Stop the brutalization of the State of Israel

[IndianaGreen]

Stop the brutalization of the State of Israel

By Yoel Marcus

A man wakes up in the morning and asks himself what he should be shocked by first: the fatal predawn traffic accident or the nightclub brawl that ends in a stabbing? The "father" who was investigated on suspicion of killing his wife's daughter and throwing her remains into the Yarkon River in a suitcase, or the father under investigation on suspicion of suffocating his daughter in cold blood with a plastic bag? The gang rape perpetrated by a group of 12-year-old boys on a 7-year-old girl? The woman suspected of starving her child, after which the ultra-Orthodox community rushed to save her from ... the hospital? The shocking descriptions of what veteran soldiers in the Golani Brigade and the armored corps do to new recruits? And the man says to himself in terror: What?! One of them could be my son. And either the abuser or the one being abused, supposedly in fun, could actually die - perhaps in battle, perhaps in an ambush.

The soldiers say this is a tradition that goes back many years. I know from personal experience, in the schools I attended, the feeling when people rub shoe polish in your face or booby-trap a room with a bucket of water to douse you when you enter. It is not pleasant.

But after you have been through it, you do it to those who come after you. And each time, it gets harsher and more humiliating. Recently, it has gotten totally out of control. The mother who sends her son to the army today does not know which danger to fear more: the external enemy, the hazing or traveling on the roads.

The bloodbath in a gay-lesbian club, shocking and upsetting though it was, is merely a part, or perhaps a result, of the general violence into which this country is descending. Hatred or intolerance for others' opinions leads to them dying by violence. There is a chilling similarity between what happened on Nahmani Street in Tel Aviv and what Yigal Amir did years ago.

There is also a link between the thuggish violence on the roads, in which one drunk driver can cause a bloody pileup, and the crime families that have taken over dozens, if not hundreds, of neighborhoods and businesses in our cities, and have begun killing each other to "settle accounts," a la 1920s Chicago. More and more Israelis have turned into aggressive people with short fuses in their dealings with others.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1105067.html

[PDJane]

1. That's what happens....

When you engage in a brutal occupation. Such things tend to debase the occupier, too.

[henank]

2. Blame the occupation for everything, why don't you?

What? There's no crime anywhere else in the world? There are no traffic accidents anywhere else in the world? Mediterranean drivers everywhere from Spain to Lebanon don't drive like maniacs?

What has any of that got to do with the occupation?

There is still a lot less crime in Israel than many places in the world. As a women I feel quite free and safe to walk in the streets at night with no fear; my teenage daughter can be out late at night and come home safely without fear. Yes, the drivers are nuts in Israel; yes, there are too many violent hazing incidents in the army (name me one army that doesn't). But it has zero to do with the occupation.

[azurnoir]

3. so its safe in Israel, is that what your saying? n/t

[henank]

4. Relatively safe, yes.

I certainly feel safer in Israel than I do in London where I grew up and frequently visit.

[Howardx]

5. this tel aviv incident

sort of kills the "israel safe for gays" meme doesnt it?