‘Lone soldiers’ and young ideologues from around the world contribute to Israeli war crimes
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/soldiers-ideologues-contribute.html
U.S. and European governments express alarm about what they say is a growing number of their citizens traveling to Syria to join extremist militants in the fight to topple Bashar al-Assad. In the United States, the FBI has formed a special team to identify citizens traveling to Syria to fight anti-government groups, and is working with both intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate them. And in the United Kingdom, the queen gave a speech last month in which she highlighted a new law that allows the government to prosecute British citizens who travel overseas to “train for acts of terrorism against any government.”
Yet, a steady trickle of such foreign recruits are feeding the Israeli military, which has killed 1,027 Palestinians in Gaza as of this writing, of whom an estimated 81 percent were civilians and 236 were children. Fifty-two entire families – ranging from four to 21 members – have been literally wiped out. More than 200,000 residents have been forced out of their homes and among the damaged buildings are 120 schools and 18 health care centers. The UN’s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, says, “There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.”
Israeli officials themselves estimate that 2,500-5,000 soldiers currently serving in the army are what are called “lone soldiers” – Jews who come to Israel to serve in the military despite having grown up elsewhere and having no immediate family members in the country. More than 80 percent of them specifically choose combat duty. During the current assault on Gaza, two of those lone soldiers, both Americans, were among the 43 Israeli soldiers killed to date during the 21-day operation.
“Often, we choose the most elite (read: dangerous) units, like the Golani Infantry Brigade,” explains Joel Chasnoff, an American who joined as a lone solider in 1997. Mikey Hartman, another American lone soldier who went on to found the Israeli military’s Marksmanship and Shooting School, says he “wanted to be a hero” – which he defined as being a sniper. Indeed, according to a report in the Jewish Journal, lone soldiers are regarded as “a kind of star” in Israel (sort of like the acclaim fellow militants gave the “American suicide bomber” in Syria). In Joel Chasnoff’s praise of lone soldiers, he says this about Israeli culture: “Israelis do not apologize. Ever. Because to apologize is to admit you’re vulnerable.” Is this a value system parents want their children to adopt?
= new reply since forum marked as read
