drones and the death of democracy . israeli style

Israel is more than just the inspiration for America's way of fighting its wars.  A partner in crime would be the best way to put it.  The crime is, of course, the destruction of Democracy  throughout the world.

This is a longish and detailed article . Definitely worth the reading, though.

In today’s Times (Jan. 30), however, an op-ed piece appeared, “Why Palestine Should Take Israel to Court in The Hague,” written by George Bisharat, on the faculty of the (U. of Calif) Hastings College of Law and a frequent CounterPunch contributor, which forced me awake to the obvious:  The interrelateness between US drones and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, as per the two articles, is the common element of war crimes, war crimes revealing much about the two societies

 Heller is a superlative guide into the Israeli mind—my congratulations (and to Bronner for quoting him):  “’There has been a nagging sense of uncertainty in the last couple of years of whether anyone is really afraid of Israel anymore,’ he said.  ‘The concern is that in the past—perhaps a mythical past—people didn’t mess with Israel because they were afraid of the consequences.  Now the region is filled with provocative rhetoric about Israel the paper tiger.  This operation is an attempt to re-establish the perception that if you provoke or attack you are going to pay adisproportionate price.’” (Italics, mine)

Heller’s statement, which it appears is fairly typical of what one hears among defense intellectuals, in the US and Israel (themselves, together, a tightly-wound group), invites a judgment of psychopathology, as in his remark about “a mythical past,” which comes down to a golden age of stirring fear in the hearts of others, to which its opposite is mated, the obsession with weakness, as in the remark about being considered a “paper tiger,” a thought too horrible or unsettling to contemplate, which in turn calls for the resolution, a supreme manifestation of bullying to allay all fears and resolve all doubts–the “disproportionate price” to be exacted or inflicted on all comers who threaten this fragile self-image of doubt, aggression, ego-loss, our collective ubermensch in search of conquest of those still weaker.  The banner has “overkill” inscribed on it, lest the victim fight back, resist, or even penetrate the façade of emptiness, in full heroic dress.  There is something pathetic about the doctrine and practice of exacting a “disproportionate price” at every occasion, as though doubting one’s own internal strength and moral core, in this case perfectly understandable.

 Daniel Reisner’s pronouncement, “International law progresses through violations,” so obviously cynical as to jeopardize the existence of the rule of law, a lesson Americans refuse to take to heart when Obama has done, and continues to do, precisely the same thing.  Drone warfare is an abomination; its purpose, assassination, requires condemnation even stronger.  Failure to divulge the legal memoranda providing justification for this vile practice itself speaks to exactly the same fear motivating Israel vis-à-vis the Palestinians, the need to fend off accusations of war crimes, or even the initiation of investigations to that end






When I refer to the eclipse of democracy, this can be seen in and between the lines of each account, the distortions  of law, the interrelatedness of illegal murder, the depravity when it comes to violating human sacredness.  

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/05/drones-israel-and-the-eclipse-of-democracy/