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Today's
Stories
January
23, 2004
William
A. Cook
Rule by the Corrupt and the Capricious
January
22, 2004
Sam
Smith
Howards End?
Patricia
Koyce Wanniski
Lost in Space
Alexander
Lukin
Putin and the Clans
Katherine
van Wormer
Dry Drunk Confirmed: O'Neill's Revelations
and Bush's Mind
Forrest
Hylton
The Prisoner, the President and the Mafia
January
21, 2004
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Spring in Palestine
Ron
Jacobs
Drive, He Said
Dave Lindorff
Iraq Election Blowback
January 20, 2004
Stan
Goff
State of the Union, MLK and 30 mm DU: Another
Embittered Rant by a Former Soldier
Dave Louthan
Inside the Mad Cow Plant: a Worker Speaks
Out
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Havoc in the Cornfields
January 19, 2004
Justin E. H. Smith
Inside
America's Prisons: From Corrections to Retribution
Richard W. Behan
The GOP, Inc.
Ray McGovern
Bush's
State of the Union: Humility or More Hyperbole?
Werther
SOTUS:
the Stalin Moment of America's Nomenklatura
Phillip Cryan
Media Collusion in Colombia's War
Lee Sustar
A New Strategy to Reverse Labor's Decline?
Arthur Versluis
Great Lakes as Commodity: Privatizing Water
Uri Avnery
Anti--Semitism:
a Practical Manual
Steve Perry
Fresh Crack from Hawkeye State
January 17 / 18, 2004
Fadi Kiblawi and Will
Youmans
The
Use and Abuse of MLK Jr by Israel's Apologists
Joshua Muldavin
and Joseph Nevins
Blaming the Symptoms
Jeffrey St. Clair
Bad Days at Indian Point: Inside America's Most Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Brian Cloughley
Iron Hammers in Iraq
Saul Landau
Fog of War: Vietnam and Iraq
M. Shahid Alam
Lerner, Said and the Palestinians
Richard Manning
Food Poisoning as Background Noise
Marjorie Cohn
The Guantanamo Concentration Camp
Mike Whitney
Scalia and Opus Dei: Radicals on the Court
Sadik Kassim
Meet Our New Saddam: Islam Karimov
Carol Norris
Arnold
and Bush's Numbers Don't Add Up
Joe Quandt
Suicide
Bombers: The Clash of Absurdities
David Krieger
Imagining MLK Jr at 75
Bruce Jackson
Making War, Making Movies
Ron Jacobs
Revolution in the Air: a review
Richard Edmondson
Rupert Murdoch and My Sister
Richard Forno
Apologizing for Preemption: Evil, Perle and Frum
Poets' Basement
Holt, Mickey Z, Albert & Guthrie
January 16, 2004
Kathy Kelly
A
Visit to Umm Qasr Prison
William S. Lind
More
Thoughts on 4th Generation Warfare
Gillian Russom
So.
Cal Grocery Strikers Speak Out: "We Need Action!"
Ari Shavit
Survival
of the Fittest? An Interview with Benny Morris
Adi Ophir
Genocide Hides Behind Expulsion: a Response to Benny Morris
Dave Lindorff
The General's Henchman: Michael Moore Smears Kucinich
Steve Perry
Iowa Death Trip 2
January 15, 2004
Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity
Memo
to the President: Your State of the Union Address
John Chuckman
Dry
Hole in the Oval Office: President from Podunk Drilling, Inc
Chris Floyd
Mind Over Matter
Gil--Scott Heron
Whitey on the Moon
Gary Leupp
The
Silk Road: Random Thoughts on the Bam Earthquake and Satan
January 14, 2004
Greg Moses
Happy
Birthday, Dr. King: To Write Off the South is to Surrender to Bigots
Kurt Nimmo
Bush and the Supremes: Amputating the Bill of Rights
Dave Lindorff
Preview of Iowa? Pennsylvania Straw Poll Spells Trouble for Traditional
Dems (and Dean)
Jason Leopold
O'Neill Claims Backed by Rumsfeld / Wolfowitz War Letters to Clinton
Alexander Cockburn
Bush,
Oil and Iraq: Some Truth at Last
January 13, 2004
William S. Lind
How
2004 Looks from Potsdam
M. Junaid Alam
Do Iraqis Have a Right to Resist?
