Gutsy essay in Ha’aretz about Israel’s brutal youth. Batya Gur confronts a group of female soldiers harassing an elderly Palestinian:<\/p>\n
This was not one of the greater and more visible
\nevils that take place around us daily, nor was
\nit a disaster, only an insidious and consuming
\nevil, one that is hard to pinpoint and define
\nin words. I do not see the horrors that take
\nplace at the checkpoints every day. I know very
\nwell that such an act by a woman like me,
\nsomeone who avoids any political activity or
\nany consistent struggle for human rights, is
\nactually a sentimental act. Such a trivial act
\nof protest is a bit like sweeping the path to
\nmy own private garden, but what the words and
\neyes of this soldier with a blond ponytail and
\na pierced tongue reflected was not easy to
\nsweep away; it was the glittering, sharp tip of
\na force of nature: the destructive power that
\nhas been penned up in the all-powerful
\nauthority of 18- and 19-year-old men and women.
\nThis power which we, the Jewish citizens of the
\nstate of Israel, have put in the hands of our
\nchildren, the second and third generation of a
\nvery long occupation.<\/i><\/p>\n