Murderous army

A Powerful Comment
By Khalid Amayreh

"There is no doubt that the Israeli occupation army is trying very hard to kill the de facto ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. (The term ‘ceasefire’ is itself misleading to a large extent since it implies a false impression of parity between the Israeli occupiers and the Palestinian victims of occupation). And the chief means to do so is by continuing to murder Palestinian civilians, raid Palestinian homes, abduct Palestinian political activists and officials and terrorize ordinary people in the West Bank.

On Sunday, 3 December, Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old boy at the Askar refugee camp near Nablus . According to the Israeli army, the young boy, Jamil Abdul Karim, threw a stone on an armored Israeli vehicle and had therefore to be executed. Another Palestinian teenager was also executed in similar manner at Beit Inun near Hebron over the weekend.

Well, I really don’t understand what kind of an army is that which orders soldiers to shoot children right in the head for throwing a stone toward thoroughly protected and heavily armed soldiers? This is certainly not an army of professional soldiers, but an army of thugs, hoodlums and common criminals.

I equally can’t understand why Jews are proud of such an army. Well, maybe I am being naïve. After all, humans can stoop to unimagined levels of moral stagnation and bestiality. Weren’t Germans proud of their Gestapo, SS and Wehrmacht? I bet they were. So, if Germans could stoop to the lowest level of national cannibalism, why can’t Jews? After all the “master race” is no more superior than the “chosen people.”!!

Of course, Israeli leaders, especially when talking to Western media, would argue forcefully that Israel is sincere about maintaining the ceasefire and is showing restraint in the face of Palestinian provocations. But what restraint are those liars talking about? Is it the daily rounding-up of dozens of innocent Palestinians to be used as hostages and bargaining chips to blackmail the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas-led government? Or is it the routine forays and incursions into Palestinian population centers in Nablus , Jenin, Ramallah, Tulkarm and Hebron ? I listen to the Israeli public radio regularly, and not a day passes without a fresh spate of arrests of innocent people obscenely referred by the Israeli media as “fugitives”! !

The truth of the matter is that the Israeli occupation army, which is dominated by Talmudic fanatics who only understand the language of murder, assassination, and pornographic bloodshed, is anti-peace, anti-calm, anti-truce and anti-human decency. This Nazi-like bellicosity has very little to do with actual Palestinian behavior. Indeed, the thoroughly tormented Palestinians have no interest to provoke Israel to commit fresh massacres such as last month’s carnage in Beit Hanun.

The real reasons have to do with the brutal ugliness of the Israeli army mentality which resists every effort that would portray Palestinians as dignified and equal human beings, ordinary people with human and political rights, like the rest of humanity.

It is an army that grew up viewing all Palestinians as scum, vermin and dirty animals that ought to be exterminated. It is an army that views Palestinian lives as insignificant, expendable and cheap. In fact, one exaggerates very little by saying that the Israeli perception of Palestinians is more or less similar the way the Gestapo and Wehrmacht viewed Jews.

So, these powerful soldiers, officers and generals, who think they are avenging the holocaust by slaughtering Palestinian women and children at will in Beit Hanun and Nablus , are always prone to resist any effort at creating a semblance of even human parity between imperial Israel and the nearly vanquished Palestinians.

That is why they are vehemently opposed to extending the ceasefire in the West Bank . Well, isn’t it ironic to even talk of ceasefire in the West Bank ? Where is the Palestinian “fire” there? Where is the Palestinian army there?

As a inherently racist army, the Israeli occupation army is also vehemently opposed to any alleviation of Palestinian suffering, such as reducing the number of humiliation stations, otherwise known as roadblocks and checkpoints, or relaxing the draconian restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and flow of goods and services throughout the West Bank.

So, they simply want to keep millions of Palestinians in the West Bank in a constant state of unmitigated suffering and persecution since relaxing the suffering would allow a degree of mental equanimity among Palestinians which could enhance overall Palestinian steadfastness and resilience. And that is not good for Zionism.

There is no doubt that the bulk of the right-wing political-military establishment in Israel is not enthusiastic about any extended ceasefire with the Palestinians for fear that the subsequent positive atmosphere could conceivably eventually lead to some sort of peace or extended calm. . And peace, as we all know, is anathema for Israel and Zionism.

In fact it is not inconceivable that the right-wing military establishment might at one point carry out a coup against the Israeli government if the latter dared reach a peace accord of some sort with the Palestinians.

Such a possibility (reaching an accord with the Palestinians), remote as it is, would be a red line for tens of thousands of Israelis whose careers are tightly and closely entwined with the unending war on the Palestinians.

Indeed, as the Nazis made a living out of killing Jews and others, many, actually too many, Israelis are also making a living and prosperous careers out of killing Palestinians, destroying their homes, stealing their land and keeping them in perpetual subjugation.

This is the main reason why the Israeli military establishment is against a genuine ceasefire with the Palestinians.. "