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Friday, March 20, 2009

Israel to Investigate IDF Abuses

The Forward has the report. This comes on the heels of dogged media coverage by the Israeli paper Ha'aretz (see, e.g., here, here, and here). However, it is an open question as to whether the IDF has the institutional capacity to carry out a truly open and exhaustive investigation. Nonetheless, it is important to get the ball rolling, and it is a tribute to Israel's free press that this inquiry is even occurring in the first place.

Meanwhile:

In 2004, four years into the second intifada, two pessimistic predictions were published regarding the uprising's long-term implications. "I am certainly worried," said the first speaker. "Clearly, we are paying a price for this war. The officer's job is to protect the soldiers from their instincts, and explain to them the proper rules of behavior. Our problem is that the soldiers do not consider the problems while they are in uniform."

The second speaker shared his worry. "My greatest worry," he said, "is the loss of humanity due to the prolonged warfare."

The speakers? These are not two enemy-of-the-state journalists. The first speaker was then Chief of Staff (and current candidate for defense minister) Moshe Ya'alon. The other was his then-deputy, current Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

See also: Jeffrey Goldberg.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:12 PM

    About fucking time. And about that white phosparus: http://ajbenjaminjrbeta.blogspot.com/2009/02/amnesty-international-us-made-white.html

    also:
    http://ajbenjaminjrbeta.blogspot.com/2009/01/human-consequences-of-using-white.html

    It does do a lot of damage.

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  2. David Schraub6:35 PM

    1) About fucking time? It's been about a month since the operation ended. That's a good turn around time.

    2) Weapons hurt people? No fucking kidding!

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  3. Anonymous3:53 PM

    No,I recall you saying people only get severely burned by phosphorus when the boy mentioned in the article went blind and two of his peers were killled.

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  4. David Schraub5:55 PM

    I never said that -- anything with the possibility of causing severe burns also has the possibility of killing (or blinding). Weapons do that. This is not a stunning revelation.

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  5. David Schraub11:16 AM

    I don't, sorry. I'm guessing the originals are in Hebrew anyway, and despite what my college transcript claims, I don't speak the language.

    ReplyDelete