Oops...too late!
Posted on 11/28/2004 6:19:02 PM PST by LibWhacker
Edited on 11/28/2004 6:23:13 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the past week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video footage of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin.
The incident was not as shocking as the recording of an Israeli officer pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and then saying he would have shot her even if she had been three years old.
Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth.
But the matter of the violin touched on something deeper about the way Israelis see themselves, and their conflict with the Palestinians.
The violinist, Wissam Tayem, was on his way to a music lesson near Nablus when he said an Israeli officer ordered him to "play something sad" while soldiers made fun of him. After several minutes, he was told he could pass.
It may be that the soldiers wanted Mr Tayem to prove he was indeed a musician walking to a lesson because, as a man under 30, he would not normally have been permitted through the checkpoint.
But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the treatment of Arabs.
The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp.
The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem.
Yoram Kaniuk, author of a book about a Jewish violinist forced to play for a concentration camp commander, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust".
"Of all the terrible things done at the roadblocks, this story is one which negates the very possibility of the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. If [the military] does not put these soldiers on trial we will have no moral right to speak of ourselves as a state that rose from the Holocaust," he wrote.
"If we allow Jewish soldiers to put an Arab violinist at a roadblock and laugh at him, we have succeeded in arriving at the lowest moral point possible. Our entire existence in this Arab region was justified, and is still justified, by our suffering; by Jewish violinists in the camps."
Others took a broader view by drawing a link between the routine dehumanising treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the desecration of dead bodies and what looks very much like the murder of a terrified 13-year-old Palestinian girl by an army officer in Gaza.
Israelis put great store in a belief that their army is "the most moral in the world" because it says it adheres to a code of "the purity of arms". There is rarely much public questioning of the army's routine explanation that Palestinian civilians who have been killed had been "caught in crossfire", or that children are shot because they are used as cover by fighters.
But the public's confidence has been shaken by the revelations of the past week. The audio recording of the shooting of the 13-year-old, Iman al-Hams, prompted much soul searching, although the revulsion appears to be as much at the Israeli officer firing a stream of bullets into her lifeless body as the killing itself. Some soldiers told Israeli papers that their mothers had sought assurances that they did not do that kind of thing.
One Israeli peace group, the Arik Institute, took out large newspaper adverts to plead for "Jewish patriots" to "open your eyes and look around" at the suffering of Palestinians.
The incidents prompted the army to call in all commanders from the rank of lieutenant-colonel to emphasise the importance of maintaining the "purity of arms" code.
The army's critics say the real problem is not the behaviour of soldiers on the ground but the climate of impunity that emanates from the top.
While the officer responsible for killing Iman al-Hams has been charged with relatively minor offences, and the soldiers who forced the violinist to play were ticked off for being "insensitive", the only troops who were swiftly punished for violating regulations last week were some who posed naked in the snow for a photograph. They were dismissed from their unit.
Last week the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem criticised what it described as a "culture of impunity" within the army. The group says at least 1,656 Palestinian non-combatants have been killed during the intifada, including 529 children.
"To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian," it said.
"The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the value the Israeli military places on Palestinian life."
Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth.
I am sure Iraqi Insurgents have pictures of this incident in their camps and they see no difference between the Americans and Israelis.
Somehow, I don't think we will think this incident is so funny when an Iraqi insurgent does the same thing to one of our boys.
Did the Guardian stage the incident?
Right. It's not like they put women's panties on his head, or something. ;)
Maybe they could have video taped the firefight between armed Arabs in Gaza on the Philidelphi road today?
Or maybe they could have video taped terrorists firing at IDF troops in the northern Shomron between the communities of Sanur and Homesh today...
And maybe they could have video taped the Kassam rocket that was fired into part of Israel today-
Oh wait, maybe those brave videographers could have taped the bomb found last night in the area of the Netzer-Hazani Industrial Park
Gosh, it must have just slipped by those brave peace activists....
If the Palestinian people will give up their "intifada" for a Gandhian approach of non-violence, I think it will do a lot more for their cause than they think. In this place, violence begets violence, you think they'd have learned this by now.
They made him play for two minutes or more - so it was a bit of a humiliation exercise. Not Porfessional, Not Necessary. Not Helpful.
It's kind of like the loser airport security screener giving you a hard time at the airport. No good comes of it.
Well, this is certainly much more worse than forcing a man to wear panties on his head (which my girlfriend does to me all the time and I love it! /sarc)
I'm sure the NY Times will have a series of hard hitting articles on this for weeks and weeks.
It's been a long time since anyone forced me to "play my violin".
Whenever I re-enter the US..they ask me what I've been doing overseas..just to see if I sound like the guy in the picture.
They were double checking this guy..just to make sure there was not bomb in his case etc.
Seeing him standing to play does not look demeaning in any way. Just prove that you are what you say you are.
When I read the title and the first few paragraphs, I though this was a joke ala Scrappleface; but then when I finished this tragic tale, I knew this was a joke ala the Guardian. Oh the humanity! Forced to play the violin!
Sh!+ they should make him tap dance and play the harmonica too. Good thing I'm not king of the world, I'd make him wash my car and feed my dog.
Wrong. The region isn't Arab. It is Jewish. Your existence does not need to be justified. To exist is not an injustice. Israel exists as the trees exist, it is there, men are born into it, it is their own. It requires the approval of no body of men, other than its own sons being willing to defend it. For which they need only be ordinary human beings, ready and willing to assert their right to live in freedom.
What an outrage........please....I was under the impression that they made him play it to see if he was legit or not.., maybe they shouldn't have laughed at him but I guess the Guardian would think it was more legit it that same man showed up with an explosives vest. Then of course it would be OK since blowing up innocent civilians is not nearly as bad as playing the violin at a checkpoint......what is wrong with this picture
If an Iraqi dead that to a dead American Boy we would all be outraged.
WHAT was the big deal for him to play TWO minutes?
Teh horrors! Asking a violinist to play for two whole minutes!
As the article said, and I pointed out, normally they don't even allow young men under 30 to pass in the first place.
Why should they take risks with the lives of innocent civilians to accomodate a possible potential terrorist? They were decent and gave this guy the benefit of the doubt, and now some people consider it an outrage?
You seem to forget that hundreds of innocent Israelis have been murdered by Palestinians, that's why they have the checkpoint in the first place. The Israelis aren't doing this to pass the time.
The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp.
The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem.
It is easy from the comfort of your keyboard to be shocked by how men will act when you put them in barbaric situations.
The fact is at the end of the day American & Israeli soldiers act in much more humane ways than possible.
Oops...too late!
Making that distinction is part of Moral Clarity, which Natan Sharansky talks much about in his new book, The Case for Democracy. Highly recommended book. Another key theme is the fundamental difference between free societies, like Israel, and fear societies, like the PA or Saddam's Iraq.
OH THE HORROR!!!!
"Did the Guardian stage the incident?"
I said consider the source, not that the Guardian staged the incident.
Did Kevin Sites stage the incident of the Marine shooting the terrorist faking death? No. But does that mean that his personal slant on it should not be questioned and we should just swallow his account of it without context?
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