I try not to go out of my way to write good things about Israel, but I also try not to go out of my way not to write good things about Israel, because, among other reasons, it’s important to remember that for all the justified criticism and condemnation, there’s something worth saving here. In that spirit, I want to take issue with a growing view that Israel is a violent society and becoming more so, and that this is proved by a recent series of scandalously violent incidents. My view is that Israel is not a violent society, certainly not in comparison with the only other country I ever lived in, the United States, and not in comparison with most other countries in the world, I don’t think, if you go by their entire history, not just the modern, post-conquest/genocide/slavery/racist/colonialist stage.

Friday saw yet another Israeli soccer brawl, causing the unprecedented cancellation of all weekend games. Right before that was IDF Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner’s bash-up of a West Bank bicycle protest, along with the ongoing hero/martyr treatment he’s getting from the mainstream right, not just the already violent extreme. Right before Eisner was the midday public orgy at Tel Aviv’s Bograshov Beach, with a woman said to be visibly mentally disturbed. A few weeks before that, there was the pogrom by a few hundred Beitar Jerusalem soccer fans screaming “death to the Arabs” and slamming Arab workers and customers around in the capital’s largest shopping mall.

Brutal and vile, all of it. Nevertheless, if we take these scandals one by one, none of them points to a uniquely malevolent streak in Israeli society. We’re not a gentle nation, but neither are we a sadistic one.

To start with soccer violence, while being fueled by what is, indeed, the definitive Israeli disease – anti-Arab racism – it is by no means unique to this country. In Europe, soccer violence has been far worse and it’s been fueled not only by anti-Arab racism but by anti-black and anti-Jewish racism and probably other varieties as well. (True, there’s also horrible anti-black racism in the stands at Israeli soccer games, but it’s not connected to violence like anti-Arab racism is because blacks, while generally looked down on by Israelis,  are not seen here as the enemy.) The most obvious context for Israeli soccer violence is not Israel but soccer, which has set off incomparably worse violence over the years in Europe and Latin America than in this country. By international standards, Israeli soccer violence is, at worst, normal.

The beach orgy in Tel Aviv – in which the mentally disturbed woman reportedly invited several young guys to have sex with her – shows a kind of sniggering machismo that is Israeli, but not just Israeli. As sickening as that show was, it could have happened anywhere. It can’t be blamed on the occupation or Likud or the Israeli mentality.

The other two incidents, the Eisner assaults and Betar Jerusalem pogrom, can be. They were peculiarly Israeli scandals, they both grew out of a long national tradition of Jewish domination of Arabs. Yet if I compare Israeli domination of Arabs to that of the Western powers over Muslims, blacks, Latinos and Asians over centuries of colonialism, not to mention their domination of weaker nations during the eras of conquest, genocide and slavery, or the domination of minorities and women in many Third World countries today, then neither Eisner, nor the IDF nor Israeli society as a whole are particularly brutal at all.

If we compare the IDF to other armies during war and occupation, then it just might be “the most moral army in the world.” As armies go, the IDF isn’t brutal – it’s war and occupation that are, and the IDF’s problem is that it spends too much time at war and occupation. And if Israel were to end the occupation and its militaristic approach to the Middle East – which is unlikely, but still possible – the IDF would become a peacetime army and the Eisners in it would be neutralized. Personally, Israelis are not violent (though they can be loud and at times surly). It’s Israel’s policy toward Arabs that’s violent, and if that policy changed, I think things would be pretty cool around here.

As for the Kach contingent among the fans of Beitar Jerusalem (and other soccer teams), even they, too, would be pacified to a great extent by an end to our war with the Arabs. And whatever violence remained in them would be owed at least as much to their being soccer fans as to their being Israelis.

The only peculiarly violent thing about this country is its policy toward the “natives,” and the best, most democratic, most peaceful countries in the world had the same kind of problem in the past, only worse. The difference between the “good” countries and Israel is that they either got rid of or vanquished their natives and, in the last half of the 20th century, decided to stop subjugating them abroad. So Israel is not particularly brutal or violent or bad; the only thing that keeps it from being a good country, which I think it was before the occupation, is that it still subjugates the natives at home while attacking them abroad. The problem is not what Israel is, but what it does, and that, as history has proven all over the world, can change.

