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Ask your sons
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Gideon Levy, Gaza 

It is behavior well known to every police investigator: First the suspect denies everything, then attacks his interrogators, then admits to a small portion of the accusations (saying he merely did what everyone does), and finally breaks down and confesses.

The Israel Defense Forces returned from Operation Cast Lead and, of course, denied everything. The people applauded it for its bogus victory and no one paid much attention to the awful price paid by the Palestinians. But after the smoke (in this case, white phosphorus) cleared a bit, the blood began crying out from the ground. Foreign journalists and human rights groups investigated and reported their findings. The United Nations said the IDF intentionally targeted its facilities, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the army of illegally using phosphorous bombs, the International Red Cross reported on the injured being denied medical attention and strikes on medical crews, officers at a premilitary course spoke of civilians killed, and Amira Hass wrote for Haaretz about the killing of people flying white flags, the use of flechette shells and the annihilation of entire families.

The ground began trembling beneath Israel's feet when it started attacking the emissaries of these organizations. The country's gates were closed to the UN fact-finding mission headed by Jewish South African Richard Goldstone, as if it were Zimbabwe or North Korea, as if it had much to hide. The president brusquely rebuked the UN's Ban Ki-moon and suggested he visits Auschwitz, until eventually the secretary general was forced to shrink from supporting his organization's damning report.
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Anyone who dared investigate and report was branded anti-Semitic. Little has changed since the early-1970s report by a group of American lawyers on the Shin Bet security service's alleged torture methods. These attorneys were immediately labeled anti-Semites. We deny, repress, lie, attack and compare ourselves to others, and our conscience remains clear. Even when the IDF admits to killing 300 civilians - 90 of them children, 50 women and 160 whose identities the army says is unclear - our story remains the same: the most moral army in the world. Not the third most, not the second - the most. After all, Yedioth Ahronoth gave that view its seal of approval in a special propaganda supplement entitled "The most moral in the world."

But let's assume Amnesty is lying, Human Rights Watch is fabricating, B'Tselem is embellishing, the UN is anti-Israel and the media is full of hatred against us - isn't there enough in the IDF's own figures to shake us to the core? Three hundred civilians killed, including 90 children - isn't that enough to expose the propagandistic lie of "the most moral" army? How many innocent people must be killed for that to happen?

The IDF conducted five "investigations" (in which, naturally, only soldiers' actions were examined), lamented one family's tragedy, and the military correspondents applauded again. The IDF Spokesman's Office sent battalion commanders to recite declarations on their own lofty battle ethics - with faces concealed, of course, as suspects often are - and the media didn't burden them with questions. No one believes this war should be subjected to a serious investigation because in this war, unlike its predecessors, not enough soldiers were killed to justify that.

But the truth cries out even from the collapsed and perforated rubble of what was once a home: The soldiers who were in Gaza know, as do their friends, that something terrible happened there - just as those who served in the West Bank know. Ask your sons; they know the truth - the truth is sitting in your own home. And ask the friends of your sons, and the sons of your friends - they know. Many of them are brainwashed, and for now are keeping mum. Israel is holding back the tide of reports and investigations, and putting its head in the sand of propaganda and victimization, but in the end the truth will emerge.

Even the excuse "everyone does it" will not do any good, as it does no good for a driver caught speeding. The Americans kill more? The French slaughtered more? That may do for the Foreign Ministry's automatic statements. We deserve more, we deserve the full truth - what exactly our soldiers did in our name, each of our names, on the streets of Gaza, imprisoned and bleeding for the 22 days of a useless war.
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  1.   WHY? 14:15  |  indrajaya 10/05/09
  2.   Dear Gideon Levy you may be a darling....... 14:32  |  Sophie Krueger 10/05/09
  3.   Our Sons Were Prevented From Winning 15:01  |  Yishai Kohen 10/05/09
  4.   gideon we did not act in your name in gaza 15:02  |  gad 10/05/09
  5.   Then maybe you should do miluim 15:03  |  Richard 10/05/09
  6.   INDRAJAYA.WHY did Hamas fight without uniforms amongst civillians 15:25  |  PETER SM 10/05/09
  7.   The IAF/IDF` conduct & HR violations in Gaza can`t be dismissed 15:40  |  Dutch 10/05/09
  8.   Gideon Levy: A Light in the darkness 15:45  |  Natallie Durson 10/05/09
  9.   Natalle Durson 16:27  |  Mark 10/05/09
  10.   The IDF must finish the job! 16:30  |  Meir Weinstein 10/05/09
  11.   Confined Morality 16:35  |  BazMann 10/05/09
  12.   Sons of STOP the SILENCE are telling the truth 16:35  |  jim the mechanic 10/05/09
  13.   Gideon Levy, If their sons were any kind of men ... 16:36  |  Dutch 10/05/09
  14.   About me 17:03  |  Marvin "JDL" HaWeins 10/05/09
  15.   # 9, MARK 17:04  |  indrajaya 10/05/09
  16.   DORIS If Hasmas were men they would have fought like men 17:17  |  PETER SM 10/05/09
  17.   #15 Peter 17:40  |  BazMann 10/05/09
  18.   The IDF responded to the rockets Hamas were throwing at Israel 8 17:41  |  sk 10/05/09
  19.   # 1 17:47  |  oz 10/05/09
  20.   No apology needed for defending own country. 17:56  |  Like it or not 10/05/09
  21.   Why, indeed? 18:30  |  Reuven 10/05/09
  22.   Not only indefensible but giving licence to Hamas 19:33  |  Stephen L 10/05/09
  23.   BazMann 20:10  |  Indra 10/05/09
  24.   Gideon Levy - truly or lagoyim 20:10  |  David 10/05/09
  25.   Gideon Levy: thank you for an excellent article... 20:37  |  Silvienne 10/05/09
  26.   No 10- Is this the JDL speaking? 20:51  |  Canadian Jew 10/05/09
  27.   Rueven, Israel fully broke the ceasefire on 2008-11-04... 21:19  |  BBSNews 10/05/09
  28.   For #18 sk - IDF Responding To Hamas Rockets 21:38  |  chet 10/05/09
  29.   Gedeon does not mean what he says . 22:53  |  TOMY 10/05/09
  30.   Who is to blame ? 23:03  |  tristan 10/05/09
  31.   # 16 Peter 23:39  |  Realist 10/05/09
  32.   gideon 23:39  |  chawa 10/05/09
  33.   How much soul searching is necessary 23:50  |  allang 10/05/09
  34.   chet 23:54  |  Sean 10/05/09
  35.   oh come on explain a way yet all over again 23:55  |  JO 10/05/09
  36.   IDF didn`t act in Your name Gideon 00:26  |  peter 11/05/09
  37.   questions for Gideon Levy 00:32  |  tristan 11/05/09
  38.   2008-11-04 00:39  |  Gunter 11/05/09
  39.   Natallie Durson 00:51  |  David 11/05/09
  40.   Waltz with Ismail 01:16  |  sh 11/05/09
  41.   Natalle Durson 02:26  |  Anita 11/05/09
  42.   jim the mechanic - - 02:37  |  Anita 11/05/09
  43.   #23 Bazman 03:03  |  Space 11/05/09
  44.   Some of you 03:19  |  Janice 11/05/09
  45.   BBS Missiles from Gaza never stopped completely 03:28  |  PETER SM 11/05/09
  46.   CHET lack of succes for 10000+ attempts at mass murder by Pals 03:36  |  PETER SM 11/05/09
  47.   Indrajaya! Why are you blind and believe the media? 04:19  |  Maria 11/05/09
  48.   Natalie Durson, a light in the darkness, I don`t think so! 04:22  |  Maria 11/05/09
  49.   Chet...tell me about the Security fence in Israel 04:26  |  MMM 11/05/09
  50.   #16 PETER SM, they fought like Irgun and Stern Gang fought 04:30  |  Johnboy 11/05/09
  51.   How much soul searching is necessary 04:37  |  allang 11/05/09
  52.   "Deserve to Know" Mr. Levy? 04:47  |  Mark Lincoln 11/05/09
  53.   Another excellent piece by Levy 05:59  |  peacelover 11/05/09
  54.   PETER SM forgets who the victims are.... 06:00  |  Silvienne 11/05/09
  55.   To Anita.... 06:01  |  Silvienne 11/05/09
  56.   This war was not about the rockets 06:49  |  Esther 11/05/09
  57.   peter from Montreal, why lie yet again? 06:53  |  BBSNews 11/05/09
  58.   Call it war 06:58  |  BT 11/05/09
  59.   JOHNBOYThey weren`t the militia or govt of Israel.Human shields? 07:15  |  PETER SM 11/05/09
  60.   GIDEON From Major Danny Zamir about the media "misunderstanding" 07:27  |  PETER SM 11/05/09
  61.   Where is `Hamas: we deserve to know what we did`? 07:36  |  I guess we will wait 11/05/09
  62.   again...war crimes? 08:03  |  mark 11/05/09
  63.   What are you on about Maria? 08:25  |  BBSNews 11/05/09
  64.   Deserve to know 08:48  |  Mickey 11/05/09
  65.   oh dear mark it goes back to the unions confederate prisoners 10:33  |  vhardman 11/05/09
  66.   Revenge, Truth & Reconciliation 10:35  |  Ishmael Abrahamsson 11/05/09
  67.   If Gideon so deserves to know what IDF did in our name... 10:42  |  S 11/05/09
  68.   The army did act in Gideon`s name #36 11:30  |  sh 11/05/09
  69.   To Peter SM 12:05  |  Brendan Holleran 11/05/09
  70.   Ha Ha 12:55  |  Meetha lal 11/05/09
  71.   SILVIENNE therter was a Qasaam hit on an Israeli kindy 13:18  |  PETER SM 11/05/09
  72.   HOLLERAN the issue raised was why the Pal casualties. 16:29  |  PETER SM 11/05/09
  73.   David in North Carolina USA 17:46  |  Joan 11/05/09
  74.   Why is mention of the Siege not allowed. 20:35  |  Joan 11/05/09
  75.   Not like war criminal cowards hiding behind women and children. 21:23  |  Chris Salzmann 11/05/09
  76.   Mr Gideon LEVY, thank you for another powerful reporting 00:07  |  Jo Harrison 12/05/09
  77.   #48, Maria, my goodness, another one... 01:48  |  Silvienne 12/05/09
  78.   ANITA What is constructive criticism in Israel? 04:42  |  jim the mechanic 12/05/09
  79.   To PeterSM #46 05:56  |  Steve Beikirch 13/05/09
  80.   Gaza War 19:36  |  USA dude 13/05/09
  81.   Gaza 20:32  |  Dolores 13/05/09
  82.   Truth 03:41  |  J Wilson 14/05/09
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