helps explain a few things;
The unreasoning hatred of many of the pro-Zionist comments seen in papers like this recently. They attack even neutral commentators if they dare criticise Israel or the IDFs actions on purely humanitarian grounds.
Why it is so hard to hear or see coverage of the dissadent Israeli voices of late. I don't hate all Israelis, I just hate the intolerant, vicious, inhuman criminals that seems to make up so much of their leadership and command these days
Israel may have actually done itself a service this time, by buring the moderate voices and allowing the right-wing extremists to slate their bloodlust they have lost more than just a propaganda war. This may lead to even the USA criticising their conduct and not vetoing a UN resolution calling for War Crimes Trials (though I won't hold my breath on that one). Either way Israel may have just gone one step too far this time and it's collective conscience might experience some of the guilt familiar to that experienced by the Post WWII German Society. This may in turn lead to a Reality Check and some real progress towards Peace.
People get beat up, but later they come back at you with lots of big angry friends who want to and do kill you. Good luck Israelis and Israeli enablers.. you're going to need it ...that's just the way it works..
Writers such as Patrick Cockburn and Robert Fisk will not allow themselves to be silenced while Israel commits atrocity after atrocity. Good on them for voicing what so many millions around the world feel about Israel's crimes against the Palestinians and humanity.
Give us a break Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms exec_ceo wr. Come up with something more intelligent to justify the hundreds of dead children in Gaza and the piles of rubble.
Worst enemy own - rearrange these three words to define Israeli policy towards its neighbours.
Obama did not get into the White House by wailing on about slavery, he got in by positive thinking - good luck to him. Time for exec_ceo wr to learn a new tune.
Today, we see the Israeli government, one or two generations later, accusing Hamas in Gaza of using civilians as 'human shields' as an excuse for having killed so many.
Have words become empty?
This is more than Egypt and Jordan ever did .Since Gaza was handed back violence has increased can you not understand why Israeli,s may have given up on peace now Hamas is the government.
"This is Islam, that was ahead of its time with regards to human rights in the treatment of prisoners, but our nation was tested by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation... Be certain that America is on its way to utter destruction, America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated in Lebanon and Palestine... Make us victorious over the community of infidels... Allah, take the Jews and their allies, Allah, take the Americans and their allies... Allah, annihilate them completely and do not leave anyone of them."
(Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Bahar, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, April 20, 2007; as reported by Palestinian Media Watch, April 23, 2007)
"[Hamas] will not change a single word in its covenant [which is calling for the destruction of Israel]."
(Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas leader, after casting his vote in the Gaza Strip, January 25, 2006, Ha'aretz
"The vanquishing of the enemy in Gaza does not mean that this stage has ended. We still have Jerusalem and the pure West Bank. We will not rest until we liberate all our land, all our Palestine. We do not distinguish between what was occupied in the 1940s and what was occupied in the 1960s. Our Jihad continues, and we still have a long way to go. We will continue until the very last usurper is driven out of our land."
(Sheik Nizar Rayan, Hamas "political" leader, at a rally in Gaza, Al-Jazeera TV on September 16, 2005, MEMRI)
She [first Hamas woman suicide bomber] is not going to be the last because the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe."
(Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, at funeral of Reem Raiyshi, who murdered 4 people, January 15, 2004, AP)"
Perhaps Hamas and its aims have pushed Israeli,s regretably to the hardliners.if anti-judaism is at the heart of Hamas is it suprising more Israeli,s have become anti-Palestinian.
Israel DOES play the martyr. But this is the same Israel that conducted massive land-grabs, and still occupies land acquired in a very "old Europe" style. But this isn't the 18th or 19th century. The world has moved on and people have learnt from each other (not enough it seems). Occupied land now triggers passionate, militant reactions both from the occupied and the occupiers. Hence the current situation. Lastly, let's not forget that for all Israel screams about terrorists, they founded their state on terrorism. One of the prime-ministers was directly responsible for terrorist acts - but oh! Sorry! They were "freedom fighters" weren't they, not terrorists? It all depends on where you stand, and I don't expect anyone supporting Israel to acknowledge this, but you have to understand that large parts of the rest of the world understand that there is no real distinction between terrorists and freedom fighters except "victory".
Jews consider themselves the "chosen ones" and this never really impacted on other people or faiths much until Israel was formed, Jewish communities tended to be closed and secular but at peace for the most part with their neighbours.
However religion attracts extremism and through this, Zionism reared its head in the late Victorian era and by the time of WWII it had become quite powerful and used what happened to the European Jews to its own uses to justify its goals.
However if you look through the Talmud itself, the old one not the later "fit for public scrutiny" one that is, you would begin to see why the Israeli's do act as they do, decades long indoctrination has led to a mindset so assured of its own superiority, its invulnerability but it also shares a lot of fundamental common issues as the mantra of the Soviet, the Aryan, their way was the ONLY way and anyone else was worthless.
