“In my opinion, only this type of opposition that I’ve chosen will put an end to the madness that is going on now and will shatter the false feeling that the entire home front supports this unnecessary war that is based on deceptive considerations”
Spero News
These are the words of Reserve Staff Sergeant Itzik Shabbat, 28. He is the first conciencious objector to the Israeli attack on Lebanon.
On Saturday, in Tel Aviv, around 2000 Israelis joined protests across the world demanding an end to hostilities between Lebanon and their country. They also encouraged members of the Israeli military to refuse to participate.
Objecting to Israeli military action by men in uniform is nothing new. Democracy Now! spoke to one such soldier on Friday and Monday…
Yonatan Shapira is a
Former Captain in the Israeli Air Force Reserves. In 2003 Yonatan initiated the group of Israeli Air Force pilots who refused to fly attack missions on Palestinian territories. He is the co-founder of Combatants for Peace.
He spoke with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales about his refusal to run air attacks in Palestine. He was being interviewed with Uri Zaki (chair of the Young Meretz, of the Meretz Peace Party). About this latest conflict, he states:
First of all, this morning I talked to one of the leaders of Meretz, Zehava Galon, and she agreed with me that international pressure must be applied on the state of Israel, on the government of Israel, to force them to stop this crazy operation that eventually can cause to a nuclear war. We know that the situation in the Middle East is very fragile, and the Bush administration do not need much things to happen in order to get us all involved in a regional war and maybe a world war. These are things who are much more dangerous for us from missiles in Haifa. The situation can get much worse.
And tell me, please, why do you think that killing innocent Lebanese, by now 330, most of them civilians, children and women, why do you think that killing these innocent people will bring you some kind of security? It’s the same kind of logic to think that if you kill Lebanese civilians, you will force them to bring Israel security or to press the Hezbollah is the same kind of logic that maybe Nastrallah is trying to shoot Israeli cities and forcing, by that, the Israeli people to convince the Israeli government to stop this war. It’s the same kind of insanity.
And although — just last important thing — although it’s not the same situation in Gaza and in the Occupied Territories and in Lebanon, the same insanity and the same cruelty and the same stupidity of our leaders is now being on the spot. This is the danger, because the leaders of this country now and in the Lieutenant General, General Halutz, who is now leading this crazy war, will not hesitate to get Syria and to get Iran involved, and this is my greatest fear.
Mr. Shapira goes on to state that he believes that there must be continued international pressure to stop this insanity. Domestically, he feels that more soldiers must continue to refuse to participate in this institutionalized madness.
You know, it’s insanity, and it’s a lie because my government now is refusing to cease fire. How can you in one hand cry about missiles that are attacking yourself, you, your family in Haifa, in Afula, in Kiryat Shmona, and at the same time refuse to cease fire? The same aspiration, the same idea that you can just kill and annihilate all of Hezbollah is the same logic of Nasrallah, that will kill all Israel or this kind of nonsense. And there is a lot of mental disorder issues here. And that’s why I don’t think that the solution for this situation will come from within the Israeli politics. That’s why we have to work both from external pressure and internal pressure. The external pressure will be led by Israelis and Jewish people around the world with all the other human rights activists, and the internal pressure will be led by soldiers who refuse to participate in these war crimes.
I encourage you to read / view / or listen to Friday’sand Monday’sDemocracy Now! program which hilights this dissent coming from within Israel. It is a view ignored in the corporate media in the U.S.
I also encourage you to go view this diary of mine from a few days ago about an Israeli professor in Haifa who is also strongly protesting this attack on Lebanon.