Mickey Z
Snipers:
No Nuts in Iraq
Adolfo Gilly
Chonchocoro:
The Prisoner and the Presidents
Steve Perry
You Love God, Right?
January 12, 2004
Ben Tripp
No
Stan for the Kurds
Norman Solomon
The
Dixie Trap: Democrats and the South
Mike Whitney
O'Neill's Revenge
Jason Leopold
From the Very First Instant It Was About Iraq
Uri Avnery
Syria's
Peace Proposal
January 10 / 11, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
as Hitler? Let's Be Fair
Susan Davis
Dangerous Books
Diane Christian
On Lying and Colin Powell
Lisa Viscidi
Exhumations: Unearthing Guatemala's Macabre Past
Daniel Estulin
Destroying History in Iraq
Saul Landau
Homeland Anxiety
Elaine Cassel
Who's Winning the War on Civil Liberties?
Bruce Jackson
Making the Shit List
Christopher Brauchli
Baptizing Hitler's Ghost
Francis A. Boyle
The Deep Scars of War
Lee Ballinger
Cold Sweat: Sweatshops and the Music Industry
Patrick W. Gavin
Hillary's Slur: Mrs. Lott?
Ramzy Baroud
What Invaders Have in Common
Michael Schwartz
Inside the California Grocery Strike
Gary Johnson
An Interview with Former Heavyweight Champ Greg Page
Dave Zirin
An Interview with Marvin Miller on Unions and Baseball
Mark Hand
A Review of Resistance: My Life for Lebanon
Poets' Basement
Thomas, Daley, Curtis, Guthrie and Albert
January 9, 2004
David Lindorff
The
Misers of War: Troop Strength and Chintzy Bonuses
Kurt Nimmo
Saddam's Defense: Summon Bush Sr. to the Stand
Mike Whitney
Orange Jumpsuits for the Bush Clan?: The Carnegie Report on Iraq's Non--existent
WMDs
Deb Reich
Palestinians and Israelis: This War is Unwinnable
David Vest
Disabled
Vets Fire Back at Rumsfeld
January 8, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israeli
Refuseniks Sentenced to Jail
Lenni Brenner
Dr.
Dean and the Godhead
Ray McGovern
Bush: Driving Without Breaks
Mark Scaramella
Inside
the DA's Office: Lies, Errors and Tedium
Yves Engler
Bush's Mexican Gambit
James Hollander
Journalists
Under Fire: the Death of José Couso in Baghdad
January 7, 2004
Democracy Now!
Uncharitable
Care: How Hospitals are Gouging and Even Arresting the Uninsured
Greg Weiher
The
Bush Administration's Ongoing Intelligence Problem
Ben Tripp
The Word of the Year, 2003
Dave Lindorff
Dean and His Democratic Detractors
Michael Leon
The NYT Does Chomsky
Bob Boldt
God Talk
Ramon Ryan
Small
Victories and Long Struggles: the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista
Uprising
January 6, 2004
Dave Lindorff
RNC
Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads
Ron Jacobs
Drugs
in Uniform: Hashish and the War on Terrorism
Josh Frank
Coffee and State Authority in Colombia
Doug Giebel
Permanent Bases: Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go
John Chuckman
Sick Puppies: David Frum's New Neo--Con Manifesto
Rannie Amiri
The Politics of the Iranian Earthquake
John L. Hess
A
Record to Dissent From
Thacher Schmid
A Cheesehead's Musings on the Sunday NYT
David Price
"Like
Slaves": Anthropological Thoughts on Occupation
January 5, 2004
Al Krebs
How
Now Mad Cow!
