On a recent video,
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu slammed both the new Hamas charter
(which he ’threw in the bin’ at the end of the clip), as well as
mainstream media for suggesting that the new document indicated
‘moderation’. He could also have read Fathi Nemer’s sober analysis here on Mondoweiss,
which points out that the new document merely emphasizes politics that
have been in a process of ‘moderation’ in the past decade anyway.

But for Netanyahu it was
important to point out that Hamas is ‘rejectionist’, in that it doesn’t
recognize Israel, whilst it does concede to a Palestinian state inside
1967 lines (2-state solution). Netanyahu calls this a rejection of
“Israel’s right to exist”. As Amira Hass notes
in her analysis, the matter of recognizing Israel (as well as refugee
return) is considered by Hamas as “a formula of national consensus.” 

It would be possible to delve
into the many accusations levelled by Netanyahu, to support throwing the
document in the bin. As for example, whether recognition of Palestine
would at any point be an item for consideration by the Israeli
government. Netanyahu’s Likud platform of 1999, never rescinded, states:

But Netanyahu’s rhetoric escalation up to the point where he throws the document in the bin goes like this:

His focus is thus around
‘brainwashing’ and ‘hate’. Thus it could be interesting to look at some
examples of Israeli violent brainwashing of children:

There is a particular religious educational program that
is indoctrinating children to ‘long’ for a rebuilding of the ‘3rd
temple’, instead of Al-Aqsa. It is called “Love of the Land and the
Temple”. Aviezer Weiss, who is a self-declared right-winger, former
student of a religious school and former head of Givat Washington
Academic College of Education, says of this curriculum:

The following video,
taken from Israeli television (I could not find the prime source),
shows children at an Israeli Jewish Orthodox religious school, visited
by two men who have come to ‘test’ their general knowledge. It deserves
special scrutiny. The female teacher asks them what they think when she
says ‘Jerusalem’. They answer sacred, temple, etc. She asks who believes
the (3rd) temple will be built in the coming years – everyone raises
their hands. “And what is there now?”, she asks. “The mosque, Al-Aqsa”
they answer. “And what will happen to the mosque?” she asks. “It will be
broken, exploded, disappear” they answer. (The teacher makes no
response and continues on, as tacit approval). She asks who has met an
‘Arab’ boy in the past year. Many raise their hands. One of the visitors
asks where. A boy says near the ‘Wall’ (‘Western Wall’). He is asked
whether he talked with him, and the boy says no, that he just “pushed
me”. The teacher hurries on: “And what happens when you see an Arab boy?
What do you feel?” They answer “Anger”, “I want to kill him”. Teacher
continues unabated: “And what happens when you meet a secular [Jewish]
boy?” she asks. One boy answers “I pity him for not having been born
Haredi (Orthodox Jewish)”. The teacher asks why, and another answers
that it’s because “he doesn’t tread the right path”. The teacher asks
what they see when they think of Jerusalem in 10 years’ time, and
several answer. A little debate ensues between those who say all will be
Haredim and those who say all will be Jews but not necessarily Haredim.
One boy then answers that all will be Jewish, but there will also be
some Arabs who will be slaves. The teacher picks it up – “because the
Messiah will come! I get it!”. Another student opines, that “there will
be a war, and all Arabs will die, and some of them will be slaves”.

The visitor who seems to be the
main supervising authority, is very pleased, he says to the teacher
“there it is, you got the whole story”. He thanks the students and
wishes them continued success and continued study “here in the
Yeshivas”. 

But religious fundamentalist,
fanatic and violent indoctrination is not the only brainwashing going on
in Israel. There is also the purely military violence.

Two days ago, the Israeli police did a demonstration in Ramat Hasharon for hundreds of 5th-graders, in how they ‘verify a kill’ of a suspected ‘terrorist’.

The mock-operation using blanks,
featured policemen coming on motorcycles and riddling a terrorist with
countless rounds, continuing to shoot at him long after he has fallen
and is motionless – to ‘confirm the kill’.

This is a mock-theatre of an
extra-judicial execution, with outrageously excessive violence. And we
are not speaking about security forces ‘in the heat of battle’, as it
were. They are performing a carefully tailored, and staged, operation.
One must thus be in the conviction that they are demonstrating HOW IT IS
DONE.

Some parents were upset with this
demonstration of violence, whilst the police spokeswoman could not
understand the issue: “The children clapped, they were happy”, she said.

Yet the upset Mayor of Ramat Hasharon Avi Gruber said something really worth noting. He told Haaretz that

Bingo. Azarya
was no aberration – he just got caught on film. And now the Israeli
police also spilled the beans, in front of cameras and hundreds of
children.

It’s good we have Hamas, to always blame the violence upon.