Israel's Abu Ghraib!

A Warning! This post speaks of horrid acts and links to video of what is unquestionably atrocity of the highest order: exposed Kosher butt!

From AFP, which last I checked is – French – a people well noted for their modesty and who are “shocked, shocked” at any excessive display of human flesh:

“The Israeli Army said on Sunday that it had suspended several soldiers after they were filmed exposing their bare buttocks to Palestinians in the south of the occupied West Bank.…

On Sunday the YNet news website posted a video, filmed and first distributed by a peace activist group last week, that shows two soldiers in full combat gear exposing their buttocks and a third flashing a victory sign with his fingers.

The video was said to have been shot...with the troops allegedly exposing themselves to Palestinian shepherds in order to try and make them leave an area near the flashpoint city.

"The soldiers frustrated with the failure of the Lebanon war could finally make a victory sign by showing their posteriors to unarmed Palestinians," Israeli Arab MP Ahmed Tibi told YNet in condemning the incident.
Copyright AFP 2007, AFP”

I mean, has a War Crimes Tribunal been called into session? Oh, the humanity….!

Okay, I wanted to see the video. Not, however, for any prurient interest in the aforesaid Kosher butt, but on a hunch. It paid off. So, to YNet:

Hebron: IDF soldiers expose themselves to Palestinians

Peace activist films Israeli soldiers exposing rear ends to Palestinian shepherds.

MK Tibi: Incident IDF's Abu Ghraib.

IDF soldiers...exposed their rear ends to Palestinians in an attempt to make them evacuate nearby grazing fields, Palestinian sources and foreign peace activists claimed Sunday.

Sean, the foreign peace activist who filmed the soldiers, said activists and foreign volunteers from a Christian organization were escorting Palestinians in the south Mount Hebron area to protect them from local Jewish settlers when the soldiers arrived.

"It was around noon; we were accompanying shepherds...because the settlers regularly hassle them and throw stones in our direction," he recounted.

"The settlers demanded that the shepherds evacuate the area, and IDF soldiers who arrived at the scene also attempted to clear the Palestinian shepherds from their grazing fields; then, in the middle of the argument and for no apparent reason, the soldiers pulled down their pants and exposed their rear ends to us."

…MK Ahmad Tibi...said the footage was "Abu Ghraib prison, IDF-style… the soldiers of any occupation are immoral by definition, but the IDF soldiers who exposed themselves have long been stripped of their humane values.

"It's not surprising that this vile act happened in the (West Bank city of) Hebron. The Israeli society should be shamed by this footage, especially the families who raised such monsters," added Tibi.

Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh said that "…the Israeli army is deteriorating… these days it seems that that's not only the soldiers of occupation's moral standard, it just might be their ultimate weapon."

Wow! “IDF's Abu Ghraib…immoral by definition…stripped of their humane values… vile act…monsters…!!!!!!”

Hey, MK Ahmad Tibi, they mooned the camera! I mean, some perspective, please! Somebody else can Google Mr.Tibi for where he used terms like “immoral by definition”, “stripped of their humane values”, “vile act” and “monsters” when he was talking about people who would walk into a market and blow themselves and a crowd of men, women and children to pieces, or folks who would launch rockets at schools, or….you know!

Okay, go watch the video, or at least the male readers, as quite possibly the female ones went searching for it some time back. I believe my hunch panned out. The display of Kosher butt was intended for the peace activist with the camera. I mean, if you can point a butt, those were aimed, targeted, precision guided to the lens. Waving the peace sign at the camera nailed it!

And what’s with AFP’s “…and a third flashing a victory sign with his fingers.” Are they implying an alternative means was available to the soldiers to flash the peace sign? Well, they’re French! We’re better off not knowing.

The cameraman was with a group called Christian PeaceMaker Teams. According to their site, the group:

- Monitors treatment of Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints and roadblocks.
- Intervenes during Israeli military invasions of Palestinian homes.
- Continues regular visits, along with Israeli peace activists, to Palestinian families facing harassment from Israeli settlers
- Provides daily accompaniment for Palestinian children walking to and from school
- Accompanies Palestinian shepherds and farmers to fields where they are exposed to assault by extremist settlers
- Joins Israeli peace groups to replant olive groves destroyed by settlers
- Joins Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in acts of public nonviolent resistance to Israel's construction of a "security wall" which cuts through Palestinian territory.

The site must still be under construction because that peace group’s bullet list of actions has not yet been updated to include the stuff about working to prevent indiscriminate rocket attacks, suicide bombings, kidnappings and the like against Israelis.

Here’s the thing. Shepherds, like farmers and ranchers, tend to livestock. Animals. Those critters, of whatever variety – do…things! Things that maybe shouldn’t be seen. They do things without any concern with who may or may not be watching. My experience has been that people who spend a lot of time or even grow up around livestock tend to be pretty ho-hum about some of nature’s taking its course. I mean, would mooning drive off shepherds? AFP had “exposing themselves to Palestinian shepherds in order to try and make them leave an area”. MK Mohammad Barakeh said of exposing Kosher butt that “it just might be their ultimate weapon.”

Well, okay then! Maybe they weren’t just mooning the activists! If flashing butt drives off Palestinians, it IS an “ultimate weapon” and there could be peace in the Middle East like - tomorrow. Mooning may be a vile, inhumane and monstrous weapon to use…but so far as I know the Geneva Convention hasn’t caught up to it yet! Expect Carl Levin to grill AG Mukasey on this shortly, before our guys start using this tactic against AQI.

Oh, and MK Ahmad Tibi gives it away that there are Muslim Arab folks who know full well what much of the uproar over Lynndie England/Charles Graner/Abu Ghraib photos really was.