Kathy Kelly
Squatting
in Baghdad's Bomb Craters
Jordy Cummings
The Dialectic of the Kristol Family: Putting the Neo in the Cons
Fran Shor
Mad Human Disease: Chewing the Fat Down on the Farm
Fidel Castro
"We Shall Overcome": On the 45th Anniversary of the Cuban
Revolution
Gary Leupp
North
Korea for Dummies
January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
January 2, 2004
Stan Cox
Red
Alert 2016
Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans
Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana
Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?
David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth
January 1, 2004
Randall Robinson
Honor
Haiti, Honor Ourselves
David Krieger
Looking
Back on 2003
Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac
Website of the Day
Embody Bags
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti--Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The
Washington Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
|
January
23, 2003
Each Day the Government Becomes More
Dictatorial
An
Israeli Pilot Speaks Out
By YONATHAN
SHAPIRA
I am Yonathan, one of the initiators and
signatories raeli pilot’s letter. Until some weeks ago I was a
pilot and active leader in a squadron of “Blackhawk” helicopters
in the air force. On the eve of last Yom Kippur I was called for an
interview with the commander of the air force, wherein he told me that
I was dismissed and that I was not a pilot anymore in the Israeli air
force and all this because I announced that I will not agree to take
part in obeying illegal and immoral orders.
And
now during the last few months the commander of the air force has been
making the rounds of the bases and the flight crews and announcing that
a large and powerful organization supports our group, and the military
will find it and expose it to all. On this present festive occasion,
I want to disclose to you who this large and powerful body is. It is
an organization on whose knees we grew up and were educated on.
I
want to read to you two of the basic values of--the Israel Defense Forces.
Human
Dignity: The IDF and its soldiers are obliged to honor human dignity.
Each human being should be respected, regardless of his race, creed,
nationality, gender, status or his social role.
Purity
of arms: The soldier will use his weapons and his might only to achieve
his objective, to the degree that this is required for the purpose,
and will retain his humanity even during battle. The soldier will not
use his weapons and his might to hurt persons who are not fighters,
or prisoners, and will do everything in his power to prevent an assault
on their life, their body or their property.
Let’s
go back now to the night between 22 to 23 of July 2002. It is late at
night, the F16 squadron is at the air force base. The crew which is
on-call consists of a pilot and a navigator. Scramble to Gaza. Waiting
for the order to attack. The order is received. The bombs are dropped.
Landing. De-briefing, and return to routine.
On
this specific mission a one-ton bomb was dropped (equal to a hundred
suicide bombs) on a house in the Al-Deredg quarter in Gaza, one of the
most crowded neighborhoods in Gaza, indeed in the whole world. During
this action 14 human beings were killed and more than 150 others were
wounded. Four families, 9 children, 2 women and 2 men, were wiped out
by the crew of the airplane that executed this mission and hit the target
in the full belief that they were defending Israelis. They honestly
believed this.
This
is what Dan Halutz (commander of the air force) had to say about the
mission: “I declare that everything taking place before the mission
is justified according to my moral compass…”
And
to the pilots he said: “Sleep well tonight … you executed
this mission perfectly.”
We
did not sleep well that night, and we continued not to sleep when:
On
August 31, 2002--when Darama was annihilated and with him 4 children.
On
April 8, 2003--when Arbid and Al-Halabi were annihilated and with them
2 children and 5 adults.
On
June 10, 2003--During an attempt to annihilate Rantisi, a girl, a woman
and 5 men were killed.
On
June 11, 2003--when Abu-Nahal was annihilated and with him 2 women and
5 men.
On
June 12, 2003--when Salah Taha and with him a one-year old infant, a
woman and 5 men were annihilated. And more, and more...
And
also three months ago in a blitz of five attacks 2 wanted persons were
wiped out and with them another 12 innocent people. Minister Effi Eitam
and high officers in the IDF do not like the expression ‘innocent
Palestinians’, they prefer to call them “bystanders”.
Altogether 211 persons were killed in the action, among these about
half (86) onlookers.
And
what kind of security did we get in return? Attacks and more attacks,
we in our Apache and they in their suicide bombs, together in a dance
of madness towards suicide.
So
we did not sleep at night and we wrote this letter:
“We,
air force pilots in reserve duty, who were raised on the values of Zionism,
sacrifice and contributing to the State of Israel, we have always served
on the front lines, willing to perform any assignment, difficult or
simple, in order to protect the State of Israel and to strengthen her.
