Prominent journalist and radio host Uri Orbach has a curious sense of outrage. In a column, Orbach describes the outcry after the release of a recent picture of a handcuffed Palestinian being shot by an 
Israeli soldier with a rubber bullet at close range. Instead of decrying the need for better training or calling for justice, however, Orbach is infuriated that Palestinians have been given cameras to allow them to record such abuses.
The shooting incident was captured by a camera and the image later given to media.For the shooting story, click here.
Orbach accuses the organization B’Tselem of “collaboration with the enemy” because it handed out 100 cameras to Palestinians to record any abuses. The “armed with a camera” campaign was designed to allow a non-violent form of activism and to increase transparency of conditions in the area. For their website, click here.
Sorry, but I’m disgusted by that. The fact that Jews are trying to catch the soldiers of their own country doing bad things by handing out cameras to our enemies is intolerable. After for years now leftist Israeli politicians have failed to convince us during elections that we can make true peace with our friendly neighbors, now they just try to smear us; to show us, and to show everybody, how terrible we are.
There are obviously many (including the publishers) who believe that this is a legitimate point and that the real problem is the camera itself. Obviously, there are many in Israel who must be appalled by such views, but I have not been able to find widespread condemnation of Orbach among right-wing publications and conservative party officials. It is a chilling glimpse into the extremist views of some in this region.
For the full column, click here.
“The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures [to distinguish between combatants and civilians] cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents,”
“The extent of the pattern and seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes.”
Human Rights Watch
Butters
1, July 27, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Israel has one of the most moral armies in the world and has often risked casualties to its own troops to minimize those of civilians
😐
Are you trying to kid me, or yourself?
Israel, has exposed its heart, as being as black and cruel as the heart of Germany when it unleashed its war crimes on the Jews.
Endless accounts day after day in video and eyewitness accounts of unspeakable attrocities commited by the holy sanctimonious Israeli army against the Palestinians.
Armed incursions into civillian areas, attacks and bombing campaigns against civilian populations, beating and verified torturing of helpless prisoners, rape and murder of captives, and on and on…
😐
Of course, given current U.S. Conservative standards, they’re merely complying with our own new policies for conducting “modern warfare”.
I’m very pro-Israel but the discussion here is getting unhinged. The soldiers in question need to be disciplined for their outrageous behavior. That said, this stray incident should not be used to tarnish the IDF’s image. Israel has one of the most moral armies in the world and has often risked casualties to its own troops to minimize those of civilians. Similarly, controversy over Israel’s use of cluster bombs and “disproportionate force” also needs to be studied in context. There is a great paper discussing the latter here: http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/perspectives20.pdf.
JT, you’re absolutely correct in saying that it’s the actor’s fault and not the camera’s and that the outrage is misplaced. The problem is that these videos are invariably shown out of context and even when we manage to disprove what it purports to be showing (e.g., a scene is staged, Hamas deliberately sends civilians into the line of fire etc.) the damage is done and media outlets are reluctant to print retractions. I also question the motives of B’tzelem and other such groups. I think many of them are self-hating Jews and that more than a zeal to defend human rights is at play.
I and most Israelis share following sentiment:
“What we hold against Nasser is not only the killing of our sons, but forcing them for the sake of Israel’s survival, to kill others.
-Golda Meir
Wasn’t that our own Government’s response to Abu Garab? Take away the cameras, problem vanished!
Thats it Zak.
Take every possible glimmer of hope, and try and squash it under your boot.
Keep using terms like “Zionist Jew”, and perpetuate the hate.
What would wars do without guys like you to cheer them on?
Countless British PMs and US Presidents have been calling on a halt to settlements, yet money keep flowing to Israel to build more settlements. The talk is to pacify Muslims and Arabs in their countries, the money is to keep the Zionist Jews giving back some of that money in campaign contributions and positive media coverage.
I don’t blame the Israelis, they are doing whatever they can get away with. Most child molesters were also molested as children, so if “holocaust survivors” didn’t create new “concentration camps and “death squads”, that would be really surprising.
And as for Obama, in his first speech after becoming the Democrat nominee, he told AIPAC (a Zionist Jew organization) that the bill to get Israel their annual $3 000 000 000 was already underway – with any preconditions.
The real irony here of course, is Israel should know better.
Having suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s in such a horrible manner, one would think would make them as far from that mentality as possible.
Yet here they are, armbands and all, torturing a helpless victim.
Last week English Prime Minister Brown told Israel to curb the expansion of settlements, and that their provocation of the Palestine people needs to end now.
England clearly has had enough of kowtowing to the unreasonable expansion and violent persecution of the Palestinian people, and is going to start taking methods to reign in Israel so that true peace in the middle east can be had.
I imagine Obama once he takes office in Jan, will follow suit.
