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There is no disputing that Israel is discriminated against globally. Zionism (e.g. Jewish nationalism) was the only movemer of national liberation ever to be branded racist by the family of nations. About a third of all United Nations condemnations fall on just one state: Israel. The Commission on Human Rights monitors the 191 U.N. member-states collectively, whereas Israel is scrutinized separately under a special agenda item. When the contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions met for the first time, 52 years after its founding, they did so to discuss Israel.

Even the Magen David Adorn (the Red Star of David, in Hebrew), Israel’s humanitarian-aid organization, is denied membershi| in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, where the Christian Red Cross and the Muslim Red Crescent are recognized agencies. Western campaigns of divestment target Israel alone, and Israeli academics alone are boycotted by their Western colleagues.

Anti-terror fence

Ditto for the International Court of Justice — mankind’s highest legal institution for resolving disputes between countries –whose 15 judges began this week to ponder the legality of Israel’s anti-terror fence. The ICJ is judging Israel not for committing crimes against humanity but for preventing them from being perpetrated by others, as international lawyer Alan Stephens aptly noted.

No nation is so often labeled Nazi, fascist, imperialist, expansionist, genocidal and segregationist, as Israel is. A recent European poll found that 60 percent of Europeans regard Israel the gravest threat to world peace.

What we are witnessing here is essentially a Palestinization of Western intellectual discourse. It is as if some opinion-molders in the West have adopted the intransigent and offensive terminology to be found in the Palestinian National Charter, the PLO’s founding document that calls for Israel’s destruction.

This is not meant as an ironic comment. The Palestinian National Charter’s Article 22 calls Israel «a base for world imperialism and «a constant source of threat vis — vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world,» a view reflected in the European poll.

Zionism is described as «racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods,» a characterization regularly ascribed to Israel even in respectable Western platforms.

Many would abolish Israel

Article 9 states that «Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine,» a concept already echoed in many U.N. resolutions And one should be pardoned for thinking that the ICJ seems to be answering to Article 18 where the Palestinians stated that they «look to freedom-loving, justice-loving, and peace-loving states for support … to restore their legitimate rights in Palestine.»

Such language leaves the realm of rhetoric to enter that of incitement. Pierre-Andre Taguieff, author of La nouvelle Judeophobie, put it this way: If Israel has become, indeed, an ugly, dangerous and peace-threatening entity comparable to Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa, then shouldn’t the world community ostracize — if not outright abolish — the Jewish state?

The demonization of Israel is so total and the criticism so unforgiving that one can hardly regard this attitude unbiased or eve nonmalicious. Has Israel become, as is increasingly being heard, the Jew among the nations? How can we tell exactly where reasonable criticism ends and odious attack begins?

Clearly, criticism of particular Israeli policies is fair game. It is not only legitimate but also necessary. Israel is a perfectible nation, as every nation is. And this is the point: Singling out only the Jewish state for moral judgment among a plurality of imperfect nations is a discriminatory act. Considering that there are so many far more urgent and, indeed egregious, human-rights violations, wars and destruction worldwide, the focusing of so much international attention on democratic Israel is misplaced.

Crossing the line

It is wrong to tie all criticism of Israel with prejudice or hatred. But it is just as wrong to ignore the fact that sometimes the link does exist. When the condemnation of Israel is so merciless, selective, disproportionate and absolute as it currently is, when the Jewish state is discriminated against so unfairly and demonized, then inadvertently or not a line is crossed — the line, «thin as a hair» in the words of historian Leon Poliakov, between antilsraelism and anti-Semitism.

This is my last column as a Herald contributor. I wish to thank and bid farewell to readers who followed my writings during the last three years.

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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Shortly after Israel’s ambassador to Sweden vandalized an installation featured at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm, Israeli authorities announced the awarding of the Israel Prize – the country’s highest artistic distinction — to the politically radical sculptor Yigal Tumarkin. Both events sparked controversy in Israel and invite a reflection on the delicate relationship between art, politics and morality.

The artwork exhibited by an Israeli/Swedish couple in Stockholm, Snow White and the Madness of Truth, consisted of a small ship carrying a picture of a smiling female Palestinian suicide-bomber sailing in a pool of red water. It was accompanied by posterwalls explaining the terrorist act on the basis of personal desperation. The visiting Israeli diplomat attacked it physically, prompting condemnation in some quarters and approval in others.

Picasso’s Guernica

For some, vandalizing this artwork is a form of political art. I would not go that far, but I find it educational to recall one instance when some in the cultural world defended the act of damaging an artwork as a worthy artistic accomplishment. In 1974, a group of artists united under the unbelievable name «Guerrilla Art Action Group» backed Tony Shafrazi, an artist who had spray-painted Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica, claiming that he was completing Picasso’s work. The idea of art-creation by means of art-defacing had been seen before — in Marcel Duchamp’s drawing of a mustache and a beard on a replica of the Mona Lisa.

Through these examples, which Israeli commentator Calev Ben-David has made, we could see the Israeli diplomat’s reaction to Snow White as an avant-garde manifestation of the «anti-art» variety. Of course, we know that this isn’t the case. More than a Dadaist loose on a journey of artistic expression, the Israeli diplomat was protesting — in a most undiplomatic, albeit media-catchy, way — the Swedish (and by extension European) celebration of anti-Israel terror.

Now to Tumarkin, the Israeli star who, upon receiving news of the award, said: «I want to be judged on my art and what I’ve contributed to this miserable country.» To understand this comment, you must know about the controversy that he has sparked in the past.

Moving to Germany

Tumarkin once said that when seeing ultra-orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, he could understand the Nazis. He publicly wished he had gunned down right-wing politicians Raphael Eitan and Rehavam Ze’evi (the latter shot to death by Palestinian terrorists years later). Tumarkin insulted immigrant Jews from Arab countries when he said that they were burdening the country «with so many poor children.» And he shocked his countrymen when he went back to his native Germany in the ’50s, at a time when that kind of thing was a taboo in a country with so many Holocaust survivors.

All this has to do with his political worldview, which admittedly, no matter how extreme, should not cloud recognition of his fine artistic contribution to the nation. The man and his work: Can they be separated? Even if they can, how can one not regard as deeply offensive Tumarkin’s creation of a pig wearing phylacteries?

While the meaning and interpretation of art is always subjective and often inscrutable, blatant political messages don’t go unnoticed, and this «art» can be viewed as propaganda disguised in art-format. As art critic Roger Kimball wrote in The Wall Street Journal: «They poach on the prestige of art in order to have it both ways. Criticize the aesthetic vapidness, and you get a lecture about how the artwork transcends the traditional artistic categories to interrogate the oppressive political structures of the status quo, blah, blah, blah. Criticize the moronic politics, and you get a sermon about not reducing works of art to a simplistic set of objective declarations.»

Divisive, controversial

Honoring Tumarkin, a man so divisive and controversial, is an example of the inexplicable tendency toward self-flagellation so widespread in Israeli elite circles. But at least it is a domestic issue and as such remains limited.

Conversely, the Sweden affair is an international matter by definition, pointing to a worrisome trend of romanticization of Palestinian violence in vast segments of the European cultural establishment and general public opinion.

There, terror-glorification is called the «Madness of Truth.» I’d call it the apogee of infamy.

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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Buenos Aires – Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi recently has made overtures toward the West aiming at turning his pariah state into an accepted member of the international community.

In 1999, Gadhafi agreed to hand over for trial two Libyans accused of planting a bomb in 1988 on a Pan American flight that exploded over Scotland, killing 270 people. Later on, he agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the victims’ relatives. Last week, he signed a $170 million compensation accord with relatives of 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French jetliner that exploded over Niger. A few weeks earlier, he announced the dismantling of his weapons of mass destruction program and the opening of his country’s arms-production facilities to international inspection, and he urged Syria, Iran and North Korea to follow suit.

Reportedly, Gadhafi even established secret contacts with Israel. His son apparently met with two Israeli members of parliament in August, and a Libyan official met with a top aide of Israel’s foreign minister last month in Paris. When news of these meetings was published in the Israeli media, Libya reacted in a contradictory fashion: It first denied that any talks had taken place, then it reportedly sent a letter to the Israeli government complaining that «Israel has not the slightest conception of diplomatic ethics,» and finally Libya’s foreign minister said that Arab countries’ security services leaked the news because they were upset with his nation’s recent moves toward the West.

Can Gadhafi be trusted? Recall that he took power in a military coup, was a financier of international terrorism, bombed planes and discotheques, awarded a $5 million «special bonus» to the Palestinian murderers of 11 Israel athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and in 1980 dispatched squads abroad to silence opponents of the regime.

Additionally, his bizarre behavior and political zigzagging is well known. In 2000 he said that, «if the Israelis don’t like the flies [in the Middle East], they can go to Alaska and establish a state . . . and I will be the first to visit them and offer support to them.» The following year, before addressing an Arab summit, he told Jordanian television that the speech he was going to make «will determine the future of the Middle East and affect world events.» The Jordan Times reported at the time that Gadhafi in his speech set some conditions that Israel should accept and, «Then, and only then, we can recognize Israel and even invite it to join us in the Arab League,» he said as he broke out in laughter, according to a witness’ account. At some point, Gadhafi called for the establishment of «Isratine,» a binational state for Israelis and Palestinians.

These and other quotes suggest not just a display of uncontrolled eccentricity but perhaps a mental disorder. Consider these words, pronounced by Gadhafi to his people on the occasion of Libya’s 28th anniversary, as reported by Reuters in 1997: ‘ ‘ Western countries could invade us for our sun. They lack sun for producing solar energy, and Libya is a sunny country located at the best place under the sun in this planet.»

Can Gadhafi be taken seriously? Even if not fully nuts, he is definitely odd. But maybe I am too skeptical.

Perhaps Gadhafi did change his ways, as his recent moves amply suggest. Or, as a former Jordanian information minister wrote, «Fidel Castro swapped his military garb for a Pierre Cardin tie and became an active sales promoter of his country to attract American investment — Gadhafi is fully entitled to some introspection and to abandon his revolutionary aspirations.»

Should Israeli Jews doff their yarmulkes to Gadhafi’s opening? Surely not. But if Israel signed a peace agreement with a king from Amman and with a military ruler from Cairo, and if it initiated negotiations with a terrorist from Gaza, it might as well engage in exploratory dialogue with a clown from Tripoli.

After all, peace – as they say about love – could be around the corner.

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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It did not take much time for the Egyptian government to capitalize on Libya’s unexpected «preemptive surrender» (as columnist William Satire called it). Shortly after President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Moammar Gaclhafi’s readiness to put a stop to his country’s weapons of mass destruction program, the three top Egyptian leaders — President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Arab League Head Amr Moussa — publicly urged Israel to get rid of its own nuclear weapons.

Notwithstanding the official Israeli line (that it won’t be the first nation to go nuclear in the Middle East), it is widely assumed that Israel already has nuclear capability. Given its quantitative inferiority vis-a-vis the Arab world — both in population (a ratio of one to 50) and in territory (a ratio of one to 500) — Israel understood early enough that to guarantee its little country’s survival, it had to have a qualitative edge. Israel succeeded in creating one, and that troubles deeply the Egyptians, who see themselves as masters of the region.

Given Egypt’s military record, its demand seems dubious. Egypt was the first nation in the Middle East to develop and use chemical weapons (against Yemen during the 1962-67 war), and it is estimated that it currently has an arsenal of mustard gas, sarin, VX and luisite.

Since 1979, Egypt received more than $30 billion in military aid from the United States. Today, Egypt spends a quarter of its GDP on its military.

Tellingly, Egypt has reached almost operational parity with Israel’s Air Force:

• It has the same U.S.-made F-16 airplanes and roughly the same number.
• It has the same Apache helicopters and modern Abrams tanks, which are parallel to the Israeli Merkava.
• It reportedly maintains ballistic missile collaboration with North Korea and Libya, and there recently has been an intensification of cooperation with the Saudi Arabian air forces.
• During the past two decades, Egyptian scientists participated in Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program and, according to Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, in the lead-up to the Anglo-American intervention in Iraq, the Egyptian authorities refused U.S. and British requests to interview those scientists.

It is true that Israel’s military budget eats a considerable amount of its GDP, too, that it has developed sophisticated weaponry as well, and that it has received at least as much in military aid from the United States than what Egypt did. But, as Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, notes, much has been spent on war: against Palestinian terrorism, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraqi Scud missiles and in other fronts. Israel is still technically at war with several Arab nations.

Steinitz correctly points out that what makes Egypt’s growing military strength worrisome is the fact that –unlike Israel — Egypt faces no military challenge, much less an existential threat, from any neighbor. Sudan and Libya are no credible opponents to Egyptian might, and, conspiracy theories to the contrary, Israel has no sinister plan to take over the Nile.

So, against whom is Egypt arming? Here’s a tip: Since 1996, the «Badar exercises,» the largest war simulation of the Egyptian army, centered on «a little country northeast of Egypt.» Here’s another tip: That country is not Gaza. Recently, the United States froze the supply of advanced F-15 jets to Egypt after receiving intelligence revealing that Israel appeared as «the enemy» in all of Egypt’s war games.

Further evidence that Egypt regards Israel as an enemy emerged after Israel detected Egyptian unmanned aerial vehicles over a nuclear research facility and a missile test site. (Yes, Israel has its Ofek-5 spy satellite, which observes every inch of Egyptian territory, but, again, it does so for defensive purposes).

Then there is the issue of the tunnels along the Egyptian-Israeli border in Rafiah, Gaza. The fundamentalist movements such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad smuggle most of their arms and explosives through these tunnels that Egypt, save a couple of exemptions, has consistently failed to uncover. Similar attempts by terrorist organizations to carry ammunition to the West Bank via Jordan have mostly failed due to Jordanian predisposition to act. Some analysts see this as implicit support on the part of Egypt for the Palestinian terrorist war against Israel.

When viewing the larger picture, we can reasonably conclude that Egypt’s calls for a nuclear-free region have little to do with a genuine preoccupation with a peaceful Middle East and a lot to do with this totalitarian state’s ambitious agenda.

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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Buenos Aires – Geneva is such a lovely city. Sitting on the border with France by a beautiful lake and surrounded by gorgeous mountains, with its elegant hotels, fine watch-shops and prominent •private banks, home to many U.N. bodies and multinational corporations, the city has just the perfect atmosphere for hosting the kind of high-level events as the Geneva Accord ceremony held this week.

Lots of world leaders expressed public support for this document, including Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederick de Klerk, Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac, Hans-Dietrich Gensher, Tony Blair, Hosni Mubarak, King Hassan II, Jimmy Carter and Colin Powell. It would seem, at first sight, that something very important is going on here; something so positive that it merits the applause of the creme de la creme of global diplomacy.

If you take a closer look, though, you realize that the Geneva Accord is anti-democratic, counterproductive and hallucinatory. That it received such widespread elite support is a testament to the vintage superficiality of our times, where an agreement is praised so long as it ends in a handshake, no matter how ludicrous its content.

