By now, you’ve likely read about the young Israeli soldier who posted on Facebook photos from her time in the Israel Defense Forces. She was shown gloating and frolicking among cuffed and blindfolded Palestinians, some of whom appeared old enough to be her grandfather.
Sure, it seems cruel on the surface, but not all sides of the story are being told. With such frequent proofs of Israeli repression coming out, they are often not really given the proper context that grade A Israeli hasbara (“explanation”) really demands.
To help out Israel’s beleaguered spokespeople, I offer the following spin talking points that can turn those photos into a positive:
1. This was just a friendly game of hide-and-go-seek. It just happened the Palestinians were “it” that time.
2. This was a roundup of the local perverts, of all whom demanded being handcuffed and blindfolded by a female soldier. As part of the IDF’s politeness drive, were merely obliged. Of course, “Pallywood” is spinning this into a negative!
3. We were simply trying to help the Palestinians achieve their Guinness Book of World Records ambitions for most elderly men handcuffed and blindfolded at once.
4. The blindfolds were actually brand new laban-making bags — provided free from Israel — and this was just how men in that particular village inspected their quality. And now we get attacked for our generosity.
5. This was actually just before we unleashed a huge Palestinian pinata. In the Palestinian tradition, a large paper mache donkey filled with baklava is kicked by blindfolded and handcuffed elders. That is why Eden and everyone else looked like they were having a blast. Gosh!
6. What actually looks like cloth blindfolds were in fact new, cutting edge virtual reality goggles. The Palestinians were playing FIFA soccer. We handcuffed them in response to their frequent hand ball penalties.
7. These Palestinian men all suffered severe vision problems. They are pictured after we generously gave them free Lasik surgery. That requires they wear eye coverings. And as you may know, the eyes become very itchy afterwards. We handcuffed them to prevent them from scratching their eyes and ruining the free surgeries we gave them (because we are the most moral army ever).
8. Our patrol just found these poor men bound and gagged by Hamas of course. Our soldiers were so happy to find them after their families called us and reported them as missing persons.
9. The pictured men were actually Israelis who were tied up and held captive by Hamas. We mounted a heroic and successful rescue mission, as these photos show.
10. The bound men were planning a major anti-Semitism campaign. They were authoring Palestinian textbooks that dared suggest there is an Israeli occupation and that Israel was founded on the displacement of the Palestinians. This was an important preemptive arrest.
Israel, you’re welcome. In lieu of payment, can you return to my grandfather his family’s land?
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- The Myth of Israel’s “Targeted” Killing
- Israel Rounding Up Candidates
- Israel to Disenfranchise East Jerusalem Palestinians
- Targeting Civilians: US, Israel and the Palestinians
They'll choose #7 if they're smart. What a nice gesture on the part of Israel!
Posted by Linda J | August 16, 2010, 6:38 pmAnd now a bit more seriously, the IDF's official response was "On the face of it, the soldier exhibited a blatant and ugly behaviour. Given that the soldier was released last year, the case details were passed on to her commanders."
http://www.mako.co.il/news-military/security/Arti…
She's just a symptom, though, of a larger-scale phenomenon of desensitization toward the occupation and brutality that the Israeli public is undergoing. Very sad.
It also reminds me of a story they had in This American Life about the American woman who was in the Abu Ghraib pictures. Even though she wasn't the one torturing them and really just stood by the prisoners for her boyfriend, she was the scapegoat who was discharged, not the soldiers who did it, her commanders, or the the policy-makers.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/ep…
(Act two)
Posted by Salty Mac | August 16, 2010, 6:59 pmThe Israeli pictures are way more sick than the Abu Ghraib pictures. As usual Israel takes a simple hateful concept like petty prisoner abuse and ads an extreme and bizarre dimension to it. When you abuse a society's old people, it's like attacking the entire society. That is clearly the intent of this woman, she's trying to dehumanize an entire society.
Posted by Jamal | August 16, 2010, 9:14 pmI agree with your observations, but I don't think these pictures are more sick than the Abu Ghraib ones. All forms of torture, disrespect, and dehumanization are equally abhorrent. And remember, this is the idiotic act of a 20 year old individual. It's a result of a situation Israel has created, but it's that silly girl's photo, not the country's, so your generalization is a bit rash.
