Word: israelã
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...bloodshed spins out of control in Israel and the occupied territories, there are a number of important developments that have gone largely unreported. The first was a series of interviews with retired Admiral Ami Ayalon, in which the former head of the Shin Bet, Israel??s equivalent of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, called for full and unconditional withdrawal from the occupied territories. The second was a surprising proposal released by the Council for Peace and Security, made up of 1,000 top-level retired army and intelligence officers and senior officials, also unequivocally advising withdrawal...
...Refusal” in which several hundred reserve soldiers declared their unwillingness to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. The refuseniks’ message is quite clear. They are willing to serve “in any assignment that serves the defense of the state of Israel?? but “the assignment of occupation and oppression does not serve this cause...
...estimated 400 reservists have refused to take part in the current campaign of repression, 50 being jailed for their “insubordination”. Together with signatories on earlier declarations to the same effect, the number of refuseniks, past or prospective, now stands at around 1,000. Considering Israel??s much smaller population, it would be the equivalent of 40,000 politically-motivated refusals in the U.S. armed forces. This represents a ratio of discontent that any government, Israeli or American, would disregard at its peril...
...This argument falters even if we pass over the wholly plausible idea that any killing of innocent civilians, no matter how small in scale, can and must be punished. For if we consider the number of victims of suicide bombings in the past two weeks alone in proportion to Israel??s population, then there were in fact more Israeli victims, by percentage, than Americans who perished on Sept. 11. With this in mind, Israel??s response to these attacks has been—both in proportional and absolute terms—much more restrained than...
...more common—and more troubling—attempt to differentiate Israel??s operations from that of the U.S. consists of the claim that whereas the attacks against the World Trade Center have no rationally defensible justification, the suicide bombings, although reaching the deepest levels of barbarism and cruelty, at least are directed towards achieving a just goal—an independent Palestinian state. But when murder of innocents is the means, the ends become meaningless and unimportant. Every terrorist, whether from Hamas, al Qaeda, the IRA, or any other such organization, thinks that his ends justify...