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Israel’s Brutal Military |
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By
Stephen Lendman |
| Israel’s military is like America’s, two of the world’s most ruthless.
Both ignore international law. Rules of engagement are anything goes.
Premeditated wars of aggression are waged without mercy, civilians and nonmilitary related sites considered legitimate targets, populations under their control terrorized. Mass slaughter and destruction are considered OK. America and Israel partner in each other’s high crimes. Who’ll dare intervene to stop them? Who’ll enforce international law? Who’ll protect the rights of defenseless people? Massacred and brutalized Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans, Yemenis, Somalis, Palestinians and others attest to the brutality of two rogue states, fascist regimes masquerading as democratic ones. The cold-blooded murder of a seriously wounded defenseless Palestinian by an Israeli soldier authorized to “shoot to kill” sparked widespread outrage. It was business as usual for the self-styled world’s “most moral army,” responsible for around 210 extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinian civilians in the last six months alone. Soldiers and police are authorized to use lethal live fire. Knives are routinely planted beside bodies of victimized Palestinian men, women and children as justification for cold-blooded murder. Their lives don’t matter. Slow motion genocide is longstanding Israeli policy, wanting all valued parts of Judea and Samaria exclusively for Jews, including international city Jerusalem as its exclusive capital. Israel justifies the unjustifiable with full international community support. State terror and institutionalized racism are longstanding official policies. Netanyahu is a world-class thug, a serial liar, more barbarian than Jew, maintaining the fiction about IDF soldiers upholding “high ethical values while courageously fighting against bloodthirsty murderers under difficult operational conditions.” So-called “bloodthirsty murderers” are defenseless men, youths, women, children, the elderly and infirm, terrorized by occupation harshness - dispossessed of their land, extrajudicially executed or imprisoned without just cause. Netanyahu calling criticism of IDF practices “outrageous and unacceptable” belies longstanding viciousness against an entire population. Breaking the Silence combat veterans exposed the reality of daily life in Palestine, explaining what Israel wants suppressed - horrific crimes of war and against humanity, defenseless civilians murdered “excused as military necessities, or explained as extreme and unique cases.” Soldiers kill civilians with impunity. No Israeli commander or regime official was every held accountable for the highest of high crimes. Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014 was Exhibit A - well-planned months in advance naked aggression against 1.8 Gazans trapped under siege, unrelated to Hamas rockets and other phony pretexts. Mass slaughter and destruction followed, defenseless civilians mostly harmed, murdered in their homes, UN shelters and elsewhere where they sought refuge. Soldiers were ordered to shoot to kill anything that moved, anything in sight, small children, women and the elderly routinely targeted, residential buildings, schools, hospitals and other nonmilitary sites destroyed or damaged, many victims inside perishing. Dozens of entire families were slaughtered in cold blood. Breaking the Silence testimonies “paint(ed) a disturbing picture of the IDF’s policy of indiscriminate fire, which directly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians.” Soldiers were told to “shoot to kill” anyone in sight. They were deliberately lied to about areas supposedly cleared of civilians where entire families remained. Throughout the conflict, “the IDF fired thousands of imprecise artillery shells into residential neighborhoods” - indiscriminately murdering defenseless noncombatants. Soldiers were ordered to carry out “mass destruction of civilian infrastructure and homes.” “Many residential homes were shelled, from the ground and from the air, in order to ‘demonstrate presence in the area,’ or even as an act of punishment.” Major war crimes were committed over 51 horrific days, no one held accountable for flagrant international law breaches too grave to ignore. Executing a defenseless Palestinian, lying helpless on the ground wounded, captured on video gone viral online, is one of countless examples of daily ruthless business as usual without mercy in Occupied Palestine. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. |
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