Recently a video of human rights activist Adi Shosberger calling Israeli soldiers near the Gaza fence “terrorists” circulated widely in Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the video as an “outrageous absurdity”.

But the hosts on the “Breakfast Club” radio show on the Maariv channel 103 FM went further. Host Shai Goldstein said that he “feels like killing that woman”, and called her “stupid”, “retarded”, “little bitch”, and “filth.” His co-host Lea Lev echoed his views.

I mentioned the reaction before, but I’ve now transcribed the entire conversation because it is so hair-raising. Maariv is the 3rd largest news outlet in Israel, and is considered mainstream and centrist.

Shai Goldstein: “You can’t do anything anymore in this state”

Leah Lev: Times have changed.

Goldstein: Times have really changed.

(Someone shouts from back of studio): You can curse soldiers!

Lev: You can curse soldiers. That’s right, that you can actually do – listen to how this leftist activist…

Goldstein: I feel like killing that woman.

Lev: Come, come Shai, we haven’t played the clip yet…

Goldstein: I sat yesterday at home, smoke came out of my ears! Ok…

Lev: For those who don’t know, after we saw the whole storm that occurred with the sniper, suddenly this left-activist comes and shows us the exact other side, and there we see how hard it is for the soldiers.

Goldstein: wow, wow, I’m going to get a fit now, again, I can’t believe it…

(Playing the audio of the clip).

Goldstien: What a piece of… stupidity.

Lev: A nobody.

Goldstein: Not only a nobody – also stupid! Who do you come to complain to? The soldiers who are there? Are they there from their own free will? They are following orders! Are you a big hero?! Go to…

Lev: Go to Gadi Eisenkot [Chief of Staff] and tell him all those things!

Goldstein: I feel like taking her, and putting her in the center of Gaza…

Lev: Yes.

Goldstein: Alone…

Lev: Yes.

Goldstein: And leaving her there.

Lev. Yes. And let’s see what happens…

Goldstein: And let’s see what would happen to her – the stupid woman… the soldiers are protecting you, you retard!

Lev: True. It’s the most annoying thing I’ve seen. You know, it’s one thing, to “oppose the occupation” [said with derogatory nasal tone]…

Goldstein: So oppose it!

Lev: It’s another thing, to go and say that you’re not going to serve in the military. OK, fine, let’s say.

Goldstein: Let’s say. It’s your right… it’s not your right, but do whatever you want!

Lev: But to come up to a person, in the face, to try to humiliate them, as if they did something to you personally…

Goldstein: If these soldiers weren’t protecting you, you piece of stupidity, it’s reasonable to assume that you would be raped and murdered in the street…

Lev: Yes…

Goldstein: …by those whom you protect so much.

Lev: Absolutely.

Goldstein: So those soldiers protect you. Because of them you can get near an area which… the area you got near, and get out of there safe and sound without being stripped of your own skin. So go to hell, and leave. These people are really…

Lev: It’s just not fair.

Goldstein: What are you doing here?! Go! Go to Gaza!

Lev: You know, it’s people, when I look at them [the soldiers], these are people at my age, it’s people who are slightly older than me…

Goldstein: Soldiers!

Lev: It’s soldiers, it’s officers, it’s folks from age 18 up to age 25 or something, folks who are really young – so you are coming there, and you’re like, what, you’re hitting them on the head? You’re a big hero?

Goldstein: Yes, on children – they’re children!!

Lev: Madam, who are you anyway?

Goldstein: Who are you?

Lev: Where did they bring you from?

Goldstein: She gave me nerves, the little bitch…

Lev: Really…

Goldstein: Filth…

Lev: We’ll still try to get hold of her…

Notice that as Adi Shosberger refused to take the call, the hosts were simply speaking about her, to themselves. Notice the depictions of Gaza and how Adi would be “raped and murdered” (if it weren’t for the soldiers ‘protecting her’). Notice the “go to Gaza” expression – which has long been one of the worst epithets you could hurl at another Israeli (long before Hamas), and notice how the soldiers are depicted as victims – “kids”, and ones who are merely “following orders” (sound familiar?).

As Adi Shosberger has noted, just a few hundred meters from the location of her demonstration that day, 11 protesters were shot dead, among them two children. That reality is of course not even featured in any way within this discussion.

This talk apparently passes in Israel for ‘normal’, because no Israeli is supposed to shame the ‘most moral army’ in such a way – because then you ‘had it coming’. In fact, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman promoted new legislation, making it a crime punishable by 5 years prison to film soldiers with the purpose of “destabilizing IDF morale and the morale of Israeli citizens” (with the penalty becoming 10 years if the intent is to “harm the security of the state”).

It doesn’t matter that the highest commanders basically make admissions that they are deliberately targeting civilians (and what do you call that?). Look for example at former Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur’s admission from 1978: “The Israeli army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously…the Army…has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets…[but] purposely attacked civilian targets even when Israeli settlements had not been struck.” (Speaking to military correspondent Zeev Schiff, in N. Finkelstein, Beyond Chutzpah, p. 318, see also Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle, p. 181).

There have been many such statements in Israeli history, and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has recently said that “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza”. But don’t you dare call that terror.