Israeli Unexceptionalism

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned the 'appalling' violence in Libya, where protesters are trying to topple Moamer Gathafi. 'It's appalling what's happening in Libya, where a regime's army is firing blindly and intentionally on its own people', Netanyahu told a press conference... 'It requires a strong and clear condemnation from the civilised world and even more so from the democratic world', Netanyahu said." ('Kind' Netanyahu condemns Gathafi 'for firing blindly on civilians', middle-east-online.com, 24/2/11)

Yes, it's appalling, absolutely appalling! I mean, it's OK, de rigueur even, for Israel to knock off Palestinian civilians (2,996 from 29/9/00 - 26/9/10 according to B'Tselem*), but what Israeli in his right mind would order something like this:

"The 22 men lie in groups, face down, inside what appears to be a sheep pen on a desert road. Most have had their hands bound behind them with plastic FlexiCuffs. Each has been shot in the back of the head... The phone footage is claimed to show a group of Libyan soldiers who were executed after attempting to desert their posts near Tripoli. Some of the dead wear green Libyan army fatigues, others the camouflage uniform of police paramilitary units. A few are in civilian dress." (First evidence of Libyan executions, Tom Coghlan, The Times/The Australian, 3/3/11)

Someone like this maybe:

"Maj. Gen. (res) Yakov Amidror, a leading candidate for the national security advisor post, told a conference last year that soldiers should kill anyone who gets in the way of completing their mission - and that soldiers who refuse to attack should be shot, too. 'A soldier who won't attack when they tell him 'forward' because he says, 'Two soldiers to my right and two to my left have been killed, so I won't move' - any normal military system should put a bullet in his head, and a liberal system should put him in jail', Amidror said, speaking at a conference organized by the Israel Democracy Institute on 'National Values in the Israel Defense Forces'." ('IDF soldiers who won't fight should be shot', says national security advisor candidate, Levinson & Mualem, Haaretz, 2/3/11)

[* 27 Sept. '10: 10 years to the second Intifada - summary of data, btselem.org]