Don’t worry good people. I don’t think that most Presidents who have protected Israel were doing so because they were waiting for the Second Coming – Bush is an exceptional loon who speaks directly with Jesus (who tells him to kill people). McCain isn’t as loony about the Second Coming and neither is Obama, however they’re both in bed with Israel not because they need the 6 million US Jews to vote for them (Leiberman couldn’t even get Jews to vote for him in Florida) and there are more Muslims in the US than Jews, but they are afraid of the negative media coverage they would get from the Zionist Jew controlled media.
Look at what happen to Obama when one Jewish magazine, the New Yorker ran that racist and bigoted “satirical” cover. Now remember Rupert Murdoch and Bloomberg are also Zionist Jews and they own a great deal of the US media. Some of Murdoch’s media holdings include: the Weekly Standard, the New York Post, Fox News, 20th Century Fox, MySpace, HarperCollins, and over 175 media outlets. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and shows like 60 Minutes are also owned or run by Zionist Jews.
So it’s not that most candidates, Presidents and other politician like Israel or Jews, they fear the media. So be thankful, you are electing cowards, not religious zealots.
It does clearly identify Martha however, as one of the “family” so to speak.
Picture Donald Sutherland, standing on the steps of a building, slack jawed emitting a high pitched whine, while pointing a bony finger in your direction.
😐
Thats Martha.
And you sir are NOT “of the body”.
rafflaw
1, July 27, 2008 at 1:23 pm
marth h,
You have gone to the extreme this time. You are calling upon God to protect only the United States and Israel
Its a sad thing raff, and its something most people won’t admit, but you’ve hit the nail on the head. See, in “Evangelical” Christianity, (I know, kind of opposing values, ay?) these new holy rollers, are convinced that at the “end of times” it will be all war.
And that war will be the United States, and Israel, against the rest of the nations of the world.
They do this by misinterpreting allagorical scriptures and interjecting modern interpretations to statements that were directed or about ancient events.
So to them, Israel and the US against the rest of the world, is not only ok, but its how its supposed to be.
marth h,
You have gone to the extreme this time. You are calling upon God to protect only the United States and Israel. I thought God protects us all? At least that is what the good Nuns taught us in grade school. The Nuns couldn’t have lied to me, could they? And then after extolling God to protect us you warn zakimar that we attacked a sovreign country before and we will do it again to protect Israel. I thought God was going to protect Israel?? Make up your mind.
Next you claim that it was no big deal he was only shot in the toe. It sounds like you are volunteering to be shot in the toe. Kind of like the neocons and the wannabees claiming that waterboarding isn’t torture. But, after Hitchens, one of your own, had himself waterboarded, he changed his tune and admitted that it was torture.
Why don’t you take your hate somewhere else where it is wanted, like a Fox News site.
The US was founded on the genocide of the indigenous people, slavery and Apartheid.
Israel was founded on the murder and oppression of the indigenous people and Apartheid, so Israel is a little better than the US.
You’re in great company.
“zakimar: yup America used a nuke on a nation that attacked us for no reason with no warning, and we will do it again if the same situation arises.”
All the more incentive for countries like Iraq and Iran to get nuclear weapons. So I guess you feel that any nation that attacks another for no reason deserves to get nuked. No wonder you and the US government are so afraid of others having nukes.
And btw, tell all the blacks that were slaves and helped build America about freedom and democracy. Most of the “founding fathers” also raped their slaves. I guess God loves slave masters and rapists too.
God protects Israel.
God protects the United States.
zakimar: yup America used a nuke on a nation that attacked us for no reason with no warning, and we will do it again if the same situation arises.
zakimar: those that mess with God’s gift of freedom and democracy to the world, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, will suffer under God’s sword.
zakimar: urging palestinians to use automatic rifles on Israelis will only mean Palestine will cease to exist. God protects it.
Also, I agree with the whackjob that Palestinians should stop throwing stones, it’s disrespectful. Get automatic weapons, force is the only thing that Israel understands.
It’s raving lunatics like those above that make every country from the USSR and China to North Korea and Iran NEED nuclear weapons. Israel and the US NEED to be checked. After all, the US is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon. I hope Egypt and Iraq, Syria, Lebanon… decide they want a nuclear program too.
Ya know, why post this garbage? The guy in handcuffs was shot in the TOE with a rubber bullet after being ordered a number of times to stop resisting his being taken into custody for endangering Israeli soldiers BY THROWING ROCKS AT THEM!
GOD BLESS THE ISRAELI SOLDIERS and the patience they have shown with the terrorists intent on murdering Israeli women & children.
Most certainly GOD is most satisfied with the patience they have shown towards those that would kill them and the fact they are not lashing back with the powerful weapons they have that could turn their enemie’s lands to glass……………..
GOD BLESS ’em.
The simple response is if you are worried about the enemy taking pictures of your soldiers doing things that they shouldn’t do, just enforce the rules and make sure the soldiers are following them. The cameras didn’t shoot the prisoner in the video, the soldier did. This is Fox news mentality at play here. After going through this kind of twisted and immoral logic for almost 8 years, I have very little patience for it.