On one hand, the storm of condemnations by the top levels of government and now the suspension of Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner from his position for beating an apparently unarmed Danish protester with his weapon, is the right response. On the other hand, this response is cynical and problematic, on several major counts.

First, Israelis commonly complain about the country’s hasbara – well, here it is! Israel has put its best foot forward in the communications effort, and the world saw the result on every channel. Here’s the point: communications cannot turn black into white – that’s a job for Uri Geller. If we want to look good, it starts with good behavior.

The second aspect flows from this. The only way to solve the image problem is to stop fighting yesterday’s wars. People in Eisner’s position, who are based in the high-friction areas, too often see themselves as remote, as if they’re on some isolated island. They also have an obsolete perspective that conflict is just about winning on the battlefield – that the stronger, more powerful party prevails. They fail to understand that we’re in a different world, where the conflict actually is about public opinion. In the arena of today’s conflict, his actions are more damaging to Israel than tanks and military operations.

The ramifications of the incident are serious: Eisner is an influential and relatively high-ranking officer. Many of the decisions flow from his level, not just from the Chief of Staff. But the army careerists in the field in the West Bank don’t understand the wider reality, because from the age of 18, all they know is the military – they view everything through that prism. They don’t know about the world and they don’t know about life. This is not a game and they should be taught about the broader arena. Officers in the field should be taking courses in diplomacy, they should speak with Israel’s ambassadors, and be exposed to sources of global opinion.

The third problem is that blaming Eisner is simply hypocritical. If there had been no video cameras, the Danish protester probably would have sent a letter of complaint and the authorities probably would have ignored it.  That’s because the system isn’t sensitive enough to such behavior and moreover, it is just angered by anyone who dares to protest our occupation from abroad. Those who manage this system fail to accept that in the global community, any citizen has the right to protest the longest ongoing occupation in the world today.

But there were cameras, and so the top brass had to issue condemnations and suspend him. All the reactions, from the President and Prime Minister to the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff, were a coordinated attempt to portray him as an anomaly.

But what if he is not an anomaly? What if there is more than one Eisner? In that case, this incident can actually be an opportunity – to examine and correct our behavior towards protesters who disagree with us, and to make a change beyond one single punishment.

Obviously, nobody wants to ask those hard questions. It’s much easier to just suspend Eisner, but that’s far from enough.

The reality is that we have cultivated militarism so deeply that we look to the Army to solve everything. No one truly believes that any other solution is effective. That is the underlying truth of Israeli life to which most of society subscribes.

No one on the political level told Eisner to behave the way he did. But the political leadership – mainly Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman – addressed the fly-in in the most aggressive and hysterical way possible, instead of downplaying the whole event. Why were 650 policemen sent to stop dozens of demonstrators? Why did they need such an exaggerated show of force? No doubt, the atmosphere they created trickled down to the Army. The incident may have occurred within the army, but the government must also rethink how it addresses the challenges and protests we face. The way of force is not always efficient, or effective.

Ophir Pines-Paz is a former Member of Knesset from Labor. He has served as Minister of Internal Affairs and as Minister of Science, Culture and Sports.

Read also:
WATCH: IDF Lt. Col. rams rifle  in face of activist
On IDF violence: My own private Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner

Of course, mine is not the Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, deputy commander of the Jordan Valley brigade who rammed his rifle in face of Danish activist on Sunday. The person who sent me to the hospital with his blows was another soldier, in reserve service, whose name I still do not know to this day. It was a generic Shalom Eisner, a Shalom Eisner like any other soldier of the occupation who ever attacked, shot, broke, beat, arrested, kicked, twisted, detained, tortured, step on, sprayed or humiliated unarmed civilians.

After it all - in the hospital (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

Back then, on July 31, 2009, when I was arrested during a peaceful demonstration which also included a wedding procession, when my own Shalom Eisner took me from other soldiers, hands behind my back, and slammed my head into the back of an army jeep twice until I bled – his actions were caught on tape. However, as opposed to the latest incident with the real Shalom Eisner, in my case the man behind the camera was a policeman, and so I could not upload the video to YouTube. So I went to the military police, filed a complaint, gave pictures taken by others that day, handed in a copy of the hospital report about the stitches I got, and I’ve been waiting ever since.

