Palestinian mother slams son's killers' sentence as 'pathetic'

[Donald Ian Rankin]

http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3707767,00.html

Mother of 17-year-old who was kidnapped, killed by Border Guard officers in 2002 says murderers should have been sentenced to life in prison. 'Only God can make up for my son's death,' she says

"The sentences handed down to my son's murderers are pathetic," the mother of the Palestinian teen who was killed by Border Guard officers about seven years ago.

Seventeen-year-old Amran Abu Hamadya was kidnapped by four Border Guard officers in Hebron in December of 2002. According to the indictment, they dragged him into their jeep, beat him and eventually threw him out of the car at high speed.

Officer Shahar Butbika, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing the youth, was sentenced by the Jerusalem District Court to eight and a half years in prison. Fellow officer Dennis Alhazov, who documented the incident and was convicted of similar offenses, was sentenced to five and a half years in jail.

----

The article itself isn't why I'm posting that; the thing that makes an impression is the talkback thread at the bottom.

The Israeli reaction to Palestinian suffering is informative, I think.

[PDJane]

1. It's informative........

and it's pathetic. The jewish people do not hava a monopoly on suffering. The Palestinians have been subjected to a brutal occupation for 60 years. At this time, they're dying at a rate of 100/1 or thereabouts. It's insanity.

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. those comments are disturbing - but they are what I have heard over and over again is the trend

on another forum where I occasionally post - one Israeli described her experience:

As an Israeli, I am very depressed and worried over the results of the elections. Racism against Arabs is really becoming more and more acceptable. People who speak against it are viewed as traitors . I don't know what happened and why people have shifted this way to the right. There's a negative emotional undercurrent that is worrying. I feel confused, like what used to be wrong is right and what was right is now wrong.

http://www.israelpalestineforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=695

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. My impression is that she's absolutely right, and in a small minority.

Based on the articles and talkbacks on Ynetnews, Jerusalem Post and even Haaretz, I think that she is absolutely right.

[bemildred]

4. Things are not going well, so naturally there is a circling of the wagons.

You can see the same phenomena on the US political right, though here they have already failed and are out of power. But they have been frothing at the mouth for decades because they are losing the culture war, and hence the long term politcal war.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. You don't think things are going well for the Israeli right?

The settlements are growing, the possibility of them being removed looks ever more remote, while Palestinian violence continues to kill Israelis it does not do so in large numbers, and the political tide is flowing between the far-right Likud and the far far right YB, with the next runner-up the right-wing Kadima, the labour party under Barak moving right, and Meretz regarded as little better than traitors.

It looks to me as though the Israeli right has got most of what it wants at the moment.

[bemildred]

7. No, I can see that we disagree.

I think it is a matter of the time frame, the current government and situation is good for the Israeli right in the same way that Bush's theft of the election in 2000 was good for the US right. The current government is weak domestically and internationally, it has major domestic issues and shows little in the way of intention or means to deal with them. It is so fractured that it can "govern" only by distraction and inaction, and in the long term that will serve it very ill.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. I very much hope you are right.

But while the Israeli right is undeniably extremely fractured, as far as I can see it isn't being challenged much from the left.

So I worry that whatever the current instability resolves into is more likely to be right-wing rather left-wing.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. The Changing Face of Israel By John Mearsheimer

Dr. Mearsheimer argues that there is a strong case that the changes in Israeli society are long term and will almost certainly reflect in the long term dominance of the Israeli right.

John Mearsheimer is an American Jewish political scientist
who has written extensively on the Israel lobby in the US.

I strongly recommend reading the entire article:

The Changing Face of Israel

By John Mearsheimer - December 12, 2008

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/12/the_changing_face_of_israel/

snip: There were only a tiny number of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel when the state was founded in 1948. In fact, the Haredi were deeply opposed to Zionism, which they saw as an affront to Jewish tradition. However, their numbers have been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, as has their share of the Israeli population. The reason is simple: on average, each Haredi woman has 7.6 children, which is roughly triple the rate for the overall Israeli Jewish population. Thus, the Forward reported in August 2007 that : "In the 15 years from 1992 to 2007, the proportion of Jewish children attending state-secular elementary schools dropped to 55% of the total from 67%; in 2012 it is projected to fall to 51%. The percentage attending Haredi schools, meanwhile, went from 12.4% in 1992 to 26.7% in 2007 and a projected 31% in 2012."

