Monday, August 16, 2010

That Facebook Fiasco

Seems left wing blogs and main stream media have spun off out of control in comparing the Facebook Fiasco of a discharged female soldier, supposedly Eden Aberjil, who posted pictures of herself with Arab prisoners, as if this is an Abu Ghraib-style event. Even Channel Two did that.



An official IDF response I managed to get asserts that

These pictures and the behavior of the soldier in question are disgraceful. The soldier was released last year and all of the information has been forwarded to the relevant commanders. Both the pictures and the behavior are in total violation of IDF ethics and the IDF code of conduct.


Some officers I asked confirmed that this soldier was never an officer, despite pictures in her profile that show her wearing ranks. Probably she borrowed a shirt.

This bit at AP is really outrageous though:

The comments by the woman and her friend in an exchange below one photograph suggested how casually the picture was treated, including jokes and sexual innuendos.

"You're the sexiest like that," her friend wrote.

"I wonder if he's got Facebook!" the woman in the photograph responded. "I have to tag him in the picture!"


Sorry, there is no sexual innuendo. In Hebrew, "sexy" is used as an adjective too describe being cool and great. And as the picture shows, she's just showing off and sitting near prisoners, off to the side.

Stupid, yes.

Dumb, yes.

Insensitive, yes.

Mean and evil and demeaning, not quite.


Suggesting a "cold indifference and cruelty that has come to characterize the Israeli occupation" or "she looks down her nose imperiously towards him" is far-fetched.

I would suggest the IDF deal with the "how-to-post-on-Facebook" problem that has developed.

- - -

Facebook Fiasco Update:-

'I actually took care of the detainees'

Ex-soldier from Ashdod who caused worldwide stir by posting photos of herself posing with cuffed Palestinian detainees taken during her army service says she received death threats on Facebook. 'The IDF let me down, I wish I never served in such an army,' she says...

No comments: