The PR War in Gaza

NOTES:

General Matan Vilna???i must have known what happened. High-ranking officers who served on the Occupied West Bank had voiced similar warnings against Israeli Army behavior. ???The orders left a wide gap, a margin... of intentionally un-specified ???grey zone???, which encouraged violent behavior of soldiers???, said Reserve Colonel Elisha Shapira, who served in the Nablus Area at the same time. Soldiers were told ???don???t hit Palestinians - but bring them to interrogation ???swell-headed??? - blown-up???.

The events, which Nofer Ishai-Karen researched, happened some 17 years ago.

The situation has further deteriorated since that time. Now Israeli Army and Air Force General openly take pride in acts of revenge against Palestinian civilians. Maj-Gen Eliezer Shkeidi took pride in announcing that his pilots break the sound barrier over Gaza, producing sonic booms.

These cause severe PTSD symptoms among young children; they have also caused miscarriages among pregnant women. The indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian homes had caused many deaths lately, including many children. Perhaps last but not least: The Israeli cabinet, backed by Washington, said it would disrupt power and fuel supply to Gaza.

[1] This is an abbreviated translation of an article by Dalia Karpel titled HAMEDOVEVET [=the one who makes people talk]. The article appeared on the Hebrew Weekend Supplement, on 21 September 2007. It is based on academic research, which Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the Hebrew University published in ALPAYIM Magazine Vol. 31.

[2] The article was not translated to English and thus did NOT appear in Haaretz English Language edition.

[3] Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the Hebrew University, who guided Nofer Ishai-Karen in her Master???s thesis, served in the reserves in the Mental Health Department of the Israeli Army. But the IDF wouldn???t allow him to research into Israeli Soldiers??? violence. The researchers hold the interview raw audio material.

[4] To my best knowledge the Israeli Army hasn???t either charged a single case of abuse or murder by soldiers of Palestinians in proper court.

ILAN??? VILENDA???S testimony:

???Our job was to beat them... I personally hit a boy and another. I used my hands or the truncheon. We beat more severely [Palestinian] adults. We acted like policemen but we acted outside the law. There was this Palestinian who had a TV at home. The World Cup in Soccer was on, and we used to invade his privacy to watch the games. After a while he had enough, and asked us take the TV set and move.

???I was born on a Kibbutz, to a family whose values were humane ???Zionist left wing???. The Palestinians threw tons of stones at us. Whereas at the beginning my ideological commitment restrained my actions, my anger accumulated, and I released it violently. It was meant to be. We were there ???to make them [Palestinians] pay.??? My political views changed too. I now support the extreme-right-religious National-Religious Party.???

After his release from the army, Vilenda and 5 other Israelis were arrested in Goa, India for possession of LSD. ???I wanted to serve my country. This was my task... but the entire IDF is executing illegal-orders.???

Soldier ???H??? testimony:

???After two months in Rafah a new NCO commander arrived. The first patrol, which he commanded, was at 06 hours. Rafah was under curfew. Not a soul was on the street. Then he saw a young boy, of about 4, playing in the sand in the courtyard of his home. The kid was building a castle in the sand.

Suddenly the NCO, a guy from the Engineers Corps, ran to chase the kid. We followed. He captured the kid and broke his elbow. Broke the kid???s elbow! Damn me if I???m not telling the truth! Then the NCO treaded on the kid???s stomach three times, before he moved on. We couldn???t believe our eyes... But the next day we went on patrol with that guy and the soldiers started to imitate him...

What happened then?

Some guys couldn???t stomach it. The case of severe abuse of three young adolescents, who were bounded hand and foot by a staff sergeant, got them to alert a senior officer. ???When the medic arrived the boys were bleeding all over, their clothes were soaked with blood, and they were shivering from fear.

They were made to kneel like dogs and were afraid to move???. The NCO was punished by 3 months detention. But the platoon commander backed the NCO and reprimanded the conscientious soldiers for ???defaming the platoon???.???

Nofer Ishai-Karen: The sacred value in the [Israeli] Army is ???fighters??? solidarity???, i. e., loyalty towards your fellow combatants. The platoons protected its secrets, as a family defends its ???black sheep???. The fellows regard as ???traitors??? the conscientious soldiers, says Nofer Ishai-Karen. The cover-up was complete when our ???good guy??? was excommunicated and ostracized by the entire platoon. And the NCO? He left the country, and now lives in the U. S. of A. The majority of the soldiers of these platoons had left Israel. Only five or six remain in Israel.

Nofer studied two platoons ESHBAL and ESHKHAR, the last was more extremely violent, she says.

Finally back to Ilan Vilenda, the only soldier who allowed Nofer to use his full name and even be photographed. Vilenda was a staff sergeant in charge of ???operations???.

