Eden Abergil’s pix of herself looking all pert and pretty with blindfolded Palestinian detainees as background aren’t quite as shocking as the ones that dribbled out of Abu Graib, but evidently she isn’t the only Israeli soldier who took humiliating photos of Palestinian prisoners. More such "souvenirs" are emerging. Poor Israel. The image of the Israeli Defense Force is more than usually tarnished in the eyes of the outside world these days, especially since the flap over the commando raid on the Gaza aid flotilla has not by any means died down.
The IDF, by the way, took care to release IDF-taken pictures of that raid, to prove that the commandos didn’t instigate the violence that turned deadly—as if the assault itself weren’t intrinsically violent from the moment men began slithering down ropes.
Few outsiders were happy with Israel’s subsequent internal investigation of its interception of the Palestine aid flotilla, which is not surprising. Even medical doctors are advised against self-diagnosis, and institutions are seldom able to muster the ruthless objectivity needed to bring unsavory facts to the fore—or even to find them. There are two levels to the difficulty. Not only is it painful to confess one’s errors in public, it’s close to impossible to admit them to oneself.
Happily, then, Israel has finally acceded to a U.N.-sponsored investigatory process. Unhappily, this fresh inquiry will be pretty cursory, thanks to the lack of pressure for a more powerful process from the U.S. America’s congenital indulgence continues to enable Israel’s deeply ingrained and self-destructive preference for disproportionate violence.
Trust and the Battle of the Tree
Why do I say self-destructive? Consider how Israel’s friends have fallen away over the years since the West Bank was occupied. I count myself as one of those lost friends. The extent to which my gut reactions have ceased to favor Israel came home to me after last week’s battle-of-the-tree on the Israel-Lebanon border. I immediately assumed that Israel’s version of events was not to be trusted.
I was wrong. It turns out that the fence runs well inside Israel. The tree was indeed on the Lebanese side of the fence, but it was also on Israeli territory. Israel had every right to prune it or chop it down or hang party lights on it.
Three Questions
Not that tree ownership lets Israel entirely off the hook. Whether or not the actual border is clearly marked at all points, wisdom would have counseled Israeli officialdom to inform Lebanese counterparts of their limb-lopping plans. This would have prevented genuinely mistaken reactions as well as ill-intended attempts to take advantage of ambiguity. Did Israel convey such information to appropriate Lebanese figures?While we’re at it, let’s consider another aspect of this border clash. Physical fences are easy to see, and most of us think of fences as precise, visible markers for official boundaries. In this case, fence and border don’t coincide. Was this complication well known to all who needed to know? For that matter, is the actual border marked clearly enough to prevent unintended clashes? Obviously, it should be, if clashes are not actually desired. As pretexts for massive retaliation, for example.
Finally, to communicate, there must be a channel for communications. Is there a readily accessed sort of hot line between Israel and Lebanon? If not, why not? The U.S. and the U.S.S.R., mortal enemies during the Cold War, didn’t want an accidental Hot War. A “don’t worry” call was always possible. It would appear that Israel and Lebanon need something similar. Or is the mistrust between Israel and its neighbors part of a loathing so mutually repellant that even self-protective cooperation stinks like a pact with evil? If so, too bad. More people will die uselessly.
Evidence Destroyed or Merely Withheld?
All in all, given the overall lack of trust and the unlikelihood of a thorough investigation of the flotilla incident, there is a gesture that Israel could make—or, in the absence of a voluntary gesture, a demand the international community could make. When Israel took the flotilla’s participants into custody, their cameras and cell phones were confiscated. When the hostages were released, their belongings were retained by Israel. The world deserves to see the images on those cameras and cell phones.The Israeli government has released some images taken by Israeli commandos during their boarding operations. Most likely only those pix that unambiguously support the official Israeli version of events have been released. What damning (or innocuous) material lurks undisclosed in official files? We’ll never know, absent a conscience-stricken Israeli willing to send material to Wikileaks—which is why Wikileaks needs to survive. Secrecy is usually defended on the grounds of national security. But secrecy is also an indispensable instrument of control and manipulation.
Meanwhile, since Israel has not returned the photographic equipment, there is only one plausible interpretation. The evidence they contain(ed) was damning.
Does anyone doubt that Israel would have acted quickly to check out the contents of captured film cassettes and flash disks to determine whether or not the images were consistent with the self-exculpatory Israeli narrative? Quite possibly, by now, all the images have been destroyed, one reason why the cameras and cell phones can’t be returned. The erasures would become public knowledge. To be caught destroying evidence would be as incriminating as being confronted publicly with the images themselves.
A Little Tough Love, Please
To my knowledge, the U.S. hasn’t demanded release or full inspection of this important evidence. If I’m correct, that must mean that the State Department has made the same assumptions I’m making. State Department people aren’t stupid. They do tend to overprotect Israel.During the first months of the Obama administration it looked as if the U.S. would exhibit a little tough love with regard to Israel. By openly opposing new settlements, for example. That was truly tough love. By comparison, demanding a return of those cameras and cell phones, intact, should have been easy to pull off. But even this little bit of pressure can’t be applied during a U.S. election year, it seems.
Placating Israel now may seem like a good way to generate votes for Democratic candidates in November, but our more rational leaders should know that there’s no end to placating Israel which, given an inch, grabs a mile. Worse, Israel these days is not a particularly good judge of its own best interests, which is why its old friends are getting thin on the ground.