Perhaps the saddest moment in the Hagel hearing was to see the nominee forced to recant perfectly reasonable and true views, as if he were in a communist re-education camp or show trial. He apparently had once said there is “no justification for Israel to keep the Palestinians caged up like animals.” Senator Mike Lee, a Tea Party Republican from Utah, challenged the language. Hagel immediately recanted—“I would like to go back and change the words and the meaning… I regret that I used those words.” The fact that Israel’s occupation is oppressive, and cages up Palestinians is something which Capitol Hill can’t handle.

Mondoweiss posts the video above of Israeli soldiers bragging, quite brazenly before the camera, that they keep Palestinians caged up like animals. “Animals. Like the Discovery Channel. All of Ramallah is a jungle. The problem is the animals are locked in, they can’t come out. They aren’t humans, we are.” The video shows some Israeli troops teasing an Arab man who begs them to be able to pass the checkpoint in order to spend Christmas with his family.