ILAN??? VILENDA???S testimony

Soldier ???C??? testimony:

???The truth is that I love this mess - I enjoy it. It is like being on drugs. If I didn???t enter Rafah, to put down some rebellion -at least once a week- I???d go berserk.???

Soldier ???D??? testimony:

???What is great is that you don???t have to follow any law or rule. You feel that YOU ARE THE LAW; you decide. Once you go into the Occupied Territories YOU ARE GOD???.

Emotional dumbness
Soldier ???E??? testimony:

???We drove an APC through Rafah. A man of 25 walked nearby. He didn???t hurl a stone at us or anything. Then without any reason ???X??? shot him in the stomach. We left him lying on the sidewalk???.

Soldier ???F??? testimony:

Some ???tough guys??? developed it into ???an ideology???, according to which we have to react brutally even for minor events. A woman threw a sandal at me. I kicked her with my foot at her crotch. I broke her. She can???t have children any longer. Next time she won???t throw sandals at me... and when another woman spat at me she got the butt of my gun in her face. She can???t spit now.

Soldier ???G??? described his first forced entry to a home to detain a Palestinian:

???He was real big, some 30 years old. He refused detention. We hit him but couldn???t force him down. Some people came hurling stones at us. We beat him and told him to lie down. Till he finally did. We drove to the base with him. By that time he had lost consciousness. He died some days later???.

Nofer Ishai-Karen: Some NCOs encouraged the soldiers to behave brutally, and provided their own example.

Soldier ???H??? testimony:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A NEW ISRAELI STUDY CONFIRMS OUR WORST FEARS
On the academic research which Psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the Hebrew University published last Friday, only in the Hebrew edition of Haaretz. We thought you should know!

???We - Israeli Soldiers - were put there to punish the Palestinians???, says Ilan Vilenda, an Israeli soldier who served in Rafah during the first Intifada.

Ilan is the only soldier of 21 who agreed to have his name published, after he was interviewed by psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen.

The soldiers spoke freely to Nofer, who served with them in the same ASHBAL platoon 20 years ago; They disclosing their innermost emotions about the horrendous crimes, in which they took part: Murder, breaking bones of Palestinian children, actions of humiliation, destruction of property, robbery and theft.

Soldier ???A??? testimony:

???We decided to turn an old shower in our base to a make-shift detention cell. A Palestinian was brought there, handcuffed and mouth banded so he couldn???t talk, or move. We???forgot him there for three days???...

Soldier ???B??? testimony:

???I was on my first patrol. Others simply shot like mad. I started to shoot as they did. They ???set my on???. I took my weapon and shot. Nobody was there to tell me otherwise???

Psychologist Ishai-Karen was shocked to find that the soldiers enjoyed the ???intoxication of power???, and had pleasure from using violence. She said: ???Most of my interviewees enjoyed their own instigated violence during their Occupation service???.

Soldier ???C??? testimony

Posted By: gjhdad @ 02/08/2008 9:29:31 PM
Comment: To:Naver, attention everyone
Will you, right here and right now answer, not avoid, what has been said 10x to you but you never addressed:
1]Israeli children were seen writing love notes and kissing Israeli missles launched at Lebanese civilians
2]Israel uses human shields, often trying little kids to the front of their jeeps and tanks
3]The Israeli psychologist that stated Israeli soldiers enjoy sadism and torture of unarmed Palestinian men women and children
4] Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor and former head of Israel's human rights commission calling Israeli soldier, settler and politician behavior "Hitlerian.""

If Noodle, I mean noogie, I mean, oh well I'm going to call him knuckle head, does not answer these queries[not that he is a scholar or anything]right here, right now, I say we cease corresponding with him. This will undoubtable ruin his social life but if he is going to continue with cry baby avoiding of the issues posed then we should let this white trash, tootie fruitie go back to his evil ways on his own. His cowardice[Lord, please, I beg you, grant me a fair one on one fight with an Israeli soldier, I beg you Lord] slime can slither back to the prince of darkness.
I'm happy Knuckle head came out of the closet on this blog. Add that to his lack of qualities and yuck. Somebody please translate my e-mail for him. Knuckle head is like many Israelis; they neither speak Hebrew or English well, just both like crap.

UN officer reported Israeli war crimes before deadly bombing: widow
February 09, 2008 CBC
A United Nations military observer sent e-mails home to Canada reporting that Israel was bombing schools and waging "a campaign of terror against the Lebanese people" shortly before he was killed by an Israeli bomb in Lebanon, said his widow.
Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener of Kingston, Ont., a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was one of four UN military observers who died when the Israeli Defence Forces bombed a marked United Nations post on July 25, 2006.

Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener said her husband's mission was to report on the hostilities in the area and she believes that is why Israeli forces attacked the Israeli United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) post, despite Israel's claims that the bombing was accidental.

