Comments on: IDF soldiers assault Reuters journalists after mistaking them for human rights workers

By: JFG

JFG — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:12:09 +0000

“Cameras are the new weapons” is a standard rhetoric of our times, and it’s no surprise that Hamas adopted it as well. But it legitimized camera-operators as terrorists in the eyes of the IDF… so this act, sadly, falls into that script as well.

By: Daniel Haarti

Daniel Haarti — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:31:06 +0000

A statement is not a ‘fact’, but a statement.

By: Aaron Gross

Aaron Gross — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:11:53 +0000

From Noam Sheizaf’s new column at Maariv (hope the Hebrew gets formatted OK):

לפי רויטרס, החיילים הורידו את העיתונאים מהרכב, הכו אותם תוך שהם מאשימים אותם כי הם תחקירנים של ארגון “בצלם,

That’s all I was asking for: “According to Reuters” and “beat them while accusing them of being Betselem investigators.” This corrects both of the things I was objecting to in my previous comment.

P.S. Congratulations, Noam, for the Maariv gig, and congratulations to Maariv for getting a fine columnist.

By: Aaron Gross

Aaron Gross — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 04:11:10 +0000

I have an ilk?

By: LS

LS — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 13:23:57 +0000

Incisive posts from both Mike and Aaron. Mike focuses on fact – what the reporter was told by a soldier is something that happned, in other words a fact – Aaron focuses on what people of his ilk do best. Being abusive and trying to stifle any level of debate from those who do not agree with their opinions.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:46:56 +0000

The Israeli social groupthink has advanced rapidly and not surprisingly; perpetual war thinking does that to a mind.

As the Israeli economy continues to expand into the Bank, social policing as in the Jim Crow South will too advance. But this expansion will have the back up of the IDF. We have already seen the impunity of vanguard settlers. Ultimately, IDF command may come to some disquiet as to what they have made on the ground. No professional army mouthing standards of decency can allow such acts. Then they must ask how this event was even possible. And that is an uncomfortable question.

By: Aaron Gross

Aaron Gross — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:25:59 +0000

You’re a loony.

By: Mikesailor

Mikesailor — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:00:22 +0000

Strange A.G., that apparently you are attempting to obfuscate and mislead about a news story without any ‘facts’ at all to buttress your position. Is such a knee-jerk defense of actions performed by an Israeli (or should I say Jew because it is fairly certain these soldiers were jewish)without knowing more really assist the Zionist cause? The reporter asserted the statement of a soldier involved. Isn’t that sufficient? Or is the fact that the reporter didn’t profess unquestioning loyalty to the prevailing right-wing Israeli ethos render his statement inadmissinble as being somehow unworthy of credibility? Is the IDF a motley undisciplined militia? Apparently an investigation was opened by the IDF into this incident. Are there statements pointing to some other cause for the beatings administered? If you applaud and excuse the actions of the IDF, no matter what they do or how they do it, you evince a bad case of intellectual dishonesty and moral obtuseness. You become akin to a trained seal, applauding and clapping his flippers in order to obtain the ‘fish treat’ from his trainers and masters. ‘Nuff said

By: aristeides

aristeides — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:43:06 +0000

I am more and more reminded of the way Israel resembles the Jim Crow south, the KKK south. The ongoing, relentless pressure to “keep them in their place, keep them from being uppity.”

The constant raids, “cutting the grass,” is just what the KKK would do, driving around in their white sheets. And when the white nigger-lovers came around to stir up trouble, they got what they deserved.

Just the same. Just the same.

By: Aaron Gross

Aaron Gross — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 10:30:14 +0000

Quote: “It is worth thinking about the reason the soldiers gave for the abuse – they thought the two Palestinians were working for B’Tselem….”

Well, no. First of all, you’re just quoting a Reuters cameraman, not necessarily a reliable source. Second, he did not even say that was the reason. He only said that a soldier accused them of that. So your reporting is going way beyond the facts here.