“We,
veteran pilots and active pilots together, who served and still serve
the State of Israel during long weeks each year, object to perform illegal
and immoral orders of attacks that the State of Israel performs in the
territories.
“We,
who were raised to love the State of Israel and to contribute to the
Zionist enterprise, refuse to take part in the attacks of the air force
in concentrations of civilian population.
“We,
for whom the IDF and the air force are inseparable parts of us, refuse
to continue and harm innocent civilians.
“These
actions are illegal and immoral and are a direct result of the ongoing
occupation, which corrupts Israeli society as a whole.
“The
continuation of the occupation delivers a mortal blow to the security
of the State of Israel and to her moral strength.
“We
who serve as active pilots--fighters, leaders, and instructors of the
next generation of pilots--declare hereby that we shall continue to
serve in the IDF and the air force in every assignment in the defense
of the State of Israel."
We
spoke to more than a hundred pilots, among them veteran commanders in
the air force, many were afraid to sign but supported our idea--and
as proof: nobody leaked even a word. And maybe it is important to tell
you on this occasion in short who signed the letter. This is an opportunity
to get to know some of those “traitors who aided terrorism.”
I
will start with the active pilots: Major Yotam--active Apache-pilot
Captain Tomer--active F-16-pilot Captain Ran--active fighter-navigator
Captain Zur--active F-16-navigator Captain Alon--active Blackhawk-pilot
Captain Amnon--active Blackhawk-pilot Captain Yonathan--active Blackhawk-pilot
Captain Asaf--active F-15-pilot and instructor in the field of fighting
at the school of flying Lieutenant-colonel Eli--fighter pilot and active
instructor at the school of flying Brigadier-general Yiphtah Spector--fighter
pilot and active instructor at the school of flying.
An
additional 20 veteran pilots joined this initiative, fighters who flew
in the wars of Israel, some of which were more justified and some less
justified. Amongst these pilots: Colonel and doctor Yigal Shohat--fighter
pilot who was in Syrian captivity and later served as chief medical
doctor of the air force. Lieutenant-colonel Yonathan Shahar--fighter
pilot and flight commander in the six days war. Lieutenant-colonel Abner
Raanan--fighter pilot who was awarded the Israel Prize for Security
for developing intelligent weapons systems. Professor Motti Peri--helicopter
pilot and today head of the economy faculty at the Hebrew University.
Professor Nahum Karlinski--fighter pilot and historian at Ben-Gurion
University. Lieutenant Yoel Pieterberg--senior test-pilot in the air
force, amongst the founders of the first Apache squadron, leader of
the Cobra squadron in the Lebanon war, and awarded a medal by the chief
of staff, one of the planners and executors of the ‘Karin A’
mission. Captain Moshe Bukayi--transport pilot who was awarded a citation
for Courage during the Sinai War. Major Hagai Tamir--fighter pilot and
architect was also the outstanding trainee during Dan Halutz’s
pilots training course.
Two
weeks after publication of the pilots’ letter a report appeared
in the “Seven Days” supplement of “Yedioth Aharonoth”
newspaper, wherein five brigade commanders, colonels in the professional
army, photographed in uniform and carrying weapons, declare their support
for Sharon, the settlers and the policy of annihilations. Knesseth Member
Yuval Steinitz and his friends raised no hue and cry on this occasion.
Even the Minister of Defense did not call them supporters of terrorism,
and did not decry the fact that they expressed their opinion while in
uniform.
Why?
Because
they represent the consensus. They support the government. A government
which from day to day becomes less and less democratic, and more dictatorial.
If
we were to ask a citizen who lives in a state which turned into a dictatorship,
at what moment exactly did this happen? He would not be able to give
an answer. It is a incremental process, often much of which is hidden
from view.
But
there are elements that are not hidden and I would like to give an example:
A few months ago the Chief of Staff (a person in uniform) declared that
every member of Hamas is a target for annihilation.
