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To: Pogeu Mahone who wrote (52817)	8/29/2004 11:20:49 AM
From: Steve Lokness	Respond to of 74559

Zeus - mostly in cash - but goats? Me too. steve

To: Pogeu Mahone who wrote (52817)	12/11/2004 6:08:34 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

Israelis begin to question price of occupation ELMAT: The script plays on as expected. Pretty sson the US will say: no more money to keep a James Bond state. That's the end of the beginning. By Sharmila Devi in Jerusalem Published: December 10 2004 18:36 \| Last updated: December 10 2004 18:36 Israel is facing a deluge of revelations about the conduct of its armed forces in the occupied territories, provoking concern about the price of fighting the Palestinians for more than four years and of the 37-year-old occupation. The accusations of unethical conduct have followed a relative lull in suicide and other attacks, which used to dominate the headlines. On Friday, Israeli troops shot dead a seven-year-old Palestinian girl in a Gaza refugee camp. The army said it was aiming at mortar crews after militants wounded four Israelis in an attack on a Jewish settlement. The government and army have recently acknowledged the seriousness of previous incidents such as these, which tarnish the "purity of arms" doctrine of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Ariel Sharon, prime minister, this week defended the army where he made his career, saying it fought a difficult battle in urban and densely populated areas. "If there are irregularities, we have to check them. But we can under no circumstances panic and attack the army." A flood of cases highlighting immoral behaviour has appeared in the Israeli media in recent weeks, prompting commentators and politicians to discuss what human rights groups have long called a "culture of impunity" within the army. Lt Gen Moshe Yaalon, chief of staff, has held a series of meetings with senior commanders, who plan to hold ethics refresher courses. "If we lose the moral high ground, it will undermine our military strength," he said. "We will not give up our moral standard in the name of combat." Israelis were left shocked when soldiers revealed that the body of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was riddled with bullets by an Israeli army captain to "confirm the kill" in Gaza early last month. She was initially shot as she walked near a military observation post. Since then, the media have published photographs of soldiers defiling the bodies of dead Palestinians. Breaking the Silence, a group formed by discharged soldiers, has received a more sympathetic hearing recently. Earlier this year, they organised an exhibition that presented testimonies of brutality against Palestinians in Hebron but the military police tried to confiscate the material. The group has collected the testimony of hundreds of soldiers, mostly anonymously, who have perpetrated or witnessed immoral behaviour during military operations and at the numerous checkpoints across the territories. "We are an entire generation of discharged soldiers. We are here to say 'look what happened to us'," Lt Ziv Maavar, one of the group's activists, told the Maariv daily. "We all underwent moral corruption." Israeli self-criticism is also expressed on one of the most popular satirical TV shows, Eretz Nehederet or Our Wonderful Land.A recent sketch showed two female soldiers busy arguing with each other and ignoring a Palestinian woman in labour who was trying to pass through a checkpoint. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights says about a dozen women have been forced to give birth at checkpoints, resulting in at least five stillbirths. The Israeli human rights group B'tselem blames a lack of accountability within the military. During the first intifada, from 1987, the military police investigated every Palestinian death except where the person killed was involved in fighting. This has not been the case in the second intifada. "The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the value the IDF places on Palestinian life," the group says.