The rapid growth of the ultra-Orthodox community has significant consequences for Israel, because only 30 percent of Haredi men work and very few of them serve in the military. More generally, it means that they are likely to play a major role in running Israel in the decades ahead. It is worth noting that in the recent mayoral race in Jerusalem, the ultra-Orthodox candidate, Meir Porush, said that, "In another fifteen years there will not be a secular mayor in any city in Israel, except for perhaps in some far-flung village." He was exaggerating for sure, but his comment captures where Israel is headed, and why Burg worries about rabbis running the state.

The second trend is the large number of Israelis who have emigrated to North America and Europe, and are unlikely to return home. According to most estimates, there are roughly 5.3 million Israeli Jews and 5.2 million Palestinians living in Greater Israel. There are also about 300,000 individuals living in Israel who the Central Bureau of Statistics defines as "others." Most are family members of Jewish immigrants or individuals who have Jewish ancestors, but not a Jewish mother, and therefore are not categorized as Jews by the Israeli government. If one counts these "others" as Jews, then there are 5.6 million Israeli Jews, not 5.3 million. Let's do that, which means that there are 5.6 million Israeli Jews and 5.2 million Palestinians. However, not all of those Jews live in Israel anymore. It is difficult to get firm numbers on how many Israelis live abroad, because the government stopped publishing those numbers in the early 1970s. Based on various articles on the subject and conversations I had when I was in Israel this past June, it seems safe to assume that at least 750,000 Israelis live outside its borders. This means that there are now fewer Jews than Palestinians living in Greater Israel, even if you count the 300,000 "others" as Jews.

Furthermore, there is considerable evidence that a substantial number of Israeli Jews would like to leave Israel if they could. In an article that just appeared in the National Interest, John Mueller and Ian Lustick report that "a recent survey indicates that only 69 percent of Jewish Israelis say they want to stay in the country, and a 2007 poll finds that one-quarter of Israelis are considering leaving, including almost half of all young people. They go on to report that, "in another survey, 44 percent of Israelis say they would be ready to leave if they could find a better standard of living elsewhere. Over 100,000 Israelis have acquired European passports."* I would bet that most of those Israelis who have opted to live in the Diaspora are secular and politically moderate, at least in the Israeli context. It is also worth noting that there has been limited immigration into Israel since the early 1990s, and in some years, the emigrants outnumber the immigrants.

This data seems to confirm Burg's point that Israeli society is becoming more religious and less secular, and that the political center of gravity is much further to the right than it used to be. I can think of five possible implications of this evolving situation.

First, these trends will surely make it less likely that Israel will leave the West Bank and allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own. Greater Israel is going to be a fact of life, if it already isn't.

Second, it seems clear that the Jews are going to badly outnumbered by the Palestinians in Greater Israel. The one key demographic fact that I did not include above is that the average Palestinian woman has approximately 4.6 children, while the Israeli figure is about 2.6 children. Greater Israel will be an apartheid state.

Third, young Israelis who think like Burg are likely to become increasingly uncomfortable living in Israel, and find the idea of living in Europe or North America increasingly attractive. And Europe, which will be facing wicked demographic problems down the road, is likely to welcome - if not try to attract - those Israelis who want to immigrate there.

Fourth, it is likely to be increasingly difficult for pro-Israel forces in the United States to make the case that Washington should maintain its "special relationship" with Israel, because the two countries have "common values." There is not much similarity in terms of core values between the emerging Israel and contemporary America.

Fifth, it also seems apparent that it is going to be increasingly difficult for American Jews, especially younger ones, to identify with Israel and feel a deep attachment to it, which is essential for maintaining the special relationship.

In sum, Israel is in trouble, which is why Americans of all persuasions - especially those who purport to be Israel's friends - should read Burg's important book and start talking about it.



http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/12/the_changing_face_of_israel/

[bemildred]

10. Yes, that is part of it.

But it's hard to point to much of anything that in going in the right direction. And it all goes back to the occupation and the settler-Haredi welfare state and the consequences of maintaining that and defending that and expanding that and so on. If you dance with the devil, he is going to call the tune.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I agree it's a ridiculously short sentence...

but a good thing they got punished at all; maybe the next person will think twice.