Israel’s reputational self-immolation

 

Former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Source: X

By James M. Dorsey

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Former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s warning in 2002 that Israel was losing its global standing as Israeli-Palestinian violence escalated during the second Intifada or uprising against Israeli occupation seemed overstated at the time. However, looking back, Mr. Brzezinski’s warning rings prophetic.

"I think Israel's international position is very badly damaged. A country that started…as a symbol of recovery of a people who were greatly persecuted now looks like a country that is persecuting people. And that's very bad,” Mr. Brzezinski said.

"The Israelis are becoming increasingly like the white supremacist South Africans, viewing the Palestinians as a lower form of life, not hesitating to kill a great many of them and justifying this on the grounds that they are being the objects of terrorism,” he said.

Israel’s iron-fisted response to Palestinian suicide and other attacks on civilian Israelis during the second Intifada pales compared to Israel’s Gaza war conduct in reply to Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

So does the cost to Israel’s reputation. The international community did not turn on Israel in 2002 as it has today. Nor did public opinion in the West.

Source: X

At the time, Israel stood accused of excessive use of violence to quash the uprising but not of genocide and massive violations of international law. In 2002, Israel was not being taken to task in the world’s highest courts, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

The Gaza war’s cost is magnified by the fact that the weaponization of criticism of Israeli policies and Zionism by Israel and its supporters was in its infancy in 2002 but has since come to shape legal and substantive aspects of public and intellectual discourse. Even so, Israel’s reputational self-immolation since October 7 is unprecedented.

A series of incidents in the past week encapsulates the story.

Source: X

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lamented that the international community did not allow Israel to starve Gazans to death to force Hamas to release more than 100 hostages it abducted during the October 7 attack.

“Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” Mr Smotrich said.

A day later, Mr. Smotrich doubled down on his statement, claiming he had been quoted out of context.

“What I said is that we must allow in humanitarian aid because no one will let us starve Gazans, but what I also said is that morally, we must condition humanitarian aid on a humanitarian concession and tell Hamas, the Gazans, and the world that we allow aid in under the condition that they return our hostages,” Mr. Smotrich said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shined with his absence in the choir of international condemnation of Mr. Smotrich.

Yehuda Schlesinger on Channel 12. Source: X

Days later, journalist Yehuda Schlesinger said on Channel 12, Israel’s most popular television station, that "these people (in Gaza) deserve death. A hard death, an agonizing death... There are no innocent people there in the Gaza Strip... They are now enjoying on the beach instead of starving, being jerked around, being severely tormented, and hiding from shelling... We should have seen a lot more revenge, a lot more rivers of Gazans' blood.”

This week, Channel 12 broadcast leaked footage of Israeli soldiers allegedly sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

In response, far-right Channel 14 hosted one of the soldiers wearing a bakalava, who criticised the broadcast of the footage, claiming it would intimidate the military’s rank-and-file.

Israeli soldier suspected of rape on Channel 14. Source: X

Referring to the accusations of abuse, including rape, Mr. Schlesinger asserted with no pushback from the moderator or other members of the panel, “The only problem is that it is not standard state policy to abuse these detainees. Because they generally deserve it, and this is great revenge.” The journalist suggested the abuse could “serve as a deterrent.”

Unlike Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Schlesinger admitted a day later that his comments were a “mistake” and wrong.” He added, “One should not justify a criminal act,” while calling for the death penalty for terror offenses.

A public outcry persuaded Channel 12 to “temporarily” suspend Mr. Schlesinger as a commentator. The television station said the military would not allow Mr. Schlesinger to report for reserve duty.

“Imagine a prime-time US morning show featuring a five-minute discussion on Abu Ghraib, with a guest expressing support for the torture of Iraqi prisoners. That would be unthinkable. Yet this is exactly what happened on Israeli television's Channel 12,” noted Haaretz journalist Eitan Nechin.

Mr. Nechin was referring to the abuse in 2004 of Iraqi detainees by American military and intelligence personnel in Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad.

Noting a 2016 Amnesty International study showing that two-thirds of Americans endorsed torture to extract information from militants, Mr. Nechin said the difference with Israel was that “in the United States, extremist supporters of torture, starvation, and ethnic cleansing aren't given a microphone on prime-time TV to vocalize their criminal ideologies.”

“The media landscape in Israel is full of extremist, violent voices,” Mr. Nechin added.

Speaking on Channel 14, Efraim Dermi, a lawyer for one of the soldiers suspected of rape, asserted that the case involved a ‘terrorist,’ “Every day it is necessary to cut off a piece of his body while torturing him and not have pity on him," Mr. Dermi said.

Israeli parliament debate on rape with Likud deputy Hanoch Milwidsky on the right. Source: X

An Israeli parliament committee debated the legitimacy of raping Palestinian detainees.

When a colleague asked whether inserting a stick into a person's rectum was legitimate, Likud deputy Hanoch Milwidsky replied, "Shut up. Yes, if he is Nukhba, everything is legitimate, everything.” Nukhba is a Hamas elite military unit.

Mr. Smotrich’s lament reflected the Israeli far-right’s assertion that Israel was failing to achieve its Gaza war goals because the United States and Europe had tied their hands.

Despite the assassination last month in Tehran of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and the unconfirmed killing of the group’s military leader, Mohammed Deif, Israel has yet to destroy Hamas militarily and politically, free more than 100 hostages held in the Strip, and ensure the territory no longer is a launching pad for Palestinian resistance to occupation.

