- It's been a long time since we've seen such enthusiasm.
The television studios are filled to overflowing with major generals and
brigadier generals who are terribly impressed with the war in Iraq and
attempt to infect the viewers with their delight. Veteran warmongers,
some of whom are responsible for past wars of choice and for appalling
fiascos, hallucinatory operations and unnecessary bloodshed are now the
voice of national reason. Avigdor Ben Gal, for instance, a senior commander
in the Lebanon War, without battling an eye called on the IDF to find an
immediate pretext under cover of the Iraq war for returning to Lebanon.
Others who dragged us into unnecessary adventurism, and their colleagues
who turned the IDF into a brutal occupation army in the territories, are
now our only national commentators.
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- It was apparent already during the waiting period
that the lengthy anticipation was hard on them: They considered every postponement
a terrible mistake and every debate about the justification for the war
was heresy. Now that the forces are finally on their way, their enthusiasm
bursts forth, not merely about the very outbreak of the war, but about
the sophisticated equipment being used. The smart bombs and the guided
missiles, the satellite navigation and the turbofan engines, the Stealth
bombers and the mega-bombs are firing their imagination.
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- A smile akin to that of a child describing his new
toys spreads on their face as they describe the magical allure of the American
power of destruction. Former air force commanders, who apparently find
it difficult to give up their posts, describe horrific bombing runs or
flying extermination machines as if they were works of art.
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- Brigadier General (res.) Aryeh Mizrahi outdid himself
in one of these countless discussions when he pulled from his pocket a
small model cluster bomb apparently manufactured by Israel Military Industries
(of which he is the chairman) and with glittering eyes told viewers that
the Americans were using that very weapon. He explained how it breaks
up into a vast number of bomblets and how it wreaked havoc in the Lebanon
War, pulverizing whole armored battalions, and that everyone who saw the
results in Lebanon was appalled it was positively raining steel, he said.
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- The smart bomb that Mizrahi brought was passed from
hand to hand in the studio and the elderly generals fondled it reverently.
It was an unforgettable spectacle. Of course, none of them bothered to
point out the killing and destruction that a bomb like this can cause among
innocent civilians, nor did anyone wonder what happens to a society whose
spokesmen get so pathologically excited by weapons and killing.
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- While most of the world s television stations continue
to conduct a serious discussion about the war s justification and legality,
and about the price it will exact, and while most of the world continues
to oppose the war, there is almost no discussion along these lines in Israel,
and the few doubters are viewed as eccentrics.
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- No one talks about the terrible blood price that the
war has already claimed and will yet claim, to the horrific destruction
of the Iraqi state and society. That s how it is when the Iraqi people
are being liberated.
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- One might have assumed that experiencing a bit of
the dread of war the fear of Iraqi missiles and the feeling of helplessness
would awaken in Israelis some understanding of or sympathy for the far
more acute dread and suffering experienced by millions of citizens like
those in Iraq or in the territories. But 6.6 million Israelis scared of
a missile attack, whether their fear is justified or not, are not willing
to devote even a moment s thought to 24 million Iraqi people now subjected
to the biggest assault in history, or ask whether it is justified and whether
its price is not too awful.
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- Baghdad is beginning to go up in flames and numberless
bombs and missiles are showered on Umm Qasr. A sound-and-light extravaganza,
one television reporter called it in admiration last night, as houses burned
in the background. Millions of innocent civilians live in these cities,
but no one here especially not the glowing, excited commentators cares
about the harm that all these exciting weapons will cause them.
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- Similarly, the possibility that we will have to shut
ourselves in sealed rooms for a few hours, equipped with bottled water
and canned food, has not raised the obvious analogy with the suffering
of more than 3 milllion Palestinians who for the past two-and-a-half years
have been prisoners in their own homes and villages, exposed to the daily
risk of being killed, even though most of them have committed no crime.
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- For some reason, the anxiety of our children who must
carry protective kits with them for a few days, does not arouse an identification
with the fate of tens of thousands of Palestinian children forced to remain
in their homes, and who are killed or wounded when they venture out. They
have no protective kits and no one to deal with their anxieties.
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- We are not responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi
people and cannot come to their aid. But even so, the complete disregard
in all the discussions of the war of the price the Iraqis will pay is infuriating.
On the other hand, we are directly responsible for the suffering of the
Palestinians, yet we ignore that too, even when we experience a tiny dose
of it.
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