Far-left Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy today (Thursday) sharply attacked the operation revealed this week by Prime Minister Bennett to locate Ron Arad as well as the focus on returning the bodies of dead soldiers to Israel for burial as "necrophilia."
In his column, Levy called the attempts to return Arad to Israel "insane" and "state-sponsored necrophilia."
"This search is not the only symptom of necrophilia in Israel’s behavior, especially in recent years, but it is the most serious," Levy wrote.
He recalled Israeli efforts to find renowned spy Eli Cohen and IDF soldier Zachary Baumel, who were killed decades ago, as well as the efforts to return the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and whose bodies have been held by the Hamas terrorist organization ever since.
Levy also writes that Israel trades and counts corpses: "Its refrigerators are full of corpses, it holds dozens of Palestinian corpses as 'bargaining chips'. If this is not necrophilia, what is necrophilia?"
"When necrophilia becomes the main goal, when human life is endangered for it, when enormous capital is poured in and when acts are done that a state of law is forbidden to do, it is impossible to admire the pyrotechnics involved," Levy wrote.
"Once again, everything could be wrapped up in security considerations. This brazen madness could be wrapped in "heritage" quotes. But in the end, the question arises ... when will we grow up and quit?" Levy concluded.