Gideon Levy, the baron of deceit industry, strikes again

Nah, it's not a singular occurrence, you can relax. Gideon Levy does this on daily basis, so nothing special happened, really. But if you are interested in the bits and bytes (or nuts and bolts) of deceit, Levy's latest piece of deception, titled Harrass the IDF, not alleged whistleblower Anat Kam is an excellent study case. The nuts are exposed, for anyone interested (and not too queasy) to see.

It starts with a few rhetorical questions, such as:

Are Israelis entitled to know that the IDF's highest ranking officers gave advanced written permission to fire at innocent people during "targeted assassinations?"

And:

Isn't the media's supreme duty, not only its right, to report this?

And:

Aren't we entitled to know about a secret Defense Ministry report saying about 75 percent of settlements construction has been carried out without a permit?

Etc. As a public spirited citizen, your moral duty would be to stand up and shout "Yes, Gideon! Yes, dear, give us more, please!" - wouldn't it? Of course, it would, and of course, if you've read only this article, your conclusion must be clear: somebody has done an outstanding job of whistle blowing and must be lauded and protected at all costs.

Yeah, well. Only, you see, there are few stubborn and unimportant facts that, as usual, are missing from the fire and brimstone article by our self-appointed conscience of the nation. To start with, a timing problem: on the same day when Levy's piece was published, Haaretz reported that Tel Aviv court accepts plea bargain in Anat Kamm espionage case. This promotes the "alleged whistleblower" Anat Kam to the rank of convicted criminal Anat Kam. Kind of spoiling the effect, I would say...

But back to Levy's piece. After you've positively and decisively answered the questions asked above, Levy easily disposes of the dastardly Shin Bet that relentlessly and vengefully pursues poor Anat and of "violent, bullying defense establishment". So what about Anat herself, you may want to ask - humbly and quietly, of course, so as not to interrupt the stream of fire cum brimstone? Yes, our narrator mentions her:

Anat Kam probably overheard corrupt discussions and should have been treated like any other whistleblower - the state should have protected her. The same applies to the journalist who exposed corruption. The witch hunt that came out yesterday after weeks of gagging - which also has no place in a democracy - is moving in the wrong direction, as the Shin Bet intended.

Read it again slowly: "Anat Kam probably overheard corrupt discussions..." I, personally, would have preferred to think that Levy reports from a parallel universe, where a nice girl, accidentally also named Anat Kam, overheard several discussions by several not very nice generals and decided to blow the whistle. In that universe it would be my - and yours - moral duty to protest the cruel and unusual punishment of Ms Kam and to do anything in our power to present her case as one of a victim of heartless and unspeakable regime.

But in this universe... oh boy, what a world of difference (somehow our baron of deceit missed it)! It so happens, that in addition to overhearing the "corrupt discussions", our heroine also "collected about 2,000 documents, some highly classified and top-secret, and copied them to CDs and her personal computer. The documents included plans for military operations, the minutes of internal discussions, details of the deployment of IDF forces, conclusions of internal investigations, situation assessments, target banks and more. She later delivered them to Blau, who used them in his reports."  For some reason that at the moment totally escapes me, Anat in our universe committed what is clearly a crime, while being a soldier, e.g. after taking the President's shekel...

Yes, today, after the conviction (but before the sentencing), Anat says "I stole IDF documents to expose West Bank war crimes". She doesn't explain why it so happened that the majority of the stolen documents don't have anything to do with these (alleged) war crimes but everything to do with highly classified military affairs.

And, of course, our baron here doesn't even come close to mentioning that silly little fact. It may spoil the free flow of his wrath, most probably. Or, to make another educated guess, it may spoil the effect his article will have in the circles what are so hungry for Levy's every word.

So, now you could clearly see how crudely and inelegantly the deceit is produced. How cheap and without any thought about omissions that will hardly deceive anyone who is not converted to the Church of Deceit. Founded and prospering by the prayers of a man, who "was the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996." And by our indulgence, I have to add.

Too bad.

P.S. As for Anat Kam: at the inception of the affair I have said that:

She accumulated the documents during her army service and copied them just before her discharge from the IDF, leaving no doubts whatsoever regarding her starry-eyed innocence. Whatever her motives were, she should be punished. If, however, some of the already published documents, as it is claimed, point to IDF crossing the lines established by the High Court of Justice, she deserves a (small) monument as a whistleblower, to be located close enough to her cell's window.

So far no reason to change my mind...

Cross-posted on Yourish.com