NEWSFLASH: Defense attorney tries to defend a defendant, without first checking with Haaretz whether the defendant deserves it. The headline below reads: Israel argues officer who beat Palestinian suffered more than victim The tweet from Haaretz about this story reads: Israel argues Palestinian victim should pay officer who beat him Where to begin? Its true that Israel is defending Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, but Israel also prosecuted him after the assault, and Israel also fired him from his command position and from the army. Hes a soldier; every part of the legal process, in his favor and to his detriment, is handled by the state. If Haaretz believes the legal defense of soldiers should be handled by private attorneys, let it say so. Until then, the simple fact that the defense attorney is a state employee doesnt free him from his duty to mount the best defense he can, and doesnt make the state somehow culpable in the arguments made in that defense. To argue otherwise is to argue that Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner doesnt deserve to be defended in court at all -- a position Haaretz would never take (and rightly so) with serial murderers or child rapists. Similarly, to argue that the damages Eisner sustained in that altercation are an illegitimate part of his defense suggests that it is prima facie illegitimate for defense attorneys to attempt a line of argument that lays part of the responsibility for an altercation on the plaintiff -- again, an argument Haaretz would not make (on grounds of silliness) if it didnt see the defendant first and foremost as a symbol, one in a long list of rhetorical touchstones on which it has constructed its grand political narrative, rather than a rights-bearing human being. None of this is an argument that the court should award Eisner anything. He caused harm unjustly (at least according to Israel, back when it prosecuted him), betraying his vows as a soldier and besmirching his countrys good name. Those who were harmed have a right to take him to court, without any connection to the politics surrounding the incident. But the misrepresentation of his defense in such a way that suggests defending him is illegitimate is a far greater blow to democracy and fairness than a single soldiers violent outburst could ever be. And in making Israel, in its totality, the target of its confused criticism, Haaretz wields its accidental attack on due process as a slander against an entire country.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:39:06 +0000
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