I don't have the various tenets and their authors to hand but when you see such passages that say its OK to lie, cheat and swindle non-Jews, its OK to steal from non-Jews, that 10,000 non Jewish lives aren't worth a finger of a Jew etc etc, using these as a filter on reality it is more apparent why the Israeli's feel quite at ease at the human destruction it metes out against its neighbours, they simply do not see them as people, they have been indoctrinated and brought up that such as the Arabs are simply animals walking around in human form or savages with animal mentality intent on killing them all.
You can see this at work when Olmert off-handedly claims he told Bush what to do, or on YouTube where Israeli youths are attacking a BBC film crew and their remarks about killing Christ amongst things.
But the loyalty credo has also been the marching banner for the Soviets, the Aryans and it seems that bad times are ahead for people in Israel that are not Jewish, to question the Reich was certain death as was questioning the Supreme Soviet would lead to a long time in a slave camp if they were lucky, the loyalty chant is the chant of the extremist and it bodes ill for peace in that region.
If France still owned Algeria it would look just like Gaza does now. So would an Italian Abyssinia...
"When will the World insist on the Palestinians right to return to their homes/homeland".
It's 2008. Get a grip on reality. Israel exists, and it isn't shutting down, contrary to the manic dreams of many Independent columnists and readers.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satell
As for Gaza, if they didn't want to get smacked down like they just did, they should maybe have not fired thousands of rockets into Israel every day for the last few years.
Israel hasn't attacked the west bank lately. Why? Because the west bank isn't firing rockets into Israel.
And if the palestinians ever declare a permanent peace with israel, Israel will pass control of those areas over to people.
I am happy how everyone has realised how evil israel really is now thanks to their bloody actions they can see that no one really likes them anymore
What people need to do is to DISINVEST in and BOYCOTT all things ISRAELI or having an Israeli connection. Please look to the PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) for details and think of giving aid to INTERPAL.
I have no connection with any faction in the Middle East just a disillusioned Englishman who wants my government and the EU to denounce Israeli atrocities.
You are an example of all that is wrong with Israel. For setting such an great example, you should be commended.
What you write about the Palestinians not wanting to recognise Israel's right to exist is nonsense, as many commentators (surprisingly not Israeli or US) have long made clear, and democratically elected Hamas has been seeking a two-state solution for some time. The US has helped Israel block this repeatedly. The truth is out there, take off your blinkers.
The real problem is Israeli, who just can't wait to get their hands on the West Bank, while maintaining a Gazan concentration camp (term used deliberately).
The quote below is one of many that can be found;
"I believed, and to this day still believe, in our people's eternal and historic right to this entire land," Prime Minister Olmert
So stop invading Palestine and your problems will be solved, directly killing (war), indirectly killing (though only just) through the siege unleashed on Gaza and harassing them will not work. Leave the land you have stolen, THEN you'll have peace - but you don't dare want that eh?
I thought this was clear to everyone with any morality or common sense.
Their day will come; hopefully when they stand in front of a judge, if not THE JUDGE, but it might be when the World finally has enough of their ant Semitic whining and they get the comprehensive thrashing they so richly deserve. Unfortunately, it is likely that many fine Jewish/Israeli people will also get hurt.
In that context, it should not perhaps surprise us that it was OK to use phosphorous, and tungsten-based weaponry on civilians in Gaza.
Most interesting of all is the fact that no one seems to have noticed that the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s did not provoke RAF raids on Derry - or Dublin (when Charles Haughey was openly supporting the PIRA). Nor were tanks used. The force used was proportionate to the threat.
British soldiers did not hide in tanks, emerging to open fire on children. We leave that sort of atrocity to people who picked up their ideas about warfare in Warsaw in 1944.
Finally, to make something abundantly clear: I am not an anti-semite. To make it clearer, I am not anti-Jewish or anti-Arab (both largely Semitic peoples). I am anti-Israel and will remain so until Israelis can admit that their state was founded on terrorism, and has treated the Palestinians as, at best, second class for sixty years, and then offers them some meaningful redress. Having said that, I see no value in rocket attacks and suicide bombings on discos, coffee bars and bus stations. Yet neither do I see value in white phosphorous and tungsten bombs, and flattening the homes of people who have next to nothing, let alone setting UN compounds full of humanitarian supplies ablaze. Peaceful civil disobedience can achieve so much more...
We MUST bring their ATROCITIES to book and BOYCOTT ALL ISRAELI COMPANIES everywhere.
Check out the PSC and INTERPAL sites.
GET OFF PALESTINIAN LANDS;
STOP BULLYING EVERYBODY;
STOP IMMOLATING AND KILLING DEFENCELESS WOMEN AND CHILDREN, AND MEN AS WELL.
Deal with reality.