The rejection that made Netanyahu’s fascist government nervous
What was Brigade Commander Elbaz looking for in the law-breaker’s family home? ■ Elbaz is not an altruist. He chose to devote the chapter in his life to enforcing the Occupation and Apartheid and defending the illegal settlement enterprise, which is full of violence, cruelty and robbery towards the Palestinian population
By Rogel Alpher • (Translated by Sol Salbe)
The insults directed at Colonel Eliav Elbaz, commander of the Binyamin Brigade, and his ejection from the family home of Harel Massoud, one of the victims of the Eli attack, made Benjamin Netanyahu’s fascist government nervous. Such rude behaviour towards a senior combat officer is unpopular with the public. It isn’t only [protest leader] Shikma Bressler who disliked it, so did Likud voters. Netanyahu said it was a disgrace, Smotrich declared it shameful. Even Ben-Gvir tweeted some feeble half-condemnation. And Orit Strock was quick to apologise again.
Elbaz came to the Massoud home to comfort mourners. He wanted to hug and bolster them. Instead, he found himself receiving a condolence phone call himself, from Defence Minister Gallant, who these days seemed less concerned about the damage caused by the renewed legal coup than by the insult to Colonel Elbaz’s. In general, the entire television cosmos saw fit to extol the latter’s devotion. They almost shed tears there: he dedicates his life to Israel, out of pure love for the country, and asks for nothing in return; He sacrifices his time with his children and does not see them on the weekend, out of total devotion to the people. And so on, gushing accolades that exalt, but are false.
Colonel Elbaz is not an altruist. He chose to devote the chapter in his life as commander of the Binyamin Brigade, the current stage of his military career, to enforcing the Occupation and Apartheid and defending the illegal settlement enterprise, which is full of violence, cruelty and robbery towards the Palestinian population. Elbaz’s current job is immoral. Whether he implements the Occupation out of ideological conviction and belief in its righteousness or from a position of following orders and advancing his career, it does not matter.
The bottom line is the same. He seeks to succeed in his role, and his role is kind of evil. Even his war on Palestinian terrorism is problematic because this terrorism stems from the Occupation and is intended to remove it. History also teaches us that it cannot be eradicated over time. As long as there is an Occupation, there will be terrorism. In this aspect of his role, Elbaz is Sisyphus. Rolling the boulder up the mountain only to watch it roll back down, where the next brigade commander is already waiting for it.
Not only does Elbaz not deserve praise for the career path he has chosen, but the latest incident raises another question: What was he looking for there, in the Massoud home? Their son belonged to a particularly violent outpost called Ma’ale Ahuvia. He was a law-breaker and a violent nationalist racist. And this outpost, along with the entire protest movement over the death of Ahuviya Sandak, has a history of Jewish terrorism: dozens of arson incidents, assaults and stone-throwing against Palestinians. Not every murdered person deserves a condolence visit from a senior state figure. Elbaz’s very arrival at the place is illegitimate and attests to the toxic symbiosis between the hilltop boys and their private militia, the IDF.
Original article in Hebrew. Translated by Sol Salbe, Middle East News Service
