Dead Palestinian Babies And Bombed Mosques
- IDF fashion 2009
Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children’s graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques – these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription “Better use Durex,” next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter’s T-shirt from the Givati Brigade’s Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull’s-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, “1 shot, 2 kills.” A “graduation” shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, “No matter how it begins, we’ll put an end to it.”
There are also plenty of shirts with blatant sexual messages. For example, the Lavi battalion produced a shirt featuring a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises, and the slogan, “Bet you got raped!”
(Note: For those not aware Durex makes condoms)
A few bad apples maybe?
The slogan “Let every Arab mother know that her son’s fate is in my hands!” had previously been banned for use on another infantry unit’s shirt. A Givati soldier said this week, however, that at the end of last year, his platoon printed up dozens of shirts, fleece jackets and pants bearing this slogan.
Obviously more than just a few ‘eh?
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stageleft on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 and is filed under Uncategorized.
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What’s scary is the people here who’d love to buy those tee-shirts. Some of them no doubt in our government.
How would Michael Ignatieff get around being asked to wear one, I wonder. Put it on inside out?
Soldiers use dark humour as a coping mechanism for the horrors of war, but that shit is out of line.
Are they even at war, though?
Jesus Christ, that’s so sickening…. revolting….
What’s that Raphael?
I thought your opinion was that the IDF were the poor, misunderstood, and unfairly picked, on defenders of all that is good and right in the Middle East — stalwart men and women doing a tough job that no one else would do in holding back the Muslim hordes, and that stories about them were either
(a) manufactured lies
(b) twisted leftist propaganda
(c) a significant sign of anti-Semitism
– is a little bit of light actually seeping through?
The New York Times has an article today on the influence of fundamentalist Zionists within the Israeli military. It reminds me of America’s General Wm. Boykin or the mullahs within the Islamist groups. Religious fundamentalists are destabilizing to the militaries they infest whether American, Israeli or Arab (Muslim). Once they enshrine the idea that their military or organization is the army of god, we’re all screwed.
Isn’t that the American army post 9/11?
@sooey: Indeed it is, and I would be surprised not to find (at least) equivalent propaganda on their officially sanctioned leisure wear.
I’m curious why people would ridicule the motivational T-shirts of a military that’s losing the battle of its nation’s life, yet ignore the motivation via far better media (TV and newspapers in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but also (far more effective) in the West, all on YouTube) of the side that’s winning.
Israel is dieing. I predict that a generation after Muslims (sorry, I mean Palestinians) outlast Israel, there will be almost no Jews or Christians in the former Israel.
But who cares. After all, Muslim discrimination isn’t discrimination.
AA,
“Motivational T-shirts”?
Like raping virgins and shooting pregnant women?
Uh…. huh. Sweet Jesus, that strawman you just built is the size of the Statue of Liberty.
I seriously doubt that Israel will die Anonymous American, in fact I’d bet solid money it does not.
There are many who predict the demise of Israel based on immigration trends, exodus trends, the number of Israelis who have passports from different countries, or who have applied for exit visas, simple demographics, and even the uncaring of the west — I just don’t see it, nor do I see the need for it.
What is more likely to happen is that Israel will be forced by growing internal, and international, opinion and action to change, and if it does not, well, I think the risks are obvious.
You think those t-shirts are motivational, others in growing numbers (including myself), see part of a state sanctioned demonization process.
Many are willing to grant Israel ultimate leeway of action, but many others (including myself) are unwilling to grant any country that sort of leeway.
Simply put, allowing yourself to become what you are supposed to be fighting against is not the road to a solution.
The Palestinians in Gaza are in much greater danger of dying – right now – than is Israel at some indeterminate future date. Regardless, since when are demographics a justification for armies murdering civilians? Since crackpots started inventing scenarios of Muslims taking over the world – that’s when. You people are just ignorant and bigoted rednecks whose opinions should be ignored, not published. Your theories, Anonymous American, are based on racist ideology, nothing more.
And the United States is top heavy with savages and barbarians. You’re a country ruled by thugs with no respect for international law.
(Sorry for not being able to figure out how to quote on your site.)
From stageleft:
“I seriously doubt that Israel will die Anonymous American, in fact I’d bet solid money it does not.”
Israel is dieing because its:
1) losing the asymmetric war its been fighting since 1982
2) Israeli Arabs are now deciding they’re Arabs, rather than Israelis
3) Islamists are energized, and Jews,Christians, Hindus, etc are tired
Pretty simple. It will probably take a generation (20 or so years), but since the energized ideology has been winning for the last 25 years, I doubt the next 20 years will be any different.
From stageleft:
“You think those t-shirts are motivational, others in growing numbers (including myself), see part of a state sanctioned demonization process.”
I don’t think, I know. Demonization is pretty much how militaries motivate their soldiers, especially when the military is involved in a shooting war.
From Raphael:
“…that strawman you just built is the size of the Statue of Liberty.”
It’s a “straw man” only because you hold Israel to a higher standard than you do the Arab world.
From sooey:
“…And the United States is top heavy with savages and barbarians. You’re a country ruled by thugs with no respect for international law.”
Don’t hold back, tell me what you really think.
“It’s a “straw man” only because you hold Israel to a higher standard than you do the Arab world.”
I’ve realized that you’re right – I do. That’s worth a post, A.A.
lol!
You post about America’s policies, and I’ll respond.