Pars Today

Pars Today- An American Jewish historian has written an article on Guardian about the way Israelis deal with their army's crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.

Omer Bartov, Israeli-American historian, who has researched and taught on the history of genocide for years, traveled to the Occupied Palestine a few months after the start of Gaza war to visit his family and friends, but what he saw in this trip astounded him.

According to Pars Today, Bartov in his article on Guardian, pointed to his speech in Ben Gurion University and wrote,

"In late 1987, when the first Intifada began, I was disgusted with the order of then Israeli War Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who had told the military forces (IDF) to break the arms and legs of the Palestinians who threw stones at the armed-to-the-teeth Israelis."

Bartov added, "A that time, I wrote a letter to Rabin and warned that, according to my studies on brainwashing of the Nazi military in Germany, I'm afraid that the IDF would march in the same dangerous course. To my amazement, a few days later, I received his answer, writing, 'How do you dare to liken IDF to the German Nazi army?'"

This historian made it clear that this letter revealed the change of Rabin's thought as his active role in the Oslo Accords, shows that finally he realized that Israel would not tolerate in the long-term the military, political and moral costs of occupation of Palestine.

Bartov, referring to Operation al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023, reiterated, "The October 7 attack of Hamas was a great shock for Israelis, a shock which Israel has not yet come out of. It was the first time that Israel lost the control of part of the [occupied] territories for a long time and IDF failed to prevent the "carnage" of more than 1200, captivity of some 200 and homelessness of scores of thousands of Israelis."

Mentioning that there are two predominant feelings among people and opponents of the government, he made it clear that they are the feeling coupled with anger and fear, and the feeling of senselessness.

Bartov further wrote,

"The Israeli people, which 57 years of their 76-year history has been intertwined with savage occupation, have got accustomed to this issue, but the magnitude of crimes in Gaza and indifference of most Israelis to what happens there, in their name, has been unprecedented."

This Jewish historian continued, "In 1982, hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against the Christian Maronite paramilitaries who had massacred Palestinians of Sabra and Shatila camps of refugees in western Beirut. But, today, this reaction is unimaginable towards the attacks on Gaza."

Bartov added, "Two days after Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the Israeli War Minister, Yoav Gallant, announced, 'We fight with animal-like humans and we should do what they deserve.' Then he added, 'Israel will destroy different regions of Gaza one after the other.'"

This Israeli-America historian stressed, "The logic of permanent violence is just this, the logic which permits individuals to destroy the whole population of the enemy and consider it quite justifiable. The logic of being victim is the same, too, 'We should kill them before they kill us, as they have killed before.'"

Key phrases: war of Israel and Gaza, Israeli crimes, Operation al-Aqsa Storm, Palestinian martyrs

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