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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/weir08232011.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir08232011.html<br><br>
</a></font><font size=2 color="#990000">August 23, 2011<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>"Minimal
Collateral Damage"<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Israeli Video Games in
Gaza</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By ALISON
WEIR<br><br>
</font><font size=3>He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the
beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark blue zipper sweatshirt,
the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit. <br><br>
I can imagine his mother dressing him that morning, making sure he would
be warm enough. I wonder if she’s the one who took the picture. Someone
has written on the photo “kisses.”<br><br>
It’s not <a href="http://ifamericansknew.org/images/IslamQuraiqe2.jpg">a
formal picture</a>. He’s outside on a sunny day. It looks like he was
probably moving when the picture was snapped; his arms seem to be
swinging a little. As with most almost two-year-olds, I suspect it was
hard to get him to stay still long enough for a photo.<br><br>
It’s a happy picture, the kind that makes you smile; perhaps it reminds
you of funny, energetic little children you know or remember.<br><br>
Until you see the next picture. It was taken on his second birthday. His
name was Islam Quraiqe'.<br><br>
Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The small body is charred,
ripped apart; internal organs are
<a href="http://ifamericansknew.org/images/IslamQuraiqe2killed.jpg">
pouring out</a>.<br><br>
He had been riding with his father and uncle on a motorcycle in Gaza when
<a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7662:iof-continue-their-offensive-on-the-gaza-strip6-palestinians-killed-and-9-others-wounded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194">
the missile hit them</a>. His 29-year-old father, a member of the
Palestinian resistance, and 32-year-old uncle physician were also killed.
Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.<br><br>
The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli sitting in front of a video
screen and operating one of the many drones that periodically fly over
Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a fishbowl. The operators are
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-video-game-killing-technology/8919">
usually female</a>, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.
<br><br>
The drones, which look like small, pilotless jets, are equipped with
<a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/predator.htm">precision-guided
missiles</a>. <br><br>
Those operating them receive real-time video feeds from sensors located
on the drone: a color nose camera, a TV lens, an infrared camera for low
light and night, and a synthetic radar for looking through smoke, clouds
or haze. The cameras produce
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30607">full motion video</a> as well
as still frame radar images.<br><br>
Numerous articles extol the virtues of Israeli drones. An
<a href="http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of">
August 17th article</a> by David Rodman reports: “The Israel Air Force
(IAF) has a rich history of employing unmanned aerial vehicles in battle
with excellent results.” Rodman crows that with the possible exception of
the United States, “Israel is the country most closely identified with
[drone] operations in the post-World War II period.” <br><br>
Islam was the second two-year-old to be killed by Israeli forces in two
days. <br><br>
The
<a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7660:iof-escalate-attacks-against-the-gaza-stripsecretary-general-and-4-leaders-of-prc-and-a-child-extra-judicially-executed-and-several-civilian-targets-bombarded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194">
first</a> was killed by an Israeli “precision” rocket the day before. The
boy’s name was Malek Sha’at. His father was also killed. The only picture
available online is of
<a href="http://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/gaza-funeral-aug-19-1.jpg?w=588&h=427">
a small shrouded body</a>. <br><br>
An <a href="http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30607">article</a> by reporter
Aaron Klein proclaims that Israeli weapons are “capable of taking out
stationary and moving targets with minimal collateral damage.”<br><br>
Perhaps Klein is right. Two years of life is decidedly minimal.
Intolerably so.<br><br>
<b>Context<br><br>
</b>During this period (August 18-20, 2011) Israeli forces
<a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7662:iof-continue-their-offensive-on-the-gaza-strip6-palestinians-killed-and-9-others-wounded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194">
killed 14 Palestinians</a> including at least one other child, a
13-year-old, and injured at least 50, nine of them children. Gazan
resistance forces
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415453">killed
one Israeli and injured about 20 </a>. Gazan hospitals, hard hit by the
years-long Israeli siege, report that they have run out of 150 medicines
and 160 types of medical equipment
z9<a href="http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2011/08/gaza-out-of-150-medicines-and-160-types.html">
http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2011/08/gaza-out-of-150-medicines-and-160-types.html</a>
).<br><br>
The Israeli assaults were allegedly triggered by attacks on Thursday,
August 18th, by unknown gunmen on the Egyptian border with Israel that
killed
<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/19/world/la-fg-israel-attacks-20110819">
eight Israelis</a>. Israeli forces killed the attackers in Eilat, also
shooting dead, according to the BBC, five Egyptian policemen. The Israeli
Defense Minister told Egypt afterwards that
“<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414761">Israel
regrets the deaths</a>.”<br><br>
There is no evidence connecting Gazan resistance groups to the attack,
and they have<a href="http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml"> denied
responsibility for it</a>. Hamas itself had maintained a unilateral de
facto ceasefire <a href="http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml">since
2009</a>(some independent resistance groups, however, refused to take
part in this truce and continued to launch rockets in response to Israeli
actions). Groups in Egypt have periodically
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/07/2011729143340707514.html">
taken actions </a>opposing Israel. Egyptian authorities say they have
identified <a href="http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/488511">three of
the attackers</a>, who appear to have been based in the Sinai, there are
<a href="http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/08/20/shabak-blames-idf-for-eilat-terror-attack/">
reports</a> that Israeli intelligence warned of the attack ahead of time,
and there is mounting information suggesting that the attackers may have
been
<a href="http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m80723&hd=&size=1&l=e">
Egyptian, not Gazan</a>. <br><br>
While many reports describe the Israeli actions as retaliatory, Israeli
attacks on Gaza occur regularly and were already
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182272758210801.html">
ongoing before the Eilat attack</a>. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, an
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413468">Israeli
air strike</a> killed a 29-year-old Palestinian man in the morning, and
Israeli ground soldiers <a href="http://imemc.org/article/61850">killed a
disabled teenager </a>later in the day. The youth was shot more than 10
times, mostly in the head. On Wednesday night there were more Israeli air
attacks throughout Gaza. (The <i>LA Times</i> called this a period of
“relative calm.”)
