Ronen Bergman Confirms IDF Soldier Deliberately Killed by His Own
▻http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/07/27/ronen-bergman-confirms-idf-soldier-deliberately-killed-by-his-ow
Ronen Bergman was interviewed on Tel Aviv radio yesterday and confirmed my report that Sgt. Guy Levy was killed by the IDF in order to prevent his capture by Hamas fighters during a battle in Gaza. The report reads:
…Levy was killed in Gaza in the course of a kidnap [sic] attempt. IDF soldiers succeeded in preventing the kidnapping and killed one terrorist [sic] but Levy too was killed in the midst of the attempt to prevent it.
While I’m grateful to Bergman for affirming the accuracy of my prior report. I’m disturbed by the interview (audio) between Bergman and radio show host, Guy Zohar. At no point, do either of them doubt or question the moral basis for the Hannibal Directive. There seems a Spartan sense of sacrifice among Israelis that part of the cost of serving in the army is that your own brothers may be forced to kill you for the greater good of the nation.
There is something deeply troubling, even demented about such a regulation. I could perhaps understand it in ancient Sparta; or even among the diehard Japanese kamikaze fighters during World War II. But in a country that prides itself as being the equal of any western democratic nation? No.
Another bizarre aspect of this report is that the text that appeared on the radio station website above was censored (removed), presumably by the IDF censor. But the audio of the interview itself remains, uncensored. The “logic” of censorship. Go figure.