Israeli Apologist Sees “Nothing is Going On”

The comment pasted below was in response to this photograph on the Seeing Red Radio Podbean site that accompanies the January 7th Podcast.

Pro Israel Says:
May 10th, 2009 at 3:01 pm e
Obviously, you can see that the soldier is in the position of defense. He is in alert when in enemy territory and he is not pointing the gun at the child. Further more, he is letting the child get closer to him as shown. If he shall point the gun at the civilian or any civilian, he wouldn’t let him or her even get as close as what is shown in this picture. All soldiers around the world (as well as american) are in position of alert, in defense and attack, when in enemy territory. Also, if you look at the background of this picture, the older child is just standing there, or strolling around calmly with his hands in his pockets. If the gun would be pointed at anyone, it would most likely be pointed at the older child for he would be the greater problem- if there was a problem. This is a peaceful picture/situation, nothing is going on. This is just another PROPAGANDA, that isn’t looking outside the box but only at what is to be the automatic reaction when looking at this photo, without finding explanations. So once again, Israel is obviously proven right.

Seeingredradio Says:
May 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm e
Without finding fault with the scene depicted in the photo, Pro Israel states, “This is a peaceful picture/situation, nothing is going on.” A more objective viewer whose aim is not to “once again” prove “Israel is obviously…right” in all things, will notice that something quite real IS going on. That a heavily armed soldier positioned among a civilian population it occupies, irrespective of the direction of his rifle, is a form of physical “propaganda” imprinting the consciousness of the occupied and the occupier. Without uttering a word or pointing his rifle, that soldier is clearly “teaching” those children the futility of resistance against Israel, more effectively than a prison guard in riot gear to an inmate. And this form of “propaganda” works both ways. Through the compulsory draft of nearly all of its young men and women and by having many of them patrol the Occupied Territories, as well as stationing them at the multitude of checkpoints that Israel maintains, the state of Israel is continually “instructing” its own soldiers how to regard Palestinians. This photo is a glimmer of the reality of children living under occupation; where heavily-armed troops, whose role is not to defend a population but rather to defend themselves and their State from that population, patrol their streets. This is no different in the West Bank with Israeli soldiers and Palestinian children, than it is in Iraq and Afghanistan with American and NATO forces, and the populations they control. If anything, what has “once again” been revealed is the distorted calculus of an Israeli apologist imprisoned in a box that he insists the rest of us “look out of”.