With
your permission I would like to read you the response of the army spokesman
and the army prosecutor, regarding complaints addressed to the IDF a
decade ago, in the year 1993. At the time the prosecutor and spokesperson
claimed that role of the ‘Mista’Aravim’ unit is not
to annihilate:
“The
IDF dismisses this claim absolutely. There was not, and there will
not be any policy or reality in the IDF of intentional annihilation
of wanted persons. The instructions for opening fire are twofold:
... the principle of the sanctity of life is a basic value in the
IDF. There is no change whatsoever, and there will be no change in
this matter.”
So
what does this statement suggest? Have we not crossed the red line?
Or can we perhaps continue a bit further? Many people say that we have
not yet reached the red line and that for the time being one must not
refuse...we must continue to obey. And this position reminds me of the
red water line of the Sea of Galilee. Every time the level of water
in the lake crosses the red line we lower it a little.
When
my country finds itself in the situation similar to a plane in a wild
nose-dive towards the ground, I have three options: I can jump out,
and leave Israel. I can continue indifferently to let the plane dive
and crash bringing about everybody’s death or I can pull the stick
with all my legal strength, and try to save myself from crashing. We
are about to crash. So we pulled the stick and people asked us how we
could do this considering that terrorism is rampant in the streets.
And I reply--you are right, and regretfully I know this from close up.
For
the past years I have volunteered for ‘Sela’--an organization
helping new immigrants who are victims of terrorism, I assisted the
wounded during their period of recovery, and I guided groups of orphans
and of bereaved family members.
Each
person is a world unto him or herself and each bereavement has many
circles of grief and hurt, like a small stone thrown into the water
gives rise to nearly interminable rings. Grief, pain, want, anger, despair
and more ... so we must fight this criminal terrorism.
If
I must kill a suicide bomber on his way to a terrorist attack, and even
pay with my life for this, in the knowledge that I save other human
lives--I will do this with all my heart. But none of the so-called selective
annihilations was directed against a terrorist on his way to an attack
(and the IDF corroborates this).
So
we must fight terrorism, but at the same time we must fight not to become
more and more like the terrorists. The fact that buses explode here,
does not justify Sharon, Mofaz and Air Force Chief Dan Halutz decision
to ‘unintentionally’ kill nine children in their sleep,
and to sow terror in a population of millions who live under a reign
of closures, curfews and checkpoints.
A
population enclosed by walls and camps, under the guns of an enormous
and frightening army, equipped to the teeth with jet-planes which shake
the skies, and attack-helicopters who time and again send rockets into
cars and into the windows of houses, in crowded and destitute cities.
So
I said that I would with all my heart sacrifice my life to stop, even
with my own body, a suicide terrorist, and maybe the time has come to
speak about my faith. After all, what are we talking about? That we
lost our faith in a system that sends us to enforce a scandalous and
doubted policy.
We
do not believe the head of State, the Minister of Defense and the highest
of our commanders, when they send us to send rockets to places where,
afterwards, we learn that we killed women and children. When Air Force
Chief Dan Halutz lies to the press--then nonsense is written in the
newspapers. But when Dan Halutz lies to the pilots--innocent citizens
are killed, or, as we call them today: “non-involved” persons.
(quoted from the ‘Terminator’).
An
army consisting of fighters who are not convinced of the rightness of
their way, is a weakened army! A pilot who leaves on an assignment,
must be able to trust the system, to be 100 percent sure that it weighed
the strategic, tactical, and morally right considerations.
The
pilot has practically no way of knowing what is hidden behind the target
he aims at. And it is naive to require of him to decide in real time
to determine whether he considers the order fit or not to execute--because
in real time it is extremely difficult to make such considerations.
In
addition, pilots have to know these days another crucial fact. They
should know the nauseating statistics of the assignments they are being
sent to carry out. Fifty percent of those killed as a result of “selective
extermination” missions in populated areas are innocent civilians.
When one suppresses in the planning and execution the practically certain
result of fifty percent civilian casualties, then the “pure intentions”
of the planners is no longer pure; it is tainted.