•   It’s anti-democratic: Even though the accord has the potential to affect Israel considerably, it was conceived and negotiated in secret by private citizens with no official authority to conduct foreign policy, who for two years kept the Israeli public ignorant of the content of this initiative, and who are now trying to coerce a democratically elected government into acceptance.

That these private citizens happen to be failed politicians only makes it more illegitimate. Yossi Beilin failed to make it to the Knesset, Amran Mitzna lost the premiership to Ariel Sharon by landslide and Avraham Burg lost the primary election for the Labor Party leadership.

A recent poll by Tel-Aviv University’s Tami Steinmetz Center showed that a mere 18 percent of Israelis thought that Beilin represented the national interest, while 22 percent thought so of Mitzna and 26 percent of Burg. Their disregard of the will of the Israeli people is not only an instance of fraternal condescension but an affront to democracy.

•   It’s counterproductive: The accord shrinks Israel to the indefensible 1967 borders, does not exact a Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and leaves the question of refugees unsolved — all of which guarantees a perpetuation, not a resolution, of the conflict.

It also divides Jerusalem and leaves the Temple Mount under Palestinian sovereignty. This agreement is worse than the Road Map and the Oslo Accord. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called this initiative «a delusion.» Sarah Honig of The Jerusalem Post said that it was an example of “the self-deception and self-destructiveness that sadly seems to be so uniquely Jewish.»

•    It’s hallucinatory: The accord does not — it cannot — bring peace. It merely creates the illusion of peace. It tells the family of nations that it is indeed possible for Israelis to meet and agree with the Palestinians. After all, Beilin can. Why wouldn’t Sharon? The Geneva delirium creates the false impression that the current Israeli administration is irresponsibly missing a chance for peace, when in fact there is none.

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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So many misconceptions surround the fence that Israel is building around the West Bank, it is hard to decide where to begin to debunk those myths.

Let us begin with a hopefully persuasive point: It takes less amount of time for a suicide-bomber to walk from the Palestinian town of Kalkiliya to the Israeli city of Kfar Saba than what it will take a reader to go through the editorial page of today’s newspaper. In 15 minutes, a terrorist can cover that distance by foot, as some unfortunately did in the past.

During the first three years of this Palestinian intifada, 127 suicide-bombers crossed into Israel from the West Bank, killing 428 Israelis and wounding scores. Another 573 terrorists attempted to infiltrate during that period. May this information be compelling enough for those who claim that the Israeli government is constructing this fence for political, instead of security, reasons.

What do critics say?

• They say that the fence will not guarantee 100 percent immunity from terror attacks. This may be, true, but even if it «only» minimizes casualties, it’s worth doing. For that matter, there is an illustrating precedent. In 2001 a fortified fence was built in the Gaza Strip, and not even one suicide-bomber has made it through ever since.
• They say that Israel is erecting a wall. Some even call it, amazingly enough, a «Berlin Wall.» In fact, only five miles out of the 87 miles already constructed, constitute sections of concrete wall. The rest (about 95 percent of the barrier) is a chain-link fence with electronic sensors.
• They say that the fence creates hardships for many Palestinian farmers, that it cuts them from their sources of income (olive trees) and that it will keep workers from entering Israel. The West Bank fence already has 42 gates to facilitate access to Israel proper, and Israeli diplomats say that compensation will be assigned when appropriate.

Once again, the fence in the Gaza Strip provides an interesting reference. According to Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, former head of Israel’s Southern Command, with responsibility for the fence in Gaza, in December 2000 –just before construction of the fence began — nearly 3,000 Palestinians worked daily in the Erez Industrial Zone. As a result of the improvement in the security situation, 5,000 Palestinians work there today.

But even if the fence would cancel all benefits for the Palestinians, one may legitimately ask: What «perpetual right» do the Palestinian have to work in Israel in the first place? By what moral and logical standard should Palestinian olive trees take precedence over Israeli human lives?

