[WCUSP] The Sadism of the Israeli Occupation

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Sunday, October 21, 2007
 
The Sadism of the Israeli Occupation 
_http://www.juancole.com/2007/10/sadism-of-israeli-occupation.html_ 
(http://www.juancole.com/2007/10/sadism-of-israeli-occupation.html) 
 
_The Guardian reports on a building scandal in  Israel_ 
(http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,331025465-119093,00.html)  over the extreme brutality of 
its occupation of the  Palestinians in the West Bank. Excerpt:


' According to Yishai Karin: 'At one point or another of their  service, the 
majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the  violence 
because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the  chaos. They 
also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of  danger.' In 
the words of one soldier: 'The truth? When there is chaos, I like  it. That's 
when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into Rafah, and if  there 
isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go nuts.' . . . One  described 
beating women. 'With women I have no problem. With women, one threw  a clog at me 
and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke  everything there. 
She can't have children. Next time she won't throw clogs at  me. When one of 
them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the rifle butt in the  face. She doesn't 
have what to spit with any more.' '


The  idea that these sorts of actions derive from 'lack of training' is 
absurd. They  derive from hatred and from being able to act with impunity. They are 
a burden  of the strong who have the opportunity to abuse the weak.

The US  political elite and media that conceals the brutality of the Israeli 
occupation  for sectional political gains are accomplices to this sadism, and 
their silence  endangers the security of the United States. When we cannot 
understand why Arab  audiences, who are perfectly aware of what the Israeli army 
has been doing to  Palestinians for decades, are outraged, it leads us into 
policy mistakes in  dealing with the Middle East. No one in the US media ever 
talks about  Zionofascism, and the campus groups who yoke the word 'fascism' to 
other  religions and peoples are most often trying to divert attention from 
their own  authoritarianism and approval of brutality.  
Labels: _Israel/Palestine_ 
(http://www.juancole.com/labels/Israel__Palestine.html)  

posted by Juan Cole @ _10/21/2007 05:21:00 PM_ 
(http://www.juancole.com/2007/10/sadism-of-israeli-occupation.html)    
(http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=3463907&postID=7062259700173592385)   
(http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3463907&postID=7062259700173592385)  




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