How the United States and Israel Praise Each Other as National Security Exemplars to Validate Their Own Actions
▻http://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/36400/How-the-United-States-and-Israel-Praise-Each-Other-as-National-Security-E
How the United States and Israel Praise Each Other as National Security Exemplars to Validate Their Own Actions
▻http://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/36400/How-the-United-States-and-Israel-Praise-Each-Other-as-National-Security-E
Sometimes, an appearance of borrowed security knowledge can be misleading. In his memoir, a former US interrogator in Iraq recalls having witnessed a torture device called “the Palestinian chair,” which his colleagues said Israeli interrogators had taught them to build during a joint training exercise. But in an interview, he explained: “I was never clear on the actual origin. The rumors...were that Army interrogators had learned to use this chair by Israeli interrogators...I certainly don’t know if that’s true.” Similarly, detainees in US custody in Iraq were reportedly held in a high-stress position known as a “Palestinian hanging.” This technique, however, might not actually be Israeli in origin. The adjective “Palestinian” could have simply been used to play on the fears evoked by mentioning Israeli torture. What matters, then, is not only the origin of such methods. The very conjuring of Israel/Palestine demonstrates its centrality in the US national security imagination.