Middle East Monitor / May 13, 2023
While the Israeli occupation boasts about targeting military leaders of the Palestinian resistance, the photos and field reports in the Gaza Strip reveal that the assassinations also caused the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
Yossi Klein, a writer for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, wrote: “There’s nothing like killing children for bringing together hearts and minds. For the past 18 weeks, Israelis have been fighting each other, unable to find anything to bring us closer together. Then came the killing of the children in the Gaza Strip and proved that we’re brothers, after all.”
Klein added in an article translated by Arabi21: “Barriers fell, and ill will was forgotten. Yair Lapid placed a consoling arm on Benjamin Netanyahu’s shoulder, while Benny Gantz leaned his head against May Golan, and it was surprising that the entire Knesset didn’t stand up and spontaneously break out to sing ‘Hatikva’ [national anthem]. It must be admitted, killing children is the most heinous of crimes. There is no crime more contemptible; in that lies its despicableness and its power. It acts as a deterrent, it’s effective, and streams fresh, new blood to flow into our arteries.”
Klein noted: “If anyone had any doubt that the air force is strong and threatening, the children’s killing went and proved that it’s too early to say any eulogies for it. It’s strong, it’s terrifying and it’s confronting an army of about 30,000 soldiers who lack the means for aerial combat,” pointing out that: “The killing of children and the bombing of civilians are of greater deterrence and effectiveness than any ‘target bank’, the infamous ‘collapsing’ of buildings, or any attempt to ‘eradicate the foundations of terrorism once and for all.'”
The writer conveyed: “Killing children is designed to cause pain, to strike the most sensitive place of all. It isn’t designed to stop terrorism; it’s designed to deter the terrorists and make us happy. When Itamar Ben-Gvir talks about ‘a painful blow,’ I imagine that he’s referring precisely to that. In fact, he should change his election slogan – not ’50 dead terrorists for every missile,’ but rather ’50 dead children for every missile,'” noting that killing Palestinian children is an effective step engraved in the memