In the U.S., those who oppose Israel’s atrocities are getting hit by accusations of anti-Semitism. This reflects a nation in decline, that no longer knows how to make sense of itself.
Outside Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, on Oct. 9. (Palestinian News & Information Agency. or Wafa, for APAimages, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
By Patrick Lawrence
ScheerPost
Diego Ramos, ScheerPost’s managing editor, forwarded me a video clip last week he thought I ought to see. Sending it under the subject line, “Disturbing trend in Israel,” my colleague must have reckoned I have not been sufficiently shocked by the events in Israel and Gaza since Hamas mounted an assault into southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the Israeli Defense Forces began a purposely disproportionate response to the incursion — purposely disproportionate as a matter of official policy since David Ben–Gurion put it in place during his premiership in the 1950s.
Diego did his disturbing work. The video he forwarded outdoes it all so far by provoking a disgust as profound as any I have ever felt. It features a number of scenes wherein Israelis record themselves sadistically ridiculing Palestinians in the most cravenly cruel manner. They imitate Palestinian children dying or starving. They apply racially offensive makeup.