By Ze’ev Sternhell
Haaretz

..The settlement enterprise perpetuates the war and considers it a natural situation so long as Palestinian national existence has not been destroyed. It is more responsible than anything else for the growth of traits of a kind that were unknown here in the past, but which were very familiar in former colonizers.

We had never experienced such colonial contempt for human life, for the inferior “natives.” We have never had cynicism and obtuseness like that seen in recent days in the appearance and the behavior of members of the new army, from the defense minister and the chief of staff to the commander of the Gaza Division, with their cold, alienated and bureaucratic language.

…None of the television correspondents who compete for access to their sources felt it necessary to ask the simple question – how many children are we allowed to kill accidentally, but in the clear knowledge that there will be dozens of injured when they enter a neighborhood with tanks, in order to teach the Palestinians a lesson?

…How many half truths, if not outright lies, is one allowed to spread in order to cover up both the blunder of the APCs and the fact that the campaign in Rafah was first of all a campaign to instill fear and to break the spirit of the population?

Is it true that only a few houses were destroyed in Rafah, as the defense minister has said? Did they come to search for tunnels? How does an army that lies shamelessly look young soldiers and cadets in the eye in officer training courses? Who would once have believed that the Israel Defense Forces would accept the death of children with equanimity?
full article

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