Updated:
This is the latest from Ynet on the incident that has shocked the world:
Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, an officer who was suspended from the IDF after hitting a leftist protester from Denmark, said in a conversation with a supporter that he never put "anyone's life in danger."
"What's more important, fulfilling the task or looking good for the camera?" he said in a chat that was broadcast on Channel 10 News. "I am familiar with these anarchists' history. They came with sticks and broke my hand, but no one talks about that or films that. It's true; some of the pictures look bad. I used my weapon coldly, like a stick. I didn't kill anyone, and didn't put anyone's life at risk." (Ynet)
I have been reading the Hebrew press's coverage of the rifle-bashing incident on Saturday, in which Israeli lieutenant colonel Shalom Eisner struck a Danish activist in the face in the Jordan Valley and the video went viral.
Eisner was interviewed yesterday for an hour and stuck by his version that he was attacked. Some reporters caught up with him leaving a synagogue near his house this morning and then later outside his house. He said he was under orders not to talk. He appeared with his hand bandaged. Answering a question from a reporter said that the hand hurt a bit.
Ynet stated, quoting army sources, that Eisner may be dismissed but then given another position. The only interesting quote from Ynet:
Lieutenant Colonel Eisner was asked if he was angry at someone and he responded: "What is there to be angry about? To be angry would be to punish yourself for stupidities of others."
To the question, whose stupidities?, he answered "it is forbidden to relate to this now."
I like the "now" part. Maybe that is a promise of news to come. Ynet has the interviews, a picture of Eisner with his bandage and another video of the incident (not too much on it).
And Ilene Cohen notes:
Eisner clutched and handled his weapon on Saturday (both during the smack and afterward) with hand unbandaged and in control, fingers on both hands nicely wrapped around the gun (he also opened the car door in this latest video with no problem).
RE: “Bandaged and smiling, Eisner blames others’ ‘stupidities
ALSO SEE: Former soldiers rush to defense of officer who hit activist, By Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel, 4/16/12
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to timesofisrael.com
P.S. A COUPLE OF COMMENTS MADE TO THE HAARETZ ARTICLE “Activist beaten by IDF officer: Claim protesters were violent is ‘a complete lie’”, by Gili Cohen, 4/16/12
Speaking with Haaretz, Danish national Andreas Ias says IDF’s claim that protesters were violent are untrue
SOURCE – link to haaretz.com
So if there’s no camera around, they have carte blanche to attack, kidnap and hurt people. The only fault was being seen on camera, and no doubt that was all planned by those dastardly protesters who upset the occupying bullies so much.How typical, instead of showing some remorse or self-awareness, the classic Israeli response is to deny, lie and go on the attack. Like a child caught out they will say anything, with the conviction that the indulgent parents will absolve them of any duty to telling the truth or acknowledging their role in injustice.
yeah, someone should tell him when he’s trying to convince the world his hand is damaged not to favor it automatically when opening the car door while he’s being being recorded. i hurt my hand in an accident once and hardly used it for 1/2 year. especially not a couple days later. then he slams the car door shut with it too. what’s he thinking? he’s so full of himself he forgot.
I wouldn’t make too much of the “stupidities of others” part, both because Eisner was just using a common aphorism, and because the Ynet transcript is wrong.
The warrior Jews get all clammed up when they have to explain themselves to the world on camera and in English .
It all makes sense in Hebrew. The land is worshipped. It justified the offering of Jewish ethics . “Palestinians” don’t even belong there. Foreigners who support the Arabs are deluded anti semites.
Eisener is just a grunt. Danon and Bibi call the shots and they are not coy about what has to be done to “redeem” the land.
link to youtube.com
Bradley Burston link to haaretz.com seems to believe that this Eisen story is going to make a big difference inside Israel. He thinks it will awaken a conscience and break the Jewish public’s blindness to WB atrocities. Hope he is correct, but I doubt that most Israelis are really that ignorant about what is going on there.
A different reaction was an article by Amos(sp) Harel (this op-ed seems to have been disappeared on Sunday) in which he said Eisen should be fired not for an illegal act but for stupidity in letting his actions tarnish Israel’s international reputation. That is the Israeli reaction that I am used to seeing.
Wow. Another turning point, after which something or other will never be the same.
As consciousness-changing moments go, however, this one didn’t even get the national flak jacket dirty. The incident itself (as Burston points out) is easily dismissed. The Dane was a trouble maker who got what he deserved (and wanted) and Eisner is a religious hothead who will pay the price for his stupidity and bad luck (another missed opportunity for “the first kippa-wearing chief of staff”). And another Israeli expression: “lamah mi met?” (What’s all the fuss about? Lit. “Who died?”). The guy got a bloody nose and maybe a little shaken up. We’ve seen worse, much worse.
As for the PR war, this is just another attempt to blacken Israel’s good name. A clip taken both out of its immediate context and the broader context of “no partner” (the real reason the occupation drags on) and Israeli society as a whole. What we need is more hasbara, more brand Israel, more Batsheva, more IPO, more best gay city awards. Here, have a cherry tomato. Have you been to Syria lately?
Though he may not have intended it to be one, Burston’s assertion serves as a form of damage control; it gives non-Israeli audiences the false impression that such displays of brutality and violence are so rare in today’s Israeli society/military, that such an act will shock the consciences of Israelis. It won’t. In addition, it gives non-Israeli audiences the false impression that Israeli society is introspective to the extent that it will seek to change in light of such reality. Wishful thinking — or perhaps denial — on Burston’s part.
Here in Israel proper, life in the occupied West Bank and Gaza is an apparition, a distant memory of a land long forgotten, one in which Israeli soldiers spend a few months and then return home to the comfort and safety of Tel-Aviv, Haifa, or Be’er Sheva. For civilians, the occupation is nicely tucked away behind a wall, out of mind.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities have reduced the presence in Israel proper of Palestinian laborers from the occupied territories to the bear minimum. So both land and people alike are kept far from the average Israeli civilian’s eyes. In enforcing this separation and restricting their movement, Israeli authorities now target those who ‘assist’ Palestinians; any Israeli, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, who offers a ride to an ‘illegal’ Palestinian laborer (i.e. One who works in Israel proper without a permit from the Civil Administration (Military) ) has his vehicle confiscated.
Spending Pesach with family in Tel-Aviv, for example, the topic of conversation at the Seder table was the increasing cost of living and the skyrocketing prices of fuel (Now about 8 shekels per liter or 8 dollars per gallon).
And that is why BDS is so important.
One more quote, this one from Haaretz’s latest report:
>> Eisner, who was suspended from duties following the incident, said that ‘it could have been a professional mistake to use a weapon in front of the cameras,” he told Channel 10.
Yes, the professional thing to do when you’re part of the Jewish State Terrorist Forces is to smash calm, unarmed foreign cyclists in the face away from the cameras. It’s not any more moral or just, but at least people won’t see you for the complete asshole goon you are.
Failing that, just shoot them in the head with a tear gas canister or a rubber bullet and call it “self-defence”.
And here is some support for his words courtesy of the dutch riot police.
link to youtube.com