Posted by Salty Mac | August 16, 2010, 9:21 pmWell the silly girl did not operate as a total rogue. There is a complete culture of impunity among Israeli soldiers enforcing the occupation. Anyone who has been through a checkpoint manned by Israelis can speak of humiliations at the hands of pimply-faced teens. There is simply no recourse and no accountability, which is why serious excesses like unordered murder by Israeli soldiers rarely go punished with any degree of seriousness.
What makes her silly is that she's blind to how embarrassing it is when it is publicized. It is the difference between the rubes and the more sophisticated Israelis. The simpletons take abusing Palestinians for granted and post proof of it on Facebook. Sophisticated Zionists condemn overt acts while justifying and extending the policies that rest on the degradation of Palestinians.
So how much can we really divorce her from her structural context?
Posted by KABOBfestWill | August 16, 2010, 10:30 pmI wish Palestinians showed some pictures of Gilad Shalit, there was not word on him since last year.
A suggestion for Arabs to behave like decent human beings.
Posted by KABOBfestMoe | August 17, 2010, 1:25 amYou mean like the video released of him last year showing him to be relatively healthy? Or would you prefer his captors to release pictures of him bound and blindfolded while they pose for mocking photos around him?
Zionists are so fucking stupid with their lame talking points.
Posted by MohammadKF | August 17, 2010, 4:20 amI wrote "since last year" Why are you "so fucking stupid"?
Posted by KABOBfestMoe | August 17, 2010, 6:14 amOK sure. So tell me, do you want pictures of him handcuffed and blindfolded while his captors pose and smirk around him? You know, most Arabs assume that ain't how decent human beings act.
Posted by MohammadKF | August 17, 2010, 7:10 am"that ain't how decent human beings act"
How many Arabs were killed by Arabs today? It's a holiday?
Posted by KABOBfestMoe | August 17, 2010, 12:35 pmSo moe has transformed to KABOBfestMoe… that's an important development…
as always Zionists cry and try to divert the subject of conversation…
why doesn't Israel show us the photos of the 11000 Palestinian prisoners it kidnapped?
and before you even try to defend this terrorist soldier
read this article KabobfestMoe..
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/rig…
and stick to the subject if you have anything useful to add…
Posted by Han | August 17, 2010, 7:14 am"why doesn't Israel show us the photos"
Are you for real? Their families and lawyers can visit them.
"An ICRC programme enabling Palestinian families to regularly travel to see close relatives detained in Israeli prisons has been accepted for decades, and the ICRC has always accepted the security controls that were imposed."
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/201062…
Hani, I understand that an Arab would ban all families from visiting. I hope Israel does ban until Gilad can be visited.
Posted by KABOBfestMoe | August 17, 2010, 10:20 amNobody cares what bigoted Zionists such as yourself 'understand' as fact without evidence or context. But Israel DOES ban all Palestinian prisoners kidnapped from the Gaza Strip into israel (in a blatant and direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly bars occupying powers from removing prisoners from the occupied territory), from being visited by their families.
Posted by MohammadKF | August 17, 2010, 10:29 amWhen did you suggest Arabs allow his family to meet him in exchange for Arab families from Gaza meeting their terrorist relatives in prison?
Are you suggesting it now? Let's see you write a post Mohammad!
Posted by KABOBfestMoe | August 17, 2010, 10:32 amI would never pretend there is a moral equivalence between an occupation army's tank gunner captured from his tank as it patrolled a captive population, and those arrested for their thoughts or actions in the name of ending said occupation. The latter should not even be in jail; the former deserves nothing less.
Posted by MohammadKF | August 17, 2010, 3:33 pmMohammadKF , I see you'd rather the Palestinian families not see the prisoners, than allow Gilad to see his parents. Also, Gaza is free, it has a border with an Arab state.
Don't tell me Arabs are controlled by hatred.
Posted by KABOBfestMoe | August 18, 2010, 11:37 amThanks for publishing a picture of her that isn't blurred out. She doesn't deserve such anonymity.
Posted by Programmer Buydatti | August 17, 2010, 2:40 pmthat was really funny … thanks Will
Posted by @KhaledSelim | August 17, 2010, 6:31 pmDef agree with nothing becoming worse than putting two pieces of glass in your eye each and every morning….the part of every morning I dread
Posted by Cole Menges | September 2, 2010, 1:55 pmWow, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a lot and never seem to get something done.
Posted by san diego by owner | September 6, 2010, 6:17 am