Some<a href="http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/avnery-reveals-the-return-of-the-generals/">
analysts</a> suggest that the recent Israeli escalation against Gaza may
have been prompted, at least in part, by a Netanyahu desire to deflect
energy from the massive social protests that have been enveloping Israel
recently.<br><br>
The death toll among Gazans and Israelis has been notably
disproportionate. In Israel’s Dec-Jan 2008-09 “Cast Lead” assault,
Israeli forces killed approximately
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0WKVhIpgr4&feature=youtu.be">
1,387 Gazans </a>, while resistance forces
<a href="http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html">killed
nine Israelis</a>. In the preceding year Israeli forces killed 713
Gazans; Gazan resistance fighters
<a href="http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html">killed
eight Israelis</a>. Since “Cast Lead” through the end of July of this
year, Israeli forces killed approximately 200 Gazans; Palestinian
resistance groups killed approximately
<a href="http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml">five Israelis</a>.
<br><br>
Most of Gaza’s residents are refugee families who were forcibly pushed
out by Israel in its 1947-49 founding war, in which non-Jews, who
originally made up over 70 percent of the inhabitants, were
<a href="http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html">expelled</a>
. <br><br>
In violation of international law, they have been prohibited from
returning to their homes and have lived under crippling Israeli
occupation for decades. Palestinian land is continually confiscated by
Israel for Jewish-only use. A popular uprising against Israeli occupation
began in the fall of 2000. <br><br>
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said
<a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4111951,00.html">
yesterday</a>: “Those who operate against us will be decapitated.” That
night at least 100 Israeli military vehicles stormed into the West Bank
city of Hebron, closing the city off for hours and rounding up more than
50 Palestinians, including several academics and members of charitable
associations. <br><br>
On Saturday, August 20th, Israeli Aerospace Industries proudly unveiled
its latest drone, known as the
“<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-aerospace-industries-unveils-unmanned-aircraft-ghost-1.379853">
GHOST</a>,” which the company announced, “is at the forefront of
technology thanks to years of experience and knowledge acquired in the
field of unmanned aerial vehicles.” <br><br>
Israel partisan and author
<a href="http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of">
David Rodman</a> reports that Israeli drones “played a substantial part”
in Israel’s 1982 Lebanon war (in which Israeli forces killed at least
<a href="http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-8077.html">17,825
Lebanese</a>, compared to
<a href="http://www.enotes.com/topic/1982_Lebanon_War">344 Israelis</a>
killed by the Lebanese resistance) and that their use in what he
acknowledges in profound understatement were “asymmetric conflicts” – the
2006 Second Lebanon war (Israeli forces killed at least
<a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/05/why-they-died-0">1,125
Lebanese</a> , almost all civilians,
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/amnesty-israel-committed-war-crimes-in-lebanon-campaign-1.195683">
a third of them children</a>; Lebanese resistance forces killed 164
Israelis,
about<a href="http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/Lebanon_war2_eng.htm">
three-quarters of them soldiers</a> and the 2008–2009 Cast Lead
operation – “sparked renewed global interest in Israeli drone
operations.”<br><br>
Rodman<a href="http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of">
states</a>: “In terms of the technological sophistication of its UAV
force, Israel is unquestionably well ahead of the pack. Only the United
States is in the same league.”<br><br>
<b>Alison Weir</b> is president of the
<a href="http://Councilforthenationalinterest.org">Council for the
National Interest</a> and executive director of
<a href="http://ifamericansknew.org/">If Americans Knew</a>. She can be
reached at
<a href="mailto:contact@ifamericansknew.org">
contact@ifamericansknew.org</a>. <br><br>
<br><br>
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