Well, not just waiting. Ever since the incident I’ve made it a habit to occasionally check on the investigation. In May 2010 the case was handed over to the military prosecution, then sent back to the military police, and so on back and forth to this day. More than two and a half years have passed, and an indictment is nowhere to be found. All I can do now is write about it.

The following report of the incident was first published right after the event, and the Shalom Eisner story made me want to publish it again, now on +972, as a reminder that stories like this are a regular part of life under occupation – even when they don’t get prime-time media exposure.

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(Translated from Hebrew with the kind help of Dimi Reider and Rela Mazali)

The soldiers attacked the procession. I argued (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

The soldiers charged the wedding procession using their rifles to push people back. Behind the procession, two couples of newlyweds, two suits, two bridal gowns, looked on in shock. It was horrifying. I was standing even further behind, taking pictures, but I couldn’t bear the sight of what I was witnessing. One of the soldiers threw back my friend A., and she nearly fell to the ground. The line of soldiers continued its approached and within seconds I was getting my share too. I started shouting, “What are you doing?! It’s a wedding! It’s these people’s day of celebration!” I don’t know why I picked that phrase, but I kept on shouting “it’s their day of celebration” time and time again as the soldiers pressed on with their assault. I saw clearly that they couldn’t care less, that they didn’t understand that it was these people’s day of celebration, and in the heat of it all I yelled out, “Assholes!” I don’t normally do things like that. Over the ten years in which I’ve been roaming the West Bank I have always managed to keep my calm with the soldiers, to explain as best I can what we are struggling for. But this time the situation was so absolutely intolerable that it just came out. And it got their attention. “Bring him in,” the officer said and the soldiers charged. They were pulling me one way as the wedding procession-demonstrators pulled me the other way.

The soldiers won. On the way to their military jeep they twisted my arms and beat me. I kept calling out that I wasn’t resisting the arrest, until a hand clutched my throat and I suddenly couldn’t breathe much less shout. Soldiers who passed by the group dragging me to the jeep pulled at my hair or added their own punch or two. Eventually I was placed upright behind a military jeep, far from the crowd, and I thought that at least I was over the worst. Then it landed; the first blow. My head was smashed against the jeep door. “What are you doing?! I’m not resis…,” I tried to protest when once again a hand from behind bashed my head onto the door. Two policemen approached, one of them hoisting a video recorder. The one who wasn’t recording asked me to put my hands out in front of me so that I could be handcuffed, but the soldiers started twisting them behind my back again. I asked the policeman to help me, but he just stood there and watched. Eventually the soldiers allowed me the liberty of placing my hands in the handcuffs.

Love & Soldiers, Wedding in Al-Masara from Sheryle Carlson on Vimeo.

Then I saw the blood. First a few drops on my hands and then more and more, totally soaking first my t-shirt then my trousers. This frightening warmth streaming down my face, dripping off my beard onto my clothes, my hands, the asphalt. The policeman with the recorder asked what had happened and I began to explain. From behind me, an un-shaven reservist with a pierced ear, probably the soldier who had done it, interrupted and said I’d fallen and bruised myself. I couldn’t take it. No more of these sickening lies. I shouted that he was a liar, a piece of shit. He slapped me hard, right in front of the camera, my head still bleeding, my hands cuffed. I tried to make the policeman understand the gravity of what had just happened and to file a complaint for assault, but he just went on filming. A military medic came by, protesting and grumbling about having to treat me. He wiped some of the blood off my forehead and stuck a piece of adhesive tape on the wound. “I’m sorry to say you’ll live,” he said, and walked away. The soldier who had been beating me gave me some water to drink and to wash my hands with.

A few minutes later two more friends were arrested, and they took us to the local police station. We were informed that we were being accused of entering a closed military zone (though no one had declared one while we had been there), and of assaulting the unit commander.

Wedding procession at Ma'asara before the arrests (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

We spent the long hours at the station arguing with our guards, a Russian-born reservist and a Russian-born policeman. In fact, we were conducting two very different and parallel debates. The reserve soldier was arguing philosophy, heatedly defending an extreme capitalist notion that each individual determines his own fate, that no individual life can be compared with any others, and that whoever is strong enough is perfectly entitled to crush other, weaker people. Yes, the Nazis too, he confirmed.

The policeman was arguing local politics. “How do you know the border is where you say it is? How do you know we’re outside Israel?” he asked. He had no knowledge of the 1967 borders or of their legal status in Israeli and international law. And he didn’t care. He did care about the Palestinians’ theft of water. “Why should I have to pay for water only to find out, on my patrols with the Civil Administration, that the Arabs install pirate connections to our water lines and steal our water?” He didn’t care that this was water that belonged to the Palestinians in the first place, that they are allocated five times less water than the neighboring settlers, and that they are forced to pay four times as much for ever cubic meter. A law’s a law.

After the interrogation we spoke to the local officer, a pleasant, apparently intelligent man. When we told him that I needed medical attention he made sure we were released as soon as possible (not before being slammed with a restriction order banning us from the village and from the area of Gush Etzion for two weeks). Seeing us off to the station gate he asked us if we were really welcome in the Palestinian village. He couldn’t come to grips with the idea of us being wanted guests there, that we sometimes sleep there, that we’ve formed friendships there now going back three years, that one of the village activists and I call each other “brother”, and that friends from the village were here in their car to pick us up at the police station. His expression, as he shut the gate, was still bemused.

My bloodied T-shirt inscribed "Gaza, my love" (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

At the hospital in Tel Aviv, I was welcomed by a male nurse, who – I immediately recognized – was a Palestinian citizen of Israel. He was touched by my bloodied T-shirt inscribed “Gaza Habibti” (which, in Arabic, means “Gaza, my love”). We spoke in Arabic about what had happened, about the soldiers and about resistance. He said how important it was that there’s resistance, and that he himself would not join – he was too scared of finding himself in a predicament like mine. But he supported us, he really did.

Friday night in the ER is a weary time. There’s an accident here, some party-goers there, and everything takes forever. Three and a half hours, and I’m finally in the stitching room. I’m lying on the bed, the physician injects me with local anaesthesia and covers up my face with a cloth with an opening around the wound.

“So what kind of a protest was it?,” the student nurse asked. “I’d really rather not talk about it just now,” I replied, not relishing this discussion while being stitched up. “So, you’re like an anarchist?” she insisted. “I wouldn’t call it that, no.” “So what would you call it?” “A person who cares, a social activist, a Leftist activist.” “Hold on, what’s Right and what’s Left? Which ones want to give away our country to the Arabs?” “The Left. They’re really smart, and never wrong about anything, and they want peace and justice,” the physician chimed in as he made his stitches. “Like the hippies in the 1980′s?” the nurse inquired (sic). “No, not really. But they love the Arabs and want to give them the country. Perhaps they should go to Norway, where there are lots more like them. Maybe the Norwegians will give their country to the Arabs, they’ll probably be pleased to.” “What, the Norwegians would do that?” “They haven’t said so, but they probably would. Tell me, are there any Arabs who love peace and who demonstrate?”

I knew the last barb had been directed at me. I have a clear memory of observing to myself throughout the entire procedure that I felt as if I was being raped: ‘He’s leaning over me, stitching me up, and all along he’s mocking me, humiliating me, degrading everything I stand for.’ I didn’t know what to do. I replied. “Yes. It was a demonstration and a Palestinian wedding party. I was there as a guest.” “Oh, so there are Arabs who want to give the country to the Jews?” the nurse mocked. “It’s not that simple,” I managed to mumble. “Of course not,” the doctor declared coyly. “Don’t worry, we’re giving you the best treatment we can, no matter whether you’re Left or Right,” the nurse suddenly noted. “This time,” the doctor said pointedly as he cut off the last thread and got up. I was so appalled I could barely concentrate on the instructions they gave me, repeatedly contradicting each other anyway as they explained them. I think I’m supposed not to wash the area for two days, and to come back six days after treatment to take out the stitches.

That was it. My wonderful friends waited there all along, with me, supporting me, telling stories, trying to speed things up. I can’t thank them enough. I drove those of them who needed rides back to their homes.

