04 December 2013

The science of Israeli soldiers' non-rape is advancing - thanks to Gideon Levy and Tal Nitzan

The article An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: Wake up! by Hen Mazzig, a Campus Coordinator for StandWithUs' Pacific Northwest chapter in the United States, is remarkable in many ways.

As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF, I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically.
The whole article is very much recommended - not that the general "anti-Zionist" trend of the US campuses is a new topic, but Hen does present a stark picture of the campus reality that should draw attention. However, the following passage attracted me especially:
The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”
Young Hen may have ascribed this exchange solely to the stupidity of the professor, but there are deeper roots to the story of non-rape.

To start with, the inception of the idea, by Tal Nitzan (today Dr Nitzan, I guess) who chose to prove in her research paper that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals." Meaning that our soldiers don't rape Palestinian women because of a political/racial imperative, which is apparently very simple: the fear that the offspring of this union will not be recognized as Jewish.

Of course, no scientific breakthrough becomes a big deal before it is properly popularized and brought to the attention of the masses. And this is where our Moral Compass, Gideon Levy, stepped in (or into, whatever), with the following:
The Israeli Jewish journalist Gideon Levy who is known for his pro-peace and pro-Palestinian stance says something quite terrible in your film — that unlike in other conflicts where rape is used a weapon, there is no case of Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women because they have been dehumanized to such an extent that they cannot be objects of desire.
Now you can see that the Seattle professor's outburst is not a random rave of a loony, but a statement  based on a solid scientific foundation. Of a kind. And promoted by the best in our media.

So there. Deal with it.

24 comments:

SnoopyTheGoon said...

And then, of course, there's this:



"This "Fountain of the Virgin" is the one which tradition says Mary used to get water from, twenty times a day, when she was a girl, and bear it away in a jar upon her
head. The water streams through faucets in the face of a wall of ancient masonry which stands removed from the houses of the village. The young girls of Nazareth still collect about it by the dozen and keep up a riotous laughter and sky-larking. The Nazarene girls are homely. Some of them have large, lustrous eyes, but none of them have pretty faces. These girls wear a single garment, usually, and it is loose, shapeless, of undecided color; it is generally out of repair, too. They
wear, from crown to jaw, curious strings of old coins, after the manner of the belles of Tiberias, and brass jewelry upon their wrists and in their ears. They
wear no shoes and stockings. They are the most human girls we have found in the country yet, and the best natured. But there is no question that these
picturesque maidens sadly lack comeliness.

A pilgrim--the "Enthusiast"--said: "See that tall, graceful girl! look at the Madonna-like beauty of her countenance!"

Another pilgrim came along presently and said: "Observe that tall, graceful girl; what queenly
Madonna-like gracefulness of beauty is in her countenance."

I said: "She is not tall, she is short; she is not beautiful, she is homely; she is graceful enough, I grant, but she is rather boisterous."

The third and last pilgrim moved by, before long, and he said: "Ah, what a tall, graceful girl! what Madonna-like gracefulness of queenly beauty!"

The verdicts were all in. It was time, now, to look up the authorities for all these opinions. I found this paragraph, which follows. Written by whom? Wm. C. Grimes:

"After we were in the saddle, we rode down to the spring to have a last look at the women of Nazareth, who were, as a class, much the prettiest that we had seen in the
East. As we approached the crowd a tall girl of nineteen advanced toward Miriam and offered her a cup of water. Her movement was graceful and queenly. We exclaimed on the spot at the Madonna-like beauty of her countenance. Whitely was suddenly thirsty, and begged for water, and drank it slowly, with his eyes over the top of the cup, fixed on her large black eyes, which gazed on him quite as curiously as he on her. Then Moreright wanted water. She gave it to him and he managed to spill it so as to ask for another cup, and by the time
she came to me she saw through the operation; her eyes were full of fun as she looked at me. I laughed outright, and she joined me in as gay a shout as ever
country maiden in old Orange county. I wished
for a picture of her. A Madonna, whose face was a portrait of that beautiful Nazareth girl, would be a
'thing of beauty' and 'a joy forever.'"

That is the kind of gruel which has been served out from Palestine for ages. Commend me to Fennimore Cooper to find beauty in the Indians, and to Grimes to find it in the Arabs. Arab men are often fine looking, but Arab women are not. We can all believe that the Virgin Mary was beautiful; it is not natural to think otherwise; but does it follow that it is our duty to find beauty in these present women of Nazareth?" Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

If this were true, California would have fallen into the sea by now.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I'd like to ask these idiots why their sons haven't raped every woman they see. It would be fun to see their reactions.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

In my youth I should have been the cause of major earthquakes in the 9.0 and above range. I wonder what happened?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, in fact there are quite a few beautiful ladies of Arab persuasion. Still, I will not argue with what Mark Twain says as a general observation.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

They are close enough to falling into the sea as they are.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I can predict the reaction, at least from Mr Levy: he will talk for about two hours about the inhumanity of it all and totally disregard your question.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

It is all an issue of location, location, location. Who knows how many innocent Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and other folks died of earthquakes because of you?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wR4tc1C-NrE

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Ah, a modern day Yossarian!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Bingo!!!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Precisely - or "damned if you do and damned if you don't".

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Presumably it was a good thing that Red Army didn't show any IDF-style prejudice against German women in 1945.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Certainly. It helped to get the two nations closer, in a way.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

This campus antisemitism BDS garbage is poisoning the minds of young people....it must be countered asap .Older Americans donot think or act like brainwashed spoiled children in unversities....I must apologize to you for the ignorance of these kids..Shalom james ainoris

SnoopyTheGoon said...

You certainly shouldn't apologize for anyone, James, no matter how many spoiled brats there are around. And all the best to you.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Whoa. Rape and you're wrong (of course). Don't rape and you're also wrong (huh?).

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Finally, a clue as to why the Californicators of California live in an earthquake zone.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Probably not. The sea doesn't want them.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Shabbat Shalom HaShem will stop them.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I would call it a step ahead, since they know how to close off any way to answer them, like in this case.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

;-)

SnoopyTheGoon said...

No pain no gain.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I do hope so.