"Obviously they were unhappy with what they were observing. Maybe that post was in the way as well," she said. "I know my husband was reporting war crimes. And I guess they don't want to deal with that."

Hess-von Kruedener said she is speaking out this week because a Canadian Forces board of inquiry report issued recently about the bombing has left questions unanswered.

The report, released Jan. 31, blamed the Israeli Defence Forces for the incident, but also found the Israeli military refused to provide documents other than a summary of its own internal investigation, "which lacked sufficient detail to explore certain issues to their fullest extent." The report said the UN also refused to provide documents requested for the investigation.


Israeli government spokesman Ariyeh Mekel said Wednesday from Jerusalem that Israel is examining the report, and has no response yet. Mekel also offered Israel's condolences to the families of the four dead men.

Hess-von Kruedener said she is not satisfied with the response of the Canadian government, which she alleges did not protest Israel's refusal to co-operate in the probe.

"Well you expect your government to step in and do the right thing, but that doesn't seem to be the case," she said. "So we are just ??? We don't know where to turn. We're just beside ourselves I guess."
Israel took responsibility for errors that reportedly led to the bombing.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Hess-von Kruedener called on the House of Commons to debate the findings of the board of inquiry report through the foreign minister, and take the issue to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.

She also asked the public to get involved by writing their MPs.

"I know that Paeta would also want the international community to speak up," she said. "I'm only one voice ??? I definitely need other people to speak out and say something needs to happen."

To:Naver, attention everyone
Will you, right here and right now answer, not avoid, what has been said 10x to you but you never addressed:
1]Israeli children were seen writing love notes and kissing Israeli missles launched at Lebanese civilians
2]Israel uses human shields, often trying little kids to the front of their jeeps and tanks
3]The Israeli psychologist that stated Israeli soldiers enjoy sadism and torture of unarmed Palestinian men women and children
4] Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor and former head of Israel's human rights commission calling Israeli soldier, settler and politician behavior "Hitlerian.""

If Noodle, I mean noogie, I mean, oh well I'm going to call him knuckle head, does not answer these queries[not that he is a scholar or anything]right here, right now, I say we cease corresponding with him. This will undoubtable ruin his social life but if he is going to continue with cry baby avoiding of the issues posed then we should let this white trash, tootie fruitie go back to his evil ways on his own. His cowardice[Lord, please, I beg you, grant me a fair one on one fight with an Israeli soldier, I beg you Lord] slime can slither back to the prince of darkness.
I'm happy Knuckle head came out of the closet on this blog. Add that to his lack of qualities and yuck. Somebody please translate my e-mail for him. Knuckle head is like many Israelis; they neither speak Hebrew or English well, just both like crap.

and just to be a jerk. Did you notice that they were still the Jewish people way back then, and arabs had not yet begun to worship allah (let alone think of themselves as arabs)??

Sorry spanky, once again they are older then your culture, they can trace back their history to the dawn of recorded history. Um anything else you want to lie about that you want me to disprove?



Not to bad for a misspelling, dimwhit, dirty, homosexual, media brainwashed, dirty jew. :)
-Naver, aka Navel, aka Knucklehead

cont.
From 516 BCE, there was no Iranian deputy in Judah. At first Shabazzar from the ancient Davidic House was the regional leader in Jerusalem. He was followed by Zerubbabel another Jewish aristocrat. In the fifth to fourth century BCE, the rulers of Judah where also appointed among the local residents. Seals used by the ruler of Judah in the fifth century BCE identify him as Yehoazar. In 458 BCE, the Jew Ezra is appointed the deputy of Judah. The same Ezra had served up to this time as a scribe in the central administration in Susa, the second Imperial Capital of the Achaemenid dynasty.

Correspondence left by Ezra and his successor Nehemiah, who likewise had been in Susa prior to this, indicates a strong Jewish community, united around the local temple and headed by the high priest. This community had its own organs of self-administration, in whose affairs the Iranians did not intervene. Gradually, the high priest became the governor of Judah. Semi autonomous temple communities were not exclusive to the Jews. They existed throughout the Persian Empire. Cyprus, Cilicia, Lycia and other Phoenician cities and principalities in Asia Minor had their own local rulers. Even such remote tribes as the Arabs, Colchians, Ethiopians, Sakai, etc were governed by their own local chiefs. All kept their religion and gods with little interference from the Achaemenian administration."

They have always been there.

The funny thing is that all of you, Arab countries and Israel, were used as pawns in a byproxy war waged by the US, Europe and Russia. I would be mad at the Russians for using me, and everyone else for using the Israelis against us. Your hate is misplaced. Well then again you hate everyone. Its your religion. They are either your type of Muslim or they are enemies. Deny it and I will quote the quran again.