A fantasy about Israel as ISIS
A longing for torture, for causing sadistic pain. Not as a means of extracting information from the Hamas commander, but as a way to hurt him for some collective national pleasure. His execution would satisfy a lust for revenge, at the price of barbarisation of Israeli society. When a state authorises itself to kill, and turns state-sponsored execution into an embodiment of the concept of justice, the result is barbarisation.
By Rogel Alpher • Translated by Sol Salbe
“A death sentence. Full stop,” declared Lt Col (res) Benny Meir, after a screening of a Shin Bet video which has been released to the Daily Mail. The video shows a Nukhba [Hamas commando unit] terrorist telling how he, his father and his cousin raped and murdered an Israeli woman on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. Will killing the terrorist change the fate of the murdered woman in any way? Nope. Will killing him deter future terrorists? No. His execution would satisfy a lust for revenge, at the price of barbarisation of Israeli society. When a state authorises itself to kill, and turns state-sponsored execution into an embodiment of the concept of justice, the result is barbarisation. As evidence, the United States, where executions are common in many of its states, is indeed a very violent society, which in many ways sanctifies violence.
Presenter Ayala Hasson is not really satisfied with mere violence. “Believe me,” she declared in a tone of admiration for US violence, “the Americans wouldn’t let him live.” Before she could finish the sentence, Meir enthusiastically completed her remarks — “even for a minute,” he stressed. “A minute!” he emphasised. “A minute!” he stressed for the third time. “ They wouldn’t let him live after such statements,” Hasson stated knowingly, “they would take him to some Guantanamo or another and treat him appropriately.”
Hasson expressed a longing for torture, for causing sadistic pain. Not as a means of extracting information from the terrorist (we can see, he is not backward in coming forward with information), but as a way to hurt him for some collective national pleasure. Then Hasson paused for a blink of an eye, pondering the intricacies of the situation, and added: “With a white-hot iron.” I mean, she’s really fantasising; Imagining the scene in her mind’s eye. Brig Gen (res) Effi Eitam detailed the manner of execution: “We will have to hang the Nukhbas in our hands until they snuff it.” This can be interpreted as if he is referring to mass executions, perhaps in the city square, hanging from cranes, as in Tehran.
Lt Col (res) Amit Yagur (Hasson surrounds herself with reserve officers, and sits at the head of the table taking the role of Chief of Staff) called for a Nuremberg-style trials, but Eitam could no longer hold back: “Sorry for interrupting you, at the end of the legal process… There should be gallows. You can’t compromise with anything less than that,” he clarified. Once again, there was a sense of spectacle, a conveyor belt of executions, as in the revolutionary terror in Paris at the end of the 18th century. Nukhba fighters blood flowing through the sewers. A direct telecast on all channels. And the only goal is to satisfy a murderous lust for revenge, state barbarism; lethal injections in basements are for children’s games.
After the whiten-hot iron in the style of Latin American juntas in the 1970s, at the end of show trials, there will be show-executions, This is a fantasy about Israel as Da’esh (ISIS).
Translated by Sol Salbe, Middle East News Service
First published by Haaretz Hebrew original:
