Israel loses its humanity

Israeli military tactics against the Palestinians in the recent past had already whittled away at such feelings. Now Israel is in the process of loosing not just its innocence but its humanity as well. It is now turning itself into a supremacist and racist country, and there are Israelis, such as Gideon Levy of Haaretz, who are saying this openly and courageously.

"This war, perhaps more than its predecessors, is exposing the true deep veins of Israeli society. Racism and hatred are rearing their heads, as is the impulse for revenge and the thirst for blood."

Levy wrote this on Jan. 9 in his column, going on to add the following further on in his commentary:

"The unbridled aggression and brutality are justified as ’exercising caution:’ the frightening balance of blood Ñ about 100 Palestinian dead for every Israeli killed, isn’t raising any questions, as if we’ve decided that their blood is worth 100 times less than ours, in acknowledgment of our inherent racism."

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Levy is among the most hated people, not just in Israel, but also among hard-line Jews elsewhere.

Little do the people that vilify him realize, however, that he and those like him in Israel, and among the Jews elsewhere, are the best antidotes against anti-Semites around the world.

The reason is clearly that they represent the Jewish conscience against the barbarity being displayed by the Olmert government and the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, now. It is inevitable that this barbarity should also be reigniting anti-Semitism.

We have written in our column in Milliyet that this scourge of humanity is first cousin to Islamophobia (both by the way Western inventions) and should be condemned in the strongest possible manner.

But it is also hard to understand what Israelis expect in such a situation, given the ground swell of anger around the globe at their country which is increasing by the minute. Of course there is the other side of the coin too, and that is that Israeli authorities are themselves using the "anti-Semitism argument," within the context of their pathetic propaganda onslaught, by trying to label, a priori, almost all criticism of Israel as being "anti-Semitic."

They do not appear to realize that by "instrumentalizing" this evil for their own ends in this way, they are in effect undermining the importance of fighting against this phenomenon. To return to Levy, he indicates that Israel cannot have it both ways and says the following:

"Yet there are some who still want it both ways. To kill and destroy indiscriminately and also to come out looking good, with a clean conscience. To go ahead with war crimes without any sense of the heavy guilt that should accompany them. It takes some nerve. Anyone who justifies this war also justifies all its crimes."

It is highly apparent that the Israeli government and the IDF could not care two hoots for international public opinion, the United Nations, its own friends, the countries with which it will have to work with in its region, or its own citizens of conscience who see the whole Gaza operation from the perspective of a humanity being raped.

From being the epitome of suffering innocence to becoming a country accused of committing horrendous war crimes is quite a transformation by any account. Israelis who believe that their country will come out of all this "looking good," to use Levy’s words, or by having increased their sense of security are engaged in a very serious bout of self-delusion.