ETERNAL VIGILANCE

From Al-Manar TV in Lebanon:
Israeli reserve combat soldiers refuse to take part in "missions of occupation and aggression"

25/07/2006
Al-ManarTV









Some 550 Israeli reserve combat soldiers have refused to take part in what they described as Israel's "missions of occupation and aggression."

On an internet site, the soldiers said:

"We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission.

We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people.

We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.

We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.

We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.

We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.

We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.

We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.

The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them."

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Editor's comment: It seems that this letter was issued in 2002 and is posted at this Israeli website.

The Al-Manar website is apparently being blocked by many ISPs in the U.S. It would seem that the ADL in the U.S. has been gaining ground in its attempts to censor the internet.

This letter shows us that there are some members of the IDF who will take a stand against the rabid Zionists who populate the Israeli government. And these 550 who signed the letter signify only those who had the courage to stand up and be counted. There are likely more within the ranks who hold similar sentiments.

Nevertheless, these 'refusniks' have the guts to stand up for their principles against the genocidal policies of Zionism which have been entrenched since the Jewish colonization of Palestine began in earnest nearly a century ago.

This Zionist colonization only picked up steam in the 1920s and 30s after the imposition of the Balfour Declaration by Zionist representatives at Versailles at the end of WW I.

The text of the Balfour Declaration was included in the San Remo Agreement of 1920 which created the British and French Mandates in former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Of couse, the Arabs saw this as a monumental betrayal since the British promised them self-determination during the war years.

The increased immigration of Jews resulted in the Arab uprising in 1937-38 which caused the British to impose restrictions on Jewish migration to that troubled land and thereafter the issuance of its White Paper of 1939.

One might think, 'well, this is old news or history'. Nothing could be a greater self deception than to take that path. Unless we know where we have been, we shall never know where we are going. Thus, the efforts at keeping our true history under wraps to be replaced by the Zionist "world of truth" which is merely a world of approved lies in which all opposing viewpoints are suppressed.

The facade of Zionism is not as monolithic as it might seem. And though there has been little protest in the controlled media over the bombings, Ha'aretz has published a cautious editorial on July 15, 2006 which gets at the truth of the matter.

This truth, however, is not so readily apparent to the casual observer who has been inundated with propaganda from the compliant media. We endeavor to bring you a piece of that truth here today. Our success will be evident only when the pressure builds on the criminals in government to the extent to cause necessary change. And with this change will come justice as those who have betrayed our trust will be called to account.

The comments at the Ha'aretz editorial, faithfully reproduced by al-Jazeera, are very illuminaing and show the extent of the Israeli protests which had already begun quickly after the first reprisals against Lebanon by the IDF.

The attacks on Palestinians have been ongoing for many years, even extending to seizures at sea by Israeli naval forces who have caused civilian vessels to 'heave to' and be boarded, whereupon some numbers of Palestinian suspects would be kidnapped from their voyage between Cyprus and Lebanon.

In the weeks leading up to the attack in Gaza there were many instances of Israeli terror perpetrated upon innocent civilians. The best known of which was the shelling of the beach on July 9th that killed 5 children.