Israeli Defense Force's Theory

"When the military talks theory to itself, it seems to be about changing its organizational structure and hierarchies. When it invokes theory in communications with the public – in lectures, broadcasts and publications – it seems to be about projecting an image of a civilized and sophisticated military. And when the military 'talks' (as every military does) to the enemy, theory could be understood as a particularly intimidating weapon of 'shock and awe', the message being: 'You will never even understand that which kills you.'"

excerpt from excellent piece by Eyal Weizman
"The Art of War: Deleuze, Guattari, Debord and the Israeli Defense Force"

bird pets cat

Cat and parrot

benazir bhutto's daughter's hip hop song

the Gaza syndrome

An Experiment in Provocation

Stealing Gaza

By BRIAN ENO
It's a tragedy that the Israelis - a people who must understand better than almost anybody the horrors of oppression - are now acting as oppressors. As the great Jewish writer Primo Levi once remarked "Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it's the Palestinians". By creating a middle Eastern version of the Warsaw ghetto they are recapitulating their own history as though they've forgotten it. And by trying to paint an equivalence between the Palestinians - with their homemade rockets and stone-throwing teenagers - and themselves - with one of the most sophisticated military machines in the world - they sacrifice all credibility.

The Israelis are a gifted and resourceful people who fully deserve the right to live in peace, but who seem intent on squandering every chance to allow that to happen. It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that this conflict serves the political and economic purposes of Israel so well that they have every interest in maintaining it. While there is fighting they can continue to build illegal settlements. While there is fighting they continue to receive huge quantities of military aid from the United States. And while there is fighting they can avoid looking candidly at themselves and the ruthlessness into which they are descending.

Gaza is now an experiment in provocation. Stuff one and a half million people into a tiny space, stifle their access to water, electricity, food and medical treatment, destroy their livelihoods, and humiliate them regularly...and, surprise, surprise - they turn hostile. Now why would you want to make that experiment?
Because the hostility you provoke is the whole point. Now 'under attack' you can cast yourself as the victim, and call out the helicopter gunships and the F16 attack fighters and the heavy tanks and the guided missiles, and destroy yet more of the pathetic remains of infrastructure that the Palestinian state still has left. And then you can point to it as a hopeless case, unfit to govern itself, a terrorist state, a state with which you couldn't possibly reach an accommodation.
And then you can carry on with business as usual, quietly stealing their homeland.

Brian Eno is a musician and music producer.
link to article

According to one recent study, more than 60 per cent of Gaza's 1.5 million people suffer from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder – the result of economic distress, social breakdown, and frequent Israeli military strikes aimed at Palestinian militants and their infrastructure, strikes that often claim civilian lives.

Tawahina has a term for the resulting condition. He calls it the Gaza syndrome, and it so far seems to be an incurable state. But the current Israeli offensive, which has claimed more than 370 lives, is worse than anything he has known.

"Parents are sitting totally powerless, facing their fate," Tawahina said. "The people in Gaza are like experimental animals. Put them in a cage. Expose them to electrical shocks from all sides. Then they will stay in the middle of the cage, helpless and doing nothing.

"This is the situation of the people in Gaza.