[Dialogue] Death & Revenge

[jim rippey]

Following are my excerpts of a much longer article in today's Washington Post.  In my opinion, it's a chilling example of what war does to decent people.  It seems to validate the occasional reports of U.S. soldiers brutality, and the official insistance that those reports are isolated rogue events.  

The full story is at  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061001900_pf.html

Jim Rippey in Bellevue, Ne.

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Israelis Recall a Night of Death and Revenge, By Glenn Frankel, wp, 0611-05   --Ex-Soldiers Decry 2002 Reprisal Killings

TEL AVIV -- On a chilly Tuesday evening in February 2002, four Palestinian gunmen stormed an Israeli military outpost west of the West Bank city of Ramallah, shot dead six soldiers at close range and escaped into the darkness in one of the most audacious and deadly attacks of the 17-month Palestinian uprising. Eight hours later, as daylight was peeking through the night sky above a Palestinian police checkpoint nine miles away, Israeli soldiers took their revenge. They opened fire without warning on a group of policemen, shooting one who fell nearby, while another took refuge in a tin hut and others fled..

... In the bloodstained chronicle of the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000, that night marked a turning point. Two elite Israeli army units, retaliating for the surprise attack on the six soldiers, swooped down on four Palestinian checkpoints and killed nine policemen -- the first time the Israeli army had openly targeted Palestinian police, who until then had generally not been deemed combatants. An additional nine Palestinians died overnight in other attacks. The violence of that night was soon overshadowed by more intense conflict. Palestinian suicide bombers escalated their attacks on Israeli civilians, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the army to reoccupy major cities in the West Bank.

Now, some of the Israelis who participated in the ambush of the policemen have come forward to describe in detail what happened and to denounce it as a crime. The soldiers say that the Palestinians they killed had no role in the attack on the soldiers, but were chosen because they were readily available targets, and that the Palestinian officers were mowed down without being given a chance to surrender. "Some of them could have been terrorists and some of them could not -- we didn't care, actually," Levi said. "I felt that I wanted to kill. It smelled like revenge, and it's not what an army in a democratic society should do. It didn't smell good."

.... It is rare for soldiers from elite units to discuss military operations, especially those that involved killing. But two ex-soldiers have given statements to Breaking the Silence, an organization of army veterans opposed to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and several spoke anonymously to the Maariv newspaper, which published a report on the incident June 3. Since then, the army has not disputed any of the details in the soldiers' accounts. One opposition member of parliament has called for an investigation, as has an editorial in the Haaretz newspaper. Otherwise, public reaction has been minimal.

Three of the soldiers have now spoken in separate interviews to The Washington Post: Levi and two others who were not willing to disclose their names because they said they were ashamed of what they did and feared they could be harassed for coming forward. This account of what happened that night is based upon their detailed descriptions, supplemented by other interviews and newspaper articles from the time. All three former soldiers -- two combat engineers and a paratrooper -- are college students in their mid-twenties who look back at their time on active duty with a deep sense of regret and anger. They say they are speaking out to expose what they believe was an unjustified killing operation. One says he is so sickened by what happened that he informed his girlfriend only last weekend and has yet to tell his parents.

.... Meanwhile, to the north, a special paratroop unit launched a similar operation against three checkpoints outside the Balata refugee camp. The soldiers were supposed to open fire on all three outposts simultaneously, but at one checkpoint the men opened fire prematurely after an unsuspecting policeman ventured too close to their position.. "He was 10 meters away and he was for sure dead," recalled the paratrooper who would not allow his name to be used. "He never shot." The soldiers rushed the checkpoint, hurling grenades over a wall, then stormed a small house where the policemen had been sleeping and opened fire. The paratrooper said at least five policemen were killed, and possibly six. Another policeman was killed at the second checkpoint, while the third turned out to be deserted. Wounded policemen were dispatched with additional shots to the body or head, the paratrooper said, to ensure that they were dead.

Afterward, the paratroops' officers played a videotape of the attack that had been recorded at an observation post. "Everybody could recognize themselves," the paratrooper said. "They were very pleased." ....That morning both sides counted their dead and pronounced their judgment. Several armed Palestinian groups asserted responsibility for the attack on Ein Arik. Marwan Barghouti, a senior West Bank leader, noting that army checkpoints were places where Palestinians were often humiliated by soldiers, hailed the attack as "a response to the acts of slaughter that the Israelis do and an expression of Palestinians' frustration over the occupation."

.... Israeli analysts said the army had acted swiftly to restore the morale of its soldiers, badly shaken by the Ein Arik attack, and to reestablish a sense of deterrence. "As a commander, you want to immediately calm any feeling of panic and restore a sense of confidence in your people," said Hirsh Goodman, senior research associate with the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "There is also a dimension of revenge -- no one might say it, but everyone would understand it." But the war continued to escalate. Two weeks later a lone Palestinian sniper mowed down seven soldiers and three Jewish settlers and escaped.

For three of the soldiers involved in the attacks on the police, the elation did not last long. The combat engineer said he was so upset he spoke to his father about it the next day. "I knew I did something very bad," he recalled. "My dad tried to convince me to go tell someone. I didn't want to do it. I thought the patriotic thing was not to tell. It was only after they left the army that all three men began to voice their misgivings. Even so, they say their loyalty to other members of their unit -- most of whom still believe the operation was proper and justified -- prevented them from speaking out.

"It took me two years until I got enough distance from the military time," the engineer said. "It's like we know we did something bad, but the idea of going out and telling it seems like a bad thing because you're going to hurt the unit." Avichay Sharon, a former army sergeant who is spokesman for Breaking the Silence, said the pattern was a familiar one. "When you're inside the system, you are kind of blind," he said. "The moral conflicts and dilemmas are a part of your life, and if you stop and think about them, you might not get up the next morning. Even after you leave the army, it takes a long time to look in the mirror and say, 'Well, I was a monster for three years.' "

"It's true these guys are the exception" in speaking out, he added. "It's not just that you're criticizing the system -- you're also criticizing yourself. It's one of the hardest things you can do as a human being."