The two T Shirts in the picture are just part of a series of shirts being worn by Israeli soldiers. The black shirt depicts a pregnant Palestinian woman in the crosshairs of a gun sight with the legend in English and Hebrew, "1 Shot 2 Kills", get it?The white shirt has a Palestinian child in cross hairs with the legend in Hebrew, "The Smaller, The Harder".
According to a soldier in the sniper squad that sports the shirst, the legend means, the smaller the child, the harder to kill, morally and as a smaller target.
There are a number of other designs such as an Israeli soldier blowing up a mosque with the legend, "Only God Forgives", a ninja figure with the legend, "Won't Chill Until I Confirm A Kill" and perhaps the most shocking, a weeping mother in the crosshairs of the rifle next to a dead baby with the legend, "Better Use Durex".
During the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip which left hundreds of children dead and thousands injured, it was revealed that the head rabbi of the Israeli army distributed a pamphlet to all sodiers which told them that they were fighting a holy war and that there was no mercy to be given to the enemy.
The atrocities of the attack have been well documented and the Israeli Armed Forces have been accused of grevious war crimes involving denying medical asssistance to dying civilians, moreover, the use of cluster bombs and white phosphorus on this confined civilian population has been confirmed.
During the early 1990's I sublet my apartment for a few months to an Israeli couple. I met them a few times before they moved in and I thought they were very nice until we spoke of Palestinians. The language used by these "nice people" to talk about Palestinians was dehumanizing in the extreme. They were filthy animals. They lived like pigs. They were subhuman and incapable of intelligent thought. All Palestinians to them were the enemy, a grotesque cariacature.
But isn't this the first step in eliminationist, extremist thought? You dehumanize the ones you want to eliminate. The American settlers habitually did it to the Native Americans, The English did it to the Irish for centuries.....The Germans did it to the Jews.
The Israelis have long embarked on an unspoken policy of eliminationism and it has become institutionalized in their society. They have convinced themselves that there is no other way and cowed us into acceptance. If you are a politician and speak out, expect the full weight of the pro Israeli lobby to be used against you. If you are a member of private organization or an individual guided by consience to protest, you will be a target.
The Israelis are going to destroy the Palestinians. They are going to eliminate the Gazans. You are going to read about it as it happens incrementally in little steps and big boot heels. You will see the pictures and reports on the internet and television news. It has been happening and the Israelis confidently believe that there isn't anything anyone can do to stop them.
3 comments:
The Israelis are going to destroy the Palestinians. They are going to eliminate the Gazans.
i've been thinking the same thing myself for a little while now. of all the possible endings to that whole mess, it seems to me like no other one is acceptable to the belligerent parties.
the Israelis are not willing to treat the Palestinians well enough to placate the Palestinians into peace; the Palestinians are not willing to be placated by anything the Israelis could reasonably do; the Palestinians claim to want to eliminate Israel, but are eminently incapable of ever doing so; the Israelis have already committed ethnic cleansing (several times since 1948, and ongoing in the settlements to this day), and seem to constantly be edging closer to simply wiping out the Palestinians --- which act they are eminently capable of carrying out. if there were a possible peaceful solution, there's been six decades of struggle in which to reach it; why have the problems only ever worsened, never eased up?
yet of the possible not peaceful solutions, the only one that is practically possible is for the Israelis to bulldoze the Palestinians into the sea, or into Jordan, or into the ground, whichever is easiest. an act somewhere between ethnic cleansing and genocide, split that hair however you best please.
the question in my mind is, once the state of Israel stands guilty of genocide --- what do we, as in the rest of the world, do about them then? and where are we going to dig up the political will to actually do anything, since we seem incapable so far of preventing that inevitable outcome?
Well, Nomen, that is the question!
And I must admit, you gave a pretty realistic analysis of the situation which coincides with the fatalistic course which I envision.
When I was young, I was taken with all of the romantic heroism of Exodus.
I didn't realize the history of the region and the way Israel was accomplished.
Frankly, I see things in the long term and the unreal siituation of keeping a large urban and agricultural modern population comfortable and productive in the arid reality of the Middle East.
The ugly fact is that the aquifers are about depleted, including the fossil fresh water aquifers under the Mediterrenean. The next phase of Israels struggle for existence will be for water.
I think it's kind of strange how I keep seeing travel ads on TV for Israel here in the states. They tout "The kids are playing in the streets!" But they don't tell you it's while Palestinian kids are being blown to pieces. Sickening how the US turns a complete blind eye as if all is well on the strip. We never get anything other than entertainment passed off as news. What will become of us?
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