Ben Caspit
Israeli society became incensed this week with the video of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi and her 20-year-old cousin Nour, who slapped the Israeli soldiers occupying their family yard in Nabi Saleh. The
story of the women's 15-year-old cousin Mohammed being shot in the head by soldiers (and put into coma) just prior to that hardly played any part in what the mainstream media was focusing upon - the humiliation of the soldiers, as it were. As Yossi Gurvitz
noted, "the Israeli media did not pay any attention to an Israeli jackboot firing a bullet at the head of 15 years old. As everyone knows, daily events are not news. Nothing to report."
The discussion amongst Israelis became all about the humiliation suffered by heavily armed soldiers, from a fearless 16-year old girl and her bare hands. Culture Minister Miri Regev
said: "When I watched that, I felt humiliated, I felt crushed". She called the incident "damaging to the honor of the military and the state of Israel." She was echoing her own words from 2015, when Ahed also appeared in a viral video, wrestling a masked Israeli soldier, who was holding her little brother in a headlock and pressing him down on a rock, his broken arm in cast.
Then Regev was "shocked to see the video this morning of Palestinians hitting an IDF soldier," adding that, "It cannot be that our soldiers will be sent on missions with their hands tied behind their backs. It's simply a disgrace!....
We must immediately order that a soldier under attack be able to return fire. Period."
Comment: To be followed up by its sequel: "Russians Are Congenitally Devious". Not coming anytime soon: "I'm Fed Up with Rich Jews", "Enough with Black Women, Am I Right?", "I Can't Get Into College Because of Asians". Because "humorous coping mechanisms" are race-specific, apparently.