Israeli writer| Brutality has become a prevalent pattern in Israel

Gideon Levy

Giora Eiland is considered one of the "thinking officers" who emerged from the ranks of the Israeli army. He is a man of mild manners and eloquent speech, which is an intense expression of moderation and sound mind. He has an impressive military career. He headed the Operations Department and the Planning Department, along with the Israeli National Security Council. He is always interviewed, and he is a son of the labor movement. He is neither lazy nor ignorant, as is the case of Lieutenant Colonel Amir Afifi, nor is he thirsty for blood like Ben Gvir. He is a centrist, belonging to the moderate right. Eiland, who is known to suffer from many diseases and wrote a book about his suffering, has an idea: the spread of epidemics in the Gaza Strip is in Israel's interest. The man says, “The dangerous epidemics in the southern Gaza Strip will bring us closer to victory, and will reduce the damage among Israeli army soldiers,” this strategic thinker wrote this week in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. All we have to do now is for the daughters of the leaders of the Hamas movement to become infected with the epidemic, and this will ensure our victory.

Eiland did not detail which epidemics he preferred. Did he mean boils, cholera, or perhaps a cocktail of black smallpox and AIDS? Perhaps also starving two million people. This is a guarantee of achieving victory for Israel at the lowest price. The man emphasized in his next article: “No, we do not practice cruelty for the sake of cruelty.” He inserted this phrase, as if someone had dared to put forward this idea in the first place. Naturally! This man exudes a rare kindness and humanity, which will only result in saving human lives. Here is Eiland in the person of Mother Teresa, he is an officer, he is a gentleman, and he comes from the most moral army in the world.

Eiland made a Nazi proposal, but without doing so a storm erupted. Because whoever accuses Israel of committing genocide is nothing but an anti-Semite. We only have to imagine a European general proposing to starve a people, or kill them through epidemics. Let us imagine that he is saying that about the Jews, for example. Spreading the epidemic would save the war effort. As is usual in war, proposing anything is now acceptable. Everything you dreamed of, but did not dare to propose in the past, is now legitimate. 

Political correctness has been reversed. Anyone can now turn into Meir Kahane, and it is no longer permissible for a person to remain human. It has become permissible for a person to suggest carrying out a genocide, but it is forbidden to feel compassion towards the children of the Gaza Strip. It has become acceptable to suggest that ethnic cleansing be carried out, but one must not be too shocked by the punishment of the Gaza Strip.

It is no longer limited to the right, but rather represents the opinion of the mainstream. Ram Ben Barak has become a supporter of voluntary mass deportation, and moderate Minister Gila Gamliel also supports it. The Foreign Ministry said that Gamliel does not represent the government in this position. But we have to admit that the minister’s position largely represents the government and others. Brutality has become a normal norm, and Satanism has become a middle trend, and its reach has reached the left of center as well. Let us have another war, or two, and everyone will become a priest.

We have barely woken up from the “brutality of the Hamas movement” so that more of these blessings will fall into our laps. Not only from the extreme right and the settlers, but from the heart of the Israeli center. It turns out that there is horrific brutality, and that there is acceptable and standard brutality. Hamas members are "human animals", but on the other hand, the proposal to spread an epidemic among people is legitimate. One of the most dangerous phenomena to emerge from this war is developing before our eyes: it is the phenomenon of turning evil into a norm, and also normalizing it.

This evil grows from the soil of unreasonable ignorance and pathological Israeli indifference to what is happening now in the Gaza Strip. Foreign journalists who come here can hardly believe their eyes: the suffering of the Gaza Strip does not exist in the first place. Israel does not kill thousands of children, nor does it expel a million people from their homes. There is no victim named Gaza at all, and it is absent, not only from Israeli public discourse, but also from the general newscast. Israeli television newscasts are the only ones in the world that do not know that we killed children. The Israeli media is the only one in the world that does not know that the Israeli army committed one small war crime in this war.

A society that ignores such a reality, and does not care about the suffering of those afflicted by the fire of war, produces moral mutations, like Mr. Eiland. One can be convinced that Eiland believes that his proposal is not tainted by any of the accusations mentioned above, as all the man did was present a logical proposal that serves the Israeli interest. Is there really anything in this world other than the Israeli interest? International law is for the weak, ethics is for the philosophizing, and humanity is for the proud and noble. And let's really ask: What's so bad about transmitting epidemics to the Gaza Strip? There is only one bad thing: the infection will spread to Israel as well. Let's admit it: they've been infecting us for a long time.