Soccer Dad

Lesson not Learned

Earlier I objected to the way the Israeli government was making accusations about threats from the political Right. (Since then, those extremists made a human chain from Gaza to Jerusalem. The horror.)

In September 1995 the Washington Post reported:

Five armed men in Israeli army uniforms, some of them masked, terrorized this Arab village in the early morning hours today, forcing their way into private homes and interrogating Palestinians they met

They shot one young man to death as his father watched, bound at the hands and helpless to intercede, witnesses said.

The killing of Salman Zamareh, was immediately siezed upon by the Labor government as an excuse to crack down on the Jews of Chevron. A phone call from the group calling itself Eyal took credit.

Of course a week later, the truth came to light:

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, interviewed on Israeli television at the time, suggested he believed the extremist claims. He called those responsible for the shooting "a stain on the country" and said "these people bring upon us not less damage than the terrorists on the other side."

But today the police said they had "uncovered the perpetrators of the murder," and they were all Halhoul residents with robbery as their motive.

The police announcement said three men were in custody and a fourth suspect whose identity was known was being sought. The announcement did not name the detained men but said they were "cooperating" with the investigation by the police, army and Shin Bet internal security service.

It was later learned that Eyal was probably not a group, but one individual, Avishai Raviv. There had to have been those in the government (including, I suspect Peres) who knew that Eyal was a fiction; part of the GSS's effort to delegitimize the nationalist camp.

Those in government who knew that Eyal was a fiction were guilty of obstructing justice in a murder investigation. Yet no one has been held accountable.

There's another disturbing aspect to this issue and that is was whether the GSS knew of Amir's plan or not. Certainly Raviv did and was acquitted even though he clearly had more of a reason to believe Amir than Margalit Har Shefi did.

It bothers me a lot that the Sharon government is stooping to this level of marginilizing its opponents. The article in Arab News shows that making such claims bear costs even if there's no evidence that these charges are true.

I hope that the Prime Minister and his allies distance themselves from this distasteful tactic.

I'm not saying that there are no people in Israel who would consider harming the PM and his allies. What I am saying is that the number of those people is very small and that when ministers make outrageous claims tarring a large group of people as potential assassins, it is truly offensive.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at July 29, 2004 03:51 PM | TrackBack