A new language was created not too long ago, in which what is good is actually bad, what is bad is not really that bad, and the basic values on which we were raised are blasted as outdated. That is the language of political correctness, by which Israeli society can be segmented: Those who are fluent in this language are good and worthy, while those who are not are simply riffraff. In the language of political correctness, the Judaization of the Galilee is racist; flying the Palestinian flag in an Arab village is an expression of the collective feeling of certain citizens; and a house built illegally must be immediately razed, even if it was built under the auspices of the very principles upon which the State of Israel was founded. In a world based on political correctness, soldiers who run to the media with tales of "war crimes" by the Israeli military but have no intention of alerting authorities to said "crimes" are doing their civic duty, and professors at a public university who call on their colleagues abroad to boycott Israel are doing so as an expression of ethics and morals. It is this politically correct atmosphere that saw IDF soldier Elor Azaria led to court in handcuffs. In this world, a telephone call by the prime minister to the soldier's father is an unredeemable sin, widely denounced by the media; and any expression of support by public officials interferes with due process. In the 1950s, the IDF was busy mounting reprisal operations against terrorists' nests. The most infamous operation was carried out in 1953 in the village of Qibya, where 69 Palestinians were killed. In the 1960s, the IDF was busy with wide-scale counterterrorism operations across Judea and Samaria, and protecting human rights was not part of their orders of battle. Israel's long arm eradicated archterrorists in the 1980s; and in the 1990s, when Israeli forces were battling Hezbollah terrorists, we learned the term "dead checking." But that world was not based on political correctness. If there was one saving grace in the Azaria case, it was evident during the sentencing phase, when the court opted for the relatively light sentence of 18 months. After lambasting Azaria during the verdict, the sentencing hearing leveled criticism at IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, who chose to condemn Azaria while the investigation was still in its early stages. The court's choice reflects the fact that it did not remain oblivious to public sentiment in this case. The relatively light sentence imposed on the soldier can perhaps make up for the fact that his reputation has been trampled upon, and that he and his family have been wronged. One can only hope that this small saving grace finds its way to the wider public sphere, where support for Azaria is a foreign language. Dr. Eyal Levin is the head of the Multidisciplinary Department at Ariel University's Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.
