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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.