As I write this, back at my place, it’s 3 in the morning. I know that my trusty biological alarm will wake me up at half past eight. For the first time since it all started, just looking in the mirror, I’ve seen the stitches, the bruises on my face and hands, the caked blood. I’ve wash off what I can without getting the stitches wet. I’m off to bed. My cat joins in. It’s over.

But not really. There are stitches to attend to, a complaint to file with the Military Police against the soldiers who beat me up, a complaint to file against Ichilov hospital… who knows what else.

And it’s not over because they are still out there. Because they said that as of next week there would be a daily curfew from 5AM, to prevent demonstrations. It’s not over because people here don’t have the slightest understanding of borders, whether geographical or otherwise. Perhaps because there aren’t really any borders there anymore.

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End note:

While the army is yet to indict my attacker, the hospital contacted me shortly after this story was originally published in a local newspaper, and offered a deep and sincere apology. The case against my friend and me for the supposed attack on the soldiers, was closed in April 2010. Demonstration in Ma’asara take place every Friday to this day.

Here’s how we treat people who dare cycle where they’re not supposed to.

Yes, I said “cycle.” For this you are punished with a rifle to the head, in a bunt move that would make most major league baseball players jealous.

According to the WAFA news agency, “Israeli forces Saturday broke up with force a cycling tour around the Jordan Valley and assaulted the participants injuring and arresting a number of them.”

In this album of pictures on Facebook, one can clearly see this officer seemed to be in a pretty aggressive mood with more than one activist while walking around with his rifle in bunt position and a look that could kill.

17:05: I have requested a comment from the IDF spokesperson unit.

17:10: Just got this link, which shows a few 15 seconds before the hit:

17:40: According to this video from December 2011, the officer is the deputy commander of the Jordan Valley brigade, Shalom Eisner. In this clip he is thanking volunteers who help out in rescue operations.

20:17: Another picture from the event yesterday:

(photo: Hamzi Zbidat)

22:07: The IDF response:

The IDF Spokesperson’s unit said in response the event was very serious and that the Central Command chief had ordered a thorough investigation. “The inquiry will examine the circumstances which led to the incident documented in the video. Lessons will be drawn and the necessary steps will be taken.”

22:15: Praise for Lt. Col. Eisner is flooding the Israeli social media, here and here [Heb] for example.

22:30: A source who approached me and wishes to remain anonymous at this point has informed me that Lt. Col. Eisner is set to be the next deputy commander of Bahad 1 – the IDF’s training base for all of its officers. This piece of info could not be confirmed.

The IDF spokesperson in response: “We do not discuss IDF appointments in the media until they are signed and sealed. When appointments are confirmed, the media is notified.”

Leading Bahad 1 is considered to be one of the most prestigious jobs in the IDF. Some of its former commanders were Shaul Mofaz, Giora Eyland, Matan Vilnai, Elazar Stern and others who later became high-ranking generals or Chiefs of Staff. If Lt. Col. is reprimanded by the IDF for his conduct, this incident could block any future promotions.

The IDF might want to think twice if this is the kind of officer they want as an example to others.

22:35: Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner is the son of late Rabbi Benny Eisner [Heb], an icon of religious Zionism who also lived in th “Jewish House” in Abu Tor, East Jerusalem.

23:15: Haaretz brings response of National Union MK Michael Ben Ari:

“Well done to the IDF officer who did what Bibi and Aharonovich have no brain or courage to do,” Ben Ari said. “Radical leftists must be handled with a heavy hand. There was a tangible threat to the lives of the soldiers and the officer had no other choice. If it was a settler who was beaten we would not have heard the cries of the hypocrites on the left. Turns out they are not interested in human rights but the rights of terrorists and pro-Arabs.”

23:24: Amos Harel of Haaretz reports that Lt. Col. Eisner is to be suspended, yet says that in other similar cases a suspension does not necessarily mean the end of the officer’s career [Heb].

23:33: Lt. Col. Eisner responds: “I shouldn’t have raised my weapon like that, but those were 6 seconds out of two hours. Of course they didn’t show the part where they attacked us with sticks.”

 00:07: PM Benjamin Netanyahu: “This behavior is not characteristic of IDF soldiers and commanders and should not be allowed in the IDF or in Israel.”