A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, speaking Monday at a meeting of lawmakers, justified the rape and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, shouting angrily at colleagues questioning the alleged behavior that anything was legitimate to do to "terrorists" in custody.
Lawmaker Hanoch Milwidsky was asked as he defended the alleged abuse whether it was legitimate, "to insert a stick into a person's rectum?"
"Yes!" he shouted in reply to his fellow parliamentarian. "If he is a Nukhba [Hamas militant], everything is legitimate to do! Everything!"
Sometimes it feels like certain parts of humanity just didn't really learn all the lessons that they should have from the Holocaust about dehumanizing people.
There's a reason that countries started agreeing on a set of laws of war, and it wasn't the goodness of their hearts. It means if your own soldiers get captured by an enemy working under the same rules, they should ideally be treated with at least a minimal standard of care. But every incident like this or Abu Ghraib weakens those protections and norms.
Exactly, you get it. And I'd like you to go on a speaking tour where you help these knuckle-draggers get it.
I have a core belief that people are essentially good but prone to circumstances that make them conform to do awful things, including upbringing and mental disorders, trauma, bad teaching, bad role models etc.
But this guy is really testing my faith in that belief here.
