Forget the children of Gaza: Israel’s Channel 2 has found the true victim of Protective Edge

12 ottobre 2014 alle ore 3.01

The report on the Oketz dog unit’s activity in Gaza was designed to regurgitate the failed war, rather than seriously engage with the price paid. It isn’t only dogs who see the world in black and white

Ravit Hecht

10 October 2014

"Operation Protective edge from the viewpoint of the military’s dogs”. That’s the way Channel 2 News’ magazine report on the Oketz unit was promoted. The segment focussed on three dogs Taiyis [flight], X, and the late Solo who fell in combat. "Those who sees the world in black and white find it difficult to tell the difference between Rafah houses and the alleys in the Ramle market," reporter Ohad Hemo introduced the report’s subject.
In light of the scene of the fighters visiting Solo’s grave (may Taiyis and X be lucky to live a good long life), and the genuine pain expressed at his gravesite, I could not help but recall that, apart from Solo, 439 Palestinian children and one Israeli kid also died during Operation Protective Edge.  I find it hard not to wonder: Maybe it would have been more interesting to consider a different point of view. It would have been at least more faithful to last summer's real situation when children's bodies were piled up in food refrigerators. Perhaps it would have been better, given that news is meant describe reality and be as close to it as possible. So maybe it would have been better to commemorate a month and a half since the end the fighting in the Gaza Strip through a report: "Operation Protective Edge through the eyes of the dead children." How did Protective Edge look through the eyes of these children, who saw it in colour rather than in black and white, and yet, in contrast to the dogs than Solo, did not get to remain alive. How does life look through the eyes of their brothers and sisters, who even if they survived the summer, suffered some death within them which would not come back to life ever again.
I don’t want to be suspected of speciesism, which asserts that there is a moral distinction between the rights of different creatures to live. There is no doubt that dogs are creatures who deserve to live in comfort and dignity. I'm merely casting myself in the role of a human being with human reasoning. I then wonder: what makes Channel 2 News broadcast the glorification of a botched military operation in an idiotic packaging? What would cause anyone to regurgitate something from this war – that even far less "delusional" people than me, with perfect “national Security” credentials, would concur wasn’t one of the proudest and most successful in the annals of Israeli heroism?  Why do all that through the medium of the laying of an honorary muzzle on a dog’s gravestone?
So what we've seen here? A militaristic patriotism machine which does not know when to call it a day, and once it has exhausted its human subjects, it has switched to other creatures? An IDF marketing report - a sort of psyops or intelligence warfare or some abbreviation which would describe the military's use of the media to demonstrate something to someone? Or maybe it's just another painful proof that it isn’t not only dogs see the world in black and white.
Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service, Melbourne, Australia
Hebrew original: http://www.haaretz.co.il/gallery/television/.premium-1.2455331 
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