2014 July Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם

#Gaza War, Day 22: 10 IDF Soldiers Killed Today, 1,100 Palestinians Killed Overall Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם
▻http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/07/28/gaza-war-day-22-10-idf-soldiers-killed-today-1100-palestinians-k

#Eran_Efrati, an activist with Anarchists Against the Wall, is in the Israel-Gaza theater. He published this astonishing post in Facebook. As you read it keep in mind that he’s talking about the killing of 7 IDF soldiers in an outdated APC who died after an anti-tank shell struck their vehicle. The deaths of so many just after the land invasion began, was a deep shock to the Israeli nation and especially their comrades. Instead of taking it out on the battlefield against Palestinian fighters, the IDF took it out on the most vulnerable, Palestinian civilians, who were most visible and available targets:

Eran Efrati - In recent weeks I was on the border of #Gaza...
▻https://www.facebook.com/eran.efrati.9/posts/10204269146351996

In recent weeks I was on the border of Gaza and getting reports from soldiers in the Gaza Strip who leak information out to me.

I am in the process of publication of two big stories in major U.S. newspapers, but there are some things I can share with you right now: Soldiers in two different units inside Gaza leaked information about the murdering of Palestinians by sniper fire in Shuja’iyya neighborhood as punishment for the death of soldiers in their units. (...)

Today I can report that the official command that was handed down to the soldiers in Shujaiyya was to capture Palestinian homes as outposts. From these posts, the soldiers drew an imaginary red line, and amongst themselves decided to shoot to death anyone who crosses it. Anyone crossing the line was defined as a threat to their outposts, and was thus deemed a legitimate target. This was the official reasoning inside the units. I was told that the unofficial reason was to enable the soldiers to take out their frustrations and pain at losing their fellow soldiers (something that for years the IDF has not faced during its operations in Gaza and the West Bank), out on the Palestinian refugees in the neighborhood. Under the pretext of the so-called “security threat” soldiers were directed to carry out a pre-planned attack of revenge on Palestinian civilians.

These stories join many other similar ones that Amira Hass and I investigated in Operation Cast Lead. The death toll that continues to rise is steadily reaching the numbers of the massacre of 2009.

More than 1,100 have been killed in Gaza, at least 80 percent of them civilians. Today it is cleared for publication that at least 4 soldiers were killed by a rocket in a gathering area outside of Gaza, and another soldier was killed in Gaza. They join 43 soldiers that have already been killed. We know that more acts of revenge will come soon and it is important that we not stay silent. This is the time to take to the streets and to social media. Demand from your representative wherever you are to stop supporting this massacre and to immediately boycott the state of Israel until the occupation ends, the blockade is lifted and Palestinians will be free. We all want to be in the right place at the right time when history knocks on our door, and history is knocking in Gaza right now. You need to decide on which side you want to go down in history.

#punition_collective ##price_tag #prix_à_payer #lâcheté #Israël #Israel #victimes_civiles #Palestine

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.

Israeli Police Falsely Report Murdered Palestinian Boy Was Gay, Flooding Social Media with Disinformation
▻http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/07/02/israeli-police-plant-false-story-murdered-palestinian-boy-was-ga

Yesterday night, I noticed several Israeli Facebook users infecting my feed with false claims that Mohamed Abu Khdeir, the 16 year-old who was murdered by suspected Jewish terrorists, was killed in an honor crime because he was gay. With the help of an Israeli friend, I traced the rumor to, of all places, the Israeli police (Hebrew). They leaked (Hebrew) this false information to the media, which dutifully reported it as if it was true (it wasn’t). The police claim (made anonymously of course) that it had “information” Abu Khdeir was gay was false. But this calumny spread like the wind, and a credulous Israeli public eager to believe the worst of Palestinians and refusing to take any responsibility for their own brethren spilling the blood of a Palestinian, took to social media like a raging plague and spread this bile everywhere.