Subtle Loyalties to Zionism

by Kim Petersen

www.dissidentvoice.org

July 4, 2006

"Everything must be done to win Gilad Shalit's 
release," writes Gideon Levy of the captured 
Israeli fighter in his most recent piece. [1]
Levy who laments that "Israelis [are] totally 
indifferent to the sufferings of the other" [2] is 
well regarded in progressive circles for his 
articles that decry the daily suffering of 
Palestinians at the hands of the occupiers. A 
closer examination of his recent article, however, 
reveals that the difference between Levy and the 
occupation regime is more nuance than substance.
Why, for example, does Levy not list off the names 
of all the Palestinians held prisoner by the 
Zionist regime and declare: "Everything must be 
done to win their release"?
According to Ayed Abueqtaish, a former political 
prisoner and presently a research co-coordinator 
with Defense for Children International in 
Ramallah, since the outbreak of the second 
intifada, over 30,000 Palestinians have been 
arrested by the occupiers, of which 9,000 remain 
in prison. Ten percent of those arrested are 
children; 400 children were still in the occupiers' 
prison. [3]
Typically, the children are arrested in an assault 
by Zionist troops while in their homes. This, 
according to the soft-spoken Abueqtaish, is 
designed to terrify Palestinians. The children are 
beaten and cursed before being taken away to 
prison, where they are subjected to both physical 
and psychological torture.
The Palestinians are under assault, but Levy's 
article is replete with euphemistic language. He 
writes of the "'rolling' operation in Gaza" and 
the "'summer rains' we are showering on Gaza." He 
writes of a "weekend lull," as if the Palestinians 
have ever had a lull during their 39 years of 
occupation.
He refers to the "steps" of cutting off 
electricity, clearing Palestinian towns, and 
"penetrating" (not "violating") Syrian airspace as 
"illegitimate." These "steps" are war crimes and 
acts of aggression. Levy adds, "The harsher the 
steps, the more monstrous and stupid they become, 
the more the moral underpinnings for them are 
removed."
What moral underpinnings did such "steps" ever 
have? The entire occupation is devoid of morality. 
In the absence of morality, of what use are moral 
underpinnings? Any claims to morality cannot be 
made so long as the occupation continues, so long 
as the occupiers torture, so long as Palestinians 
languish in the prisons of occupiers, so long as 
the results of ethnic cleansing remain in place, 
so long as Palestinian refugees are denied the 
right of return.
But Levy peppers his article with 10 mentions of 
"legitimacy," as if that is the concern. There is, 
however, no legitimacy to the occupation. If the 
occupation, itself, is illegitimate (a euphemism 
for "evil"), then everything originating from it 
is likeliest illegitimate. Does evil spawn good?
Levy also repeats the falsehood that Shalit was 
kidnapped. That he also refers to the kidnapping 
of two Palestinian civilians does not balance his 
writing. Shalit is a soldier. Soldiers are not 
kidnapped; they are prisoners of war.
Although no one should wish Shalit harm, by virtue 
of his choice to serve in the occupation forces, 
he is not a sympathetic character. The occupation 
forces hinder and prevent passage of the 
Palestinian people across their territory; they 
humiliate and heap abuse on the Palestinian 
people; they brutalize and murder Palestinians. 
The occupation army wages a grotesquely asymmetric 
war against Palestinian people.
But he describes the army's response as "a 
widescale act of vengeance ... mostly motivated by 
the deep frustration that the army commanders feel 
about their impotence against the Qassams and the 
daring Palestinian guerilla raid." Levy implies 
that the horror "showering" upon the Palestinians 
in Gaza is the revenge of a "frustrated" army. The 
murders of many Palestinians before the guerrilla 
raid that captured Shalit were seemingly 
non-provocatory; hence, Levy denies Palestinians 
revenge and makes them the instigators of the 
Zionist assault in Gaza.
Levy's sympathies are manifest. His primary 
concern is for Shalit and the future of the regime 
whose inexperience "does not bode well, not only 
for the chances of freeing Shalit, but also for 
the future management of the government." How 
about the Palestinians? How does this bode for the 
people that Levy disparages as "miserable."
Levy further asserts, "The legitimate basis for 
the IDF's operation was stripped away the moment 
it began." What possible "legitimate basis" did 
the frustrated army ever have? Levy never 
enlightens the reader about this.
Elsewhere Levy revealingly writes: "[W]e are a 
state and they are a terror organization." Levy 
did not write that Israel is an illegitimate 
terror state. He chooses to demonize the 
Palestinians -- who have the unmentioned 
legitimate right to fight occupation -- as 
terrorists.
Levy feebly notes, "Collective punishment is 
illegitimate and it does not have a smidgeon of 
intelligence." Collective punishment is a 
euphemism for terror inflicted on the Palestinian 
people. It is much more than unintelligent; it is 
a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Ergo, 
the perpetrators are war criminals.
Levy is a wordsmith by trade. As such, he is fully 
aware of the content of his writing. Supporters of 
the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people 
must beware of the skillful guising of Zionist 
loyalties through the _expression of a professed 
concern for the Palestinians.

Kim Petersen, Co-Editor of Dissident Voice, lives 
in the traditional Mi'kmaq homeland colonially 
designated Nova Scotia, Canada. He can be reached 
at: kim@dissidentvoice.org.

ENDNOTES
[1] Gideon Levy, "A black flag," Haaretz, 2 July 
2006.

[2] Claude Lévesque, "Gideon Levy, the voice of 
Palestinians in Israel," Le Devoir, 6 March 2006.

[3] From speech organized by the Sumoud Political 
Prisoners Solidarity Group on second annual Free 
Palestinian Political Prisoners presented at St. 
Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia on 6 April 
2006.