Pith helmet policy

In my mind's eye, I see the chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon, with his interviewer Ari Shavit, standing before the crumbling walls of Khartoum. The year is 1898. Coming toward them is an army of raging natives - tens of thousands of bloodthirsty Arabs, waving their spears on high. Shavit, starring as the young Churchill, a fired-up war correspondent in a pith helmet, asks excitedly: "Do you have a definition of victory?" Ya'alon, playing General Kitchener, replies from under his bushy mustache: "It's an existential threat, my son. It must be seared into their minds that they will never defeat us with terror and violence."(...)

Why? Because if the chief of staff is correct in his analysis and conclusions, the next question is: What happens if they don't agree to be seared? What if we don't succeed in defeating the Palestinians despite all our prodigious searing efforts? When the British tried to sear us back in Mandatory times, it didn't work. Since then, many foreign regimes throughout the world have tried to sear other peoples - all without success. [read more]

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PROMISED LAND
Ethnic cleansing in the South Hebron hills.

Another case of settler attack is recounted by Yunis Ismael Najjar, Khaled’s cousin who also lived in Cherb el-Botoum. “At that time I was working as a construction labourer in Israel. We used to go by taxi to the construction site at Gush Yetzon, early in the morning. On April 24 of last year (2001) seven of us were driving on Road 60 near to Beni Naim when we saw a settler car coming in the opposite direction. They passed us and then did a U-turn behind us and started tailgating us. Suddenly the passenger opened fire with an Uzi. Everyone in the car was injured, including the driver, although fortunately no-one was killed. I myself was shot in the lower spine and the shoulder and lost consciouness immediately. Despite his injuries the driver was able to turn around and drive to the checkpoint near Yatta, but the soldiers told us to go away. They turned us away without even offering first aid to the injured. Because of the earth dam on the small road to Yatta we were unable to drive any further, but one of the other passengers called some cars on the cellphone and I was carried over the dam on a handcart and along the track to where they were waiting for us. So they took us to hospital in Yatta.” Like his cousin, Yunis spent many months in hospital and had four vertebrae removed from his spine. He is paralysed from the waist down. And in this case, as in all such cases, no action has been taken against the perpetrators, although they are members of a notorious settler gang who have been involved in many shooting incidents along Road 60. [read more]