The parliamentary debate about the legitimacy of rape erupted after far-right protesters, including parliamentarians from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party supported by Mr. Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed two military bases to free ten detained soldiers suspected of raping a Palestinian man at the Sde Teiman detention centre.

The military denied claims of rape and widespread abuse of detainees. Mr. Ben Gvir described the suspects as “our best heroes.”

Yehuda Shaul, a co-founder of Ofek: The Israeli Center for Public Affairs and Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers that exposes Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories, suggested Israel’s war conduct and the charges of abuse reflect the military’s changing sociology and demography.

“What we see is a significant shift within the Army — a change from the old-school, secular, Labour Party-oriented people to nationalist religious people, and especially to the ultra-Orthodox nationalists. People like Smotrich. In 1990, only 2.5 per cent of graduate officer cadets in the infantry were nationalist religious. In 2015, it was nearly 40 per cent. That’s about three times their size in society,” Mr. Shaul said.

“So, you have this change, this sociological change, of middle-, high-class, secular, better educated military people going into cybersecurity and signal intelligence, more into positions that can advance their status in the economy post-military service, while the combat rank and file is being filled more with the ideologues, the nationalist-religious guys, as well as blue-collar people. In the past decade, there has been a big fight in the IDF about who the real authority is. Is it the rabbi or the commander?” Mr. Shaul, a West Bank religious seminary graduate who served as a commander in the occupied territory, added.

The battle crystalized when Israeli conscript medic Elor Azaria executed in 2016 a wounded Palestinian lying on the ground after he had stabbed a soldier. A Palestinian activist filmed the incident.

Mr. Azaria was indicted, but public outrage persuaded Mr. Netanyahu to express support for him in a phone call to his parents. His defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, was forced to partly resign for supporting the indictment. Ultimately, Mr. Azaria was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The military reduced the sentence to 14 months and released him on parole after nine months.

“What we see is a significant shift within the Army — a change from the old-school, secular, Labour Party-oriented people to nationalist religious people, and especially to the ultra-Orthodox nationalists. People like Smotrich. In 1990, only 2.5 per cent of graduate officer cadets in the infantry were nationalist religious. In 2015, it was nearly 40 per cent. That’s about three times their size in society,” Mr. Shaul said.

“So, you have this change, this sociological change, of middle-, high-class, secular, better educated military people going into cybersecurity and signal intelligence, more into positions that can advance their status in the economy post-military service, while the combat rank and file is being filled more with the ideologues, the nationalist-religious guys, as well as blue-collar people. In the past decade, there has been a big fight in the IDF about who the real authority is. Is it the rabbi or the commander?” Mr. Shaul, a West Bank religious seminary graduate who served as a commander in the occupied territory, added.

The battle crystalized when Israeli conscript medic Elor Azaria executed in 2016 a wounded Palestinian lying on the ground after he had stabbed a soldier. A Palestinian activist filmed the incident.

Mr. Azaria was indicted, but public outrage persuaded Mr. Netanyahu to express support for him in a phone call to his parents. His defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, was forced to partly resign for supporting the indictment. Ultimately, Mr. Azaria was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The military reduced the sentence to 14 months and released him on parole after nine months.

Still from a video depicting a wounded Palestinian knife-wielding assailant shot by Israeli soldier Elor Azaria. Source: Independent

“That was the moment where the rank and file within the Army, plus the political base of the Likud Party and the Israeli right, essentially rebelled against the old guard who wants to say that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is a professional army with discipline, who want to tell a story to the world of adherence to international law, checking ourselves, investigation, accountability. Now it became, ‘In our Army, we have different ethics than you, and we have a different idea of rule of law than you have. And it’s unacceptable that a soldier will be indicted for this,’” Mr. Shaul said.

The storming of the bases, like the numerous social media visuals published by soldiers serving in Gaza that call for violence against Palestinians, celebrate the destruction of the Strip and the humiliation of Palestinians, highlight the divide between the military’s rank-and-file populated to a significant extent by religious nationalists and Likud supporters, and the military’s top brass.

It also spotlights a slackening of military discipline, particularly regarding the level of acceptable Palestinian civilian casualties and the treatment of detainees.

In Mr. Shaul's mind, Mr. Smotrich speaks for the religious nationalists, while Mr. Ben Gvir reflects working-class sentiment within the military.

The divide is accentuated by the Likud’s evolution from center to far right in recent years, much like Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the United States, and the influence of graduates of militant religious seminars that prepare students for military service. The graduates are significantly represented in the officers' corps below the rank of brigade commanders.

Mr. Nechin, the Haaretz journalist, warned, referring to the detention center alleged to be a torture hub, “The controversy surrounding Sde Teiman…only highlights Israel's moral deterioration since October 7…. Netanyahu and his allies will go down in history as the ones who desecrated Israeli society to advance their nationalist, messianic agenda.”

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast, The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.

 

Selected media appearances:

Will Hamas agree to a ceasefire talks with Israel after Haniyeh assassination? TRT World. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LznlN_mtEbE&rco=1

Top 5 At 5: Are Sports And Politics Joined At The Hip? BFM 89.9. https://www.bfm.my/podcast/evening-edition/top-5-at-5/top-5-at-5-are-sports-and-politics-joined-at-the-hip

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