Wednesday 24 July 2019

Empire Files: Israeli Army Vet’s Exposé - “I Was the Terrorist”

In a rare, candid conversation, Abby Martin interviews a former Israeli Army combat soldier who served as an occupier in Palestine’s Hebron City.

12 comments:

  1. “Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”
    ― Niccolò Machiavelli, "The Prince"

    Cliff notes summary of Ch 8: Cruel acts, though evil, may be justified when they are done all at once to establish a prince's power (but not repeated) and turned to the benefit of his subjects. Cruel acts are done badly when they increase over time. A conqueror should decide how many injuries he must inflict up front and do them all at once to keep his subjects from constantly resenting them. But benefits should be handed out gradually, so that people savor them. Above all, a prince should live with his subjects in such a way that no good or bad situation can force him to change his conduct.

    Obviously, when the state of Israel was founded, and following conflicts since, insufficient "cruel acts" were committed. The Palestinians should have expelled or killed.

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  2. So Mach the Knife's reasoning leads to horrifying conclusions re. Palestinians.

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  3. Nope. Just some simple truths. Like, ". Belief in law is that something extra that distinguishes law from violence, that separates the founding moment of violence from what comes after it."

    And let's face it. Islam is a system of both religion and jurisprudence (law). How can a Palestinian EVER abide Israeli law? A single state is impossible.

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  4. Only "violence" can sustain a polytheistic "community."

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    1. Let me map it out for you. Montu faces north. The alternative, along the avenue of sphinxes, to the South.

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  5. Hence the importance and significance of "monotheism" and "monotheistic" beliefs.

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  6. "The Palestinians should have expelled or killed."

    With the Israeli Jews rejecting any idea of a 2 or 1 state solution there may be increasing interest in a Final Shtick/Solution/Thang. And if the US/West 'took out' Iran, then there might only be minimal consequences for an exterminatory act.

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    1. ...or simply give them permanent residency with no civic rights/ responsibilities, but not quite homo sacer (to be killed with impugnity).

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    2. ...for if you're going to do violence, it is best done at the founding, not 80 years after.

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  7. ...for if you're going to do violence, it is best done at the founding, not 80 years after.

    Of course but in Israel the Jews see themselves increasingly as Liberators and the Palestinians as Occupiers.

    After a few more generations that could pave the way for an expulsionary/exterminatory ideology.

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