The level of militant lust for revenge in Israeli society is uncharted these days. The latest example came on Friday, when Israeli Channel 12 journalist Danny Kushmaro released a 27-minute report on Israel’s destruction in southern Lebanon. The title of the presentation was “This is not the Third Lebanon War, it is the last one.”
Channel 12 is the most-watched commercial channel, it’s considered centrist and mainstream. In the report, Kushmaro is embedded with Golani infantry soldiers riding into a village in southern Lebanon, called Ayta Al-Sha’b. The village is almost entirely razed to the ground, but there are still some buildings left. Kushmaro’s report is replete with vitriol, where he repeatedly refers to “these evil people”, whom he chides for “hating Israel”.
At the end of the story, Kushmaro is offered the task of pressing a button to denonate a building. “A moment before we leave, we have one mission left,” Kushmaro narrates. The officer is seen telling him of a house nearby, where he claims that “there is direct line of sight to Dovev and Meron – from here they shoot.” Kushmaro presses the button and the house explodes, serving as the climax of the whole report. Kushmaro signs off with a close-up where he says “Don’t mess with the Jews.”