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Israeli New Chief of Staff…Champ of "Killings"
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Mofaz
(C), outgoing chief of military staff, Yaalon (L) and Halutz at
the handing-over ceremony. (Reuters)
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, June 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
appointment of Dan Halutz as Israeli army's new chief of staff
Wednesday, June 1, was best described by a famous Israeli writer as
"a man lacking moral inhibitions".
Halutz
is known as the mastermind of the policy of aerial extra-judicial
execution of Palestinian anti-occupation activists and his official
replacement of Moshe Ya'alon as Chief of Staff of the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF), was likely to draw more than just concern.
While
Halutz's first task will be overseeing the Gaza Strip pullout,
speculation has already begun to focus on how he will tackle what the
political establishment now regards as Israel's biggest strategic
threat – Iran, reported Agence France (AFP).
Chosen
by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Halutz is the first man with an air
force background to be chosen as chief of staff in the history of the
Jewish state. He is also of Iranian origin.
But
the controversy over Halutz himself is stemming from his own record,
especially in overseeing one of Israel's most-condemned
anti-resistance tactics; namely extra-judicial killings.
Halutz
ordered the drop of one-ton bomb on an apartment in a residential
building in Gaza on July 22, 2002 to extra-judicially kill Palestinian
leading activist Salah Shehadeh, but killed also 9 children among 15
women and bystanders, after which he was quoted as saying, all he
feels is “a slight tremor in the wing of the airplane.”
He
later said he told the crew of the plane which dropped the bomb that
they "can sleep well at night... Your execution was
perfect."
The
interview prompted a rights group to petition the high court to
reverse his appointment as deputy chief of staff.
No
Moral Inhibitions
On
February 28, when Halutz was still deputy-chief of staff and it was
clear he was on his way to the army's top post soon, famous Israeli
columnist with Ha'aretz Gideon Levy wrote: “The appointment of Major
General Dan Halutz to chief of the General Staff is the appointment of
the right man at the right time. The Israel Defense Forces deserves a
man lacking moral inhibitions, after three years' service by a chief
of staff whose actions were characterized by very few moral
inhibitions.
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A
file photo of the incident Halutz had "no regrets"
about!
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“Halutz's
appointment will therefore help rip away the remnants of the mask of
morality that the IDF (Israeli Army) wears. When the man at the top of
the pyramid is one who formulates his moral principles in such a
callous and hard fashion, it will be very difficult for the IDF to
continue holding seminars on human rights, human dignity and freedom
and purity of arms, or to commission an ethical code from a
philosopher.”
Born
in Tel Aviv in 1948, the same year the Jewish state was established on
the land of Palestine, he graduated from Tel Aviv University with a
degree in economics.
He
was drafted in 1966 and trained as a fighter pilot, rising rapidly
through the ranks and seeing active service in the 1973 October War.
Halutz
served as commander of the air force from 2000 to 2004, when he was
appointed deputy chief of staff.
Drawing
attention of the new Israeli Chief of Staff to the immorality of the
extra-judicial killings, another Israeli writer, Uzi Benziman, wrote
in Ha'aretz Wednesday: “In retrospect, however, it is
possible to wonder whether the moral superiority that Israel claims is
really valid. Is liquidating a person, a terrorist, without trial,
like destroying a military base? Does the distinction that Israel made
between knowing in advance that a targeted killing would hurt innocent
bystanders and declaring that this was not its intention render it
ethically clean?”
“From
November 2000 to April 2003, Israel conducted 175 targeted killings
that killed 235 people and wounded 310. Of those killed, only 156 were
defined as the targets of the strikes; of those wounded, only five
were so defined. This result raises the question of whether Israel
made sufficient efforts and took sufficient risks to prevent harm to
innocent Palestinians.
"Moreover,
official rhetoric demonstrated apathy to the tragic results: Israel's
official spokesman announced that he slept well at night after
Palestinian civilians are hit, and that the only thing he felt was
"a slight bump to the wing of the plane as a result of dropping
the bomb," Uzi Benziman indicated.
Halutz'
appointment came two days after Palestinian anti-occupation activist
Khaled Al-Ghandoor survived a failed Israeli extra-judicial execution
when an Israeli helicopter fired three rockets at his home and
seriously wounded two women, identified as Wafa and Ibtisam Ghandoor,
and a civilian bystander in Jabaliya refugee camp to the north of the
Gaza Strip, according to Palestine Media Center (PMC).
The
Jabaliya failed IOF aerial extra-judicial execution was the second
violation in May of the Sharm El-Sheikh “understanding” on
February 8 between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
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