We learn from the Israeli press that a criminal
investigation has been launched against the soldier caught on tape firing
towards a bound Palestinian. However, there is a detail the Israeli press in
English is reluctant to share with us. The shooting soldier was not just an
ordinary low-ranking infantry recruit, he was a First Sergeant. But it goes
much further, the soldier who is caught on video holding the bound Palestinian
detainee is no less than a regiment commander, an IDF lieutenant colonel.
In case someone fails to understand, it is a high-ranking
Israeli officer who is caught on video holding a handcuffed man as a still
target for the merciless vengeance of another IDF soldier. An unavoidable
question pops to air. What are these people made of? Do they share any
recognised qualities with the rest of humanity? Clearly, cruelty is deeply
rooted in Israeli society. It may take two to tango, but apparently it doesn�t
take more than two Israeli soldiers to prove to us all what Israel and the
Jewish national revival is all about.
Seemingly, barbarism is deeply engraved within Israeli
society and the Hebraic culture. It shouldn�t take us by surprise. It was that
very barbarism that led to the uprooting of the Palestinian population in 1948.
It is a barbarism that is fuelled by a complete dismissal of Otherness that has
been maintaining Israel and Zionism since then.
Now when it becomes clear to more and more people that
Israel�s days are numbered, some may like to take the opportunity and start to
summarise the contribution of the Zionist revival to Jewish history or even
history of modernity in general. Though Israel and Jews around the world are
always keen to tell us about Israel�s achievements in science, technology,
agriculture and the arts, I would bet that not much of it would be remembered
as a legacy of the Israeli heritage for future generations.
On the contrary, in the long term, Israel will be remembered
as a shameless disaster. Even if we manage to save Israelis from nuking Iran, a
sinister mass murder they are really keen upon launching, we would be left with
a story of a racist tribal society, an ethnic cleansing ideology, a gigantic
wall that shreds the holy land into starving Bantustans, malnutrition in Gaza
and the West Bank, torture and lynch practices. As Khalid Amayreh detected
recently, Israelis are the Nazis of our time.
Yet, as much as we can see the Israeli crimes that are
emerging daily from our TV screens, press outlets and even YouTube, any genuine
historical scrutiny of the Nazi era and Nazi crimes is strictly prohibited.
Consequently, I believe, Nazi evilness will lose its primacy, and Israeli will
eventually grab the crown of absolute evilness.
I am fully aware that Jews, both in the left and the right
insist upon telling us about Jewish culture being humanist and universalist. I
better admit it, though I am fully aware of many Jewish humanists, I myself
have never come across a single text that can be labelled as Jewish humanist or
universalist. Instead, rather too often I unfortunately come across some Jewish
tribal barbaric teaching and practices, whether it is in the Bible or Zionist
preaching and practices.
Zionism was initially there to bring about a humanized Jew,
an authentic ethical civilised being that is attached to the land, to the soil --
all the while making peace with the rest of humanity. Though it is clear that
project was doomed to failure; in the light of Israeli sinister vengeance, the
scale of the failure is massive.
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Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli jazz
musician, author and political activist.