I
would like to quote from a recent article, was initiated by the air
force spokesperson, in which Apache-pilots (not refusers) were interviewed
about the dilemma’s facing them: An experienced helicopter pilot
told the interviewer: “It is likely that in another couple of
years I’ll say to myself: you are an idiot, you crossed red lines”.
Another
pilot spoke about a set of values which underwent change in the last
two years:
“I
would not have believed that I would send rockets into Jenin, Gaza
and Tulkarem, and I am doing it. Maybe they’ll send me to shoot
rockets at Umm-El-Fahm (an Israeli city)? Today this looks crazy,
but it might happen in another year. Perhaps we’ll shoot rockets
at Arafat’s office, maybe a rocket at Arab houses in Jaffa--this
is the kind of thing that I believe I will not do. But today I shoot
rockets 100 meter away from people, just to get them to disperse,
and two years ago I would not have entertained the thought that I
would carry out such actions; we have become indifferent.”
Yet
another pilot says: “Sometimes I come from a debriefing after
a successful extermination and I know up front that the countdown for
another attack has started”.
I have seen much blood lately during my service in the squadron. In
between dropping commando troops at the outskirts of cities in the West
bank, I had to evacuate dozens of wounded, including IDF soldiers and
civilians, some of them children who were suffered horrible wounds.
At times we would evacuate the wounded to a hospital, scrub the blood
from the floor of the helicopter, and return to bring more.
And
I ask myself--why? Are we really so obtuse and naive to think that we
can repress 3.5 million people who have lost all fear of death? Aren’t
we going crazy too? Apparently we are.
It
seems to me that we are a society in an advanced psychotic state, a
kind of split personality and the only way many of us survive is to
close up and to disappear into our own bubble. And if anything is really
worthwhile blowing up--it is this bubble.
How
can we blow up the bubble? Very simple--get to know the facts.
So
let’s briefly examine what has happened to us in the past three
years? In the territories: 2289 Palestinians have been killed in the
territories by Israeli security forces, amongst them 439 minors under
the age of 18. At least 128 Palestinians have been put to death without
trial by Israel.In
the course of their execution 88 additional Palestinians were killed.
32 Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians. 9 foreign nationals
were shot and killed by bullets from Israeli security forces. 196 Israeli
civilians were killed by Palestinians. 180 members from the Israeli
security forces were killed by Palestinians. 86 Palestinians were killed
by Palestinians on suspicion of collaboration with Israel. 29 Palestinians
were killed by Palestinian security forces.
In
Israel: 377 Israeli civilians, 80 members of the security forces and
32 foreign civilians were killed by Palestinian inhabitants of the territories.
48 Palestinians were killed by the security forces. The IDF confirms
that among the 2289 Palestinians that were killed by our forces only
550 were bearing arms or were fighters. What happened to the remaining
1739?
Before
I finish, I would like to share with you some hair-raising moments from
the last two difficult months: During the interview of my dismissal
I sat opposite the commander of the air force and I heard him say repeatedly
with burning eyes that all the missions we performed, including the
most difficult ones, are highly moral, and even Professor Asa Kasher
agrees. Further on in the conversation and by his own initiative Dan
Halutz, Commander of the air force and candidate for the office of Vice
Chief of Staff –spelled out before me the value of blood as he
sees it--in descending order, from Jewish blood down to the blood of
a Palestinian.
I have heard many infantry soldiers say, and to my deep regret I have
also read in a letter that was sent by one of the pilots who objects
to our acts, that “our heroism today in the air force of 2003
is not to endanger our lives either under anti-aircraft fire or when
fighting enemy aircraft; our heroism today is expressed in that we succeed
to overcome the catastrophic feelings that arise in us as a result of
our being ‘professional assassins’ in the service of the
State of Israel. Our heroism is to overcome all this with courage, and
to get up every morning with a renewed choice to be good soldiers who
are willing and ready to take upon ourselves any mission.”
This
same shift of responsibility from the shoulders of the soldier and its
exchange for a sense of fulfillment of “valor” in coping
with his difficult task, is what enables pilots to perform the worst
crimes against humanity.
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