• They say that the fence goes beyond the Green Line, taking «Palestinian land.» This is true, but one should note that we are talking about 3 percent to 4 percent of the disputed territories. As political analyst David Makovsky observed, portions of the fence are located inside the West Bank because close to 75 percent of Israel’s 226,000 settlers live in 5 percent of West Bank territory adjacent to the Green Line.

Even the maximalists call for annexing at most 10 percent to 15 percent of the disputed areas, which would still leave the Palestinian Authority in control of about 90 percent of the West Bank.

The real issue, however, is not that the fence seizes 3 percent or 4 percent of West Bank land but rather that it is in fact giving up more than 95 percent of it, as academic Barry Rubin aptly pointed out. In other words, the Sharon administration, with vast popular support, is in effect dividing the land of Israel, creating the space for eventual Palestinian self-determination in the disputed areas and putting to rest the false accusation that Israel is an expansionist state.

The late Yitzhak Rabin took office in 1992 vowing «To take Gaza out of Tel-Aviv,» as a campaign slogan had it at the time. A decade later, Ariel Sharon is trying to take the West Bank out of Tel-Aviv as well. Will critics abroad let him?

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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BUENOS AIRES — For those who do not subscribe to Samuel Huntington’s theory of a clash of civilizations, an illuminating event occurred last week in Malaysia.

Speaking at the opening of the 10th session of the Islamic Summit Conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad delivered an impassioned speech in which he presented a plan of action for Muslim empowerment and also made references disparaging Jews, whom he accused of ruling the world by proxy, getting others to fight and die for them and of being arrogant. He called for devising a pan-Islamic strategy that can win Muslims a «final victory» over Jews and asked: «Is it true that 1.3 billion people can exert no power to save themselves from the humiliation and oppression inflicted upon them by a much smaller enemy?»

At present Jews are ruling over three million Palestinians in the disputed territories. I don’t quite understand what «humiliation and oppression» Jews are inflicting upon Muslims spread over 57 nations. No Peruvian Jews, Italian Jews or American Jews are ruling over anyone else, either. I guess Mohamad meant to say Israelis, but he was unable to distinguish between the words «Israeli» and «Jew,» thus portraying the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a clash of religions. Or perhaps he meant what he said: that there is a confrontation between all Jews and all Muslims everywhere. In sum, a religious war.

Following a strong reaction in the West to his anti-Jewish comments, Mohamad claimed that he had been quoted out of context. This week, however, the unrepentant Malaysian premier confirmed his words.

The issue is not whether this Muslim leader is a racist. He is: In 1997 he blamed Jewish billionaire George Soros for his country’s economic crisis; during the war in Bosnia in the ’90s he welcomed thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees but expelled Christians arriving with them. No, what is genuinely troubling is the applause he got from the emirs, sheiks and presidents in attendance who gave him a standing ovation. Not to mention denial. «No. I don’t think so,» Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the Associated Press when asked if he found the speech anti-Semitic. «I don’t think they were anti-Semitic at all,» agreed Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abubakar al-Qirbi.

I read the full text and found that the comments about the Jews were part of a wider picture. He devoted most of his time to a martial portrayal of current Muslim reality vis–vis the West. Though he did say that «not all non-Muslims are against us» and condemn suicide bombings, he seemed to imply that he advocates a change in method but not in goal. Thus his calls for enhancing scientific education in Muslim countries and adopting new approaches — as well as all the talk about «final victory» and concerted and coordinated action.»

Muslims ‘will triumph’

In Mohamad’s view, Muslims are treated with «contempt and dishonor,» their religion «denigrated,» their countries «occupied» and their people «starved and killed.» He stated that «our detractors and enemies . . . will attack and kill us, invade our lands, bring down our governments.» So «we need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defense.» But «we will triumph in the end» because «we have the biggest oil reserve in the world. We have great wealth . . . We control 57 out of 180 [sic] countries in the world. Our votes can make or break international organizations.» (So much for the claim that Jews control the world).

While Mohamad’s anti-Semitic diatribe captured considerable media attention and diplomatic vituperation, it seems that the real story — the confrontation between Islam and the Jews in particular, and Islam and the West in general — went virtually unnoticed. If you do not want to see that speech and the positive reception it got by that central Muslim body as a vindication of the theory of a clash of civilizations, then don’t. But you can’t ignore the fact that most leaders in the Muslim world today seem to disagree with you.

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.

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Buenos Aires — The month of September started with Israeli fighter jets flying over Auschwitz, and it ended with Israeli pilots refusing to fly over the skies of Ramallah.

The Israeli Air Force was invited to take part in Poland’s Air Force’s 85th anniversary, and it was decided that a symbolic sortie above the death camp would take place. As they approached Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Israeli jets followed the path of the railways that took so many Jews to an awful death six decades ago. Thus, blue Stars of David attached to powerful jets proudly flew above a ground that once saw countless fearful Jews wearing a yellow Star of David on their way to their death.

The emotionally potent scene prompted an argument between the National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Israeli government. A museum official protested that «flying the (F-15s) is a demonstration of military might, which is an entirely inappropriate way to commemorate the victims.» Israeli authorities disagreed, indicating that a display of Jewish power at such a historically sensitive place was an adequate way to pay tribute to those murdered lacking a capacity to defend themselves.

The pilots, sons of survivors of World War II, were keenly aware of how dramatic that moment was. «We, Air Force pilots, flying the skies above the death camps, emerging from the ashes of millions of victims and carrying on our shoulders their silent cry,» said pilot Amir Eshel, «honor their courage and promise to be the shield of the Jewish people and their nation, Israel.»

«After the Holocaust,» said an Israeli journalist, «Jews understood that learning to fight was a sign of vitality, an embracing of life.» Well, let’s say that at least some Jews understood that. For three weeks after this dramatic event, 27 Israeli pilots signed a public letter criticizing their government’s policy of so-called targeted killings of Palestinian terrorist leaders. In the letter, the dissenters stated that they refused to «continue to harm innocent civilians» and to carry on «immoral and illegal» operations that were «part of the occupation.»

It was the first time in Israel’s history that pilots (even just a few of them, as in this case) refused to follow orders. The Israel Air Force reacted harshly, grounding the pilots and likening them to traitors in times of war. Exploiting the issue, Marwan Barghoutti, former head of the Tanzim fighters and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, currently on trial in Tel-Aviv, applauded the pilots: «They deserve the utmost praise for reaching the conclusion they were perpetrating war crimes.»

The whole affair is a delicate issue. It is admirable that military people would refuse to carry orders that they personally consider immoral. At the same time, however, when you find yourself supported by a Marwan Barghoutti, you should perhaps reconsider. After all, this man is on trial accused of having ordered 37 terrorist operations that claimed 26 lives and wounded many. Charges against him include premeditated murder, accessory to murder, incitement to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a terrorist organization. If he is on your side, you cannot claim to be morally right.

«How can the Jews, who suffered and survived the Holocaust, allow themselves to resort to such insufferable and unacceptable means against another people?» Barghoutti asked during his closing argument this week in court, to the cheers of dozens of supporters, among them members of the European Parliament from Italy and France — where the Mussolini and Vichy regimes collaborated with Hitler in the extermination of the Jews.

Which brings me back to the Israeli Air Force flight over Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Had those F-15s flown over the railroads leading to the death camp 60 years ago, many lives would have been saved. Israeli pilots possibly would have destroyed those paths to death that the allied forces never did. But there was no Jewish state then, no Israeli Air Force and no Israeli pilots commanding powerful fighter jets capable of fighting evil.

Today, thank God, there are Israeli pilots able and willing to save their brothers’ lives — even if that means having to fly over Ramallah.

Julián Schvindlerman is a political analyst and journalist in Buenos Aires.