The Seattle Times’ Bruce Ramsey listens to some former Israeli soliders critique the occupation of Palestine and can’t help but see the similiarities with the United State’s current colonial adventure in Iraq.

The travails of American occupiers of Arab Iraq may not be so different from those of the Israeli occupiers of Arab Palestine. That is what I thought while hearing the stories of Avichay Sharon and Noam Chayut.

Sharon, 24, and Chayut, 26, had been in the Israeli army. They were here recently to criticize what their army does, touring under the auspices of a group called Breaking the Silence. Of course they “had an agenda.” Keep that in mind — but hear their story.

“It is very difficult to do this,” said Sharon. “We love our country. We grew up in patriotic Zionist homes, thinking we would serve in the most moral army in the world.” But the civilian notion of morality is difficult to apply to the job of a military occupier.

Read the rest at The Seattle Times for more information on “why they hate us.”

Linda B. in Seattle writes:

Mr. Ramsey has taken the courageous step of using the appropriate name for the U.S. presence in Iraq and the Israeli presence on Palestinian land: “occupation.” Through tortuous legalistic reasoning and simple distortion of the English language the truth is usually concealed, leaving such euphemisms as “disputed territory” or “administered lands” to hide the reality of an illegal occupation. Once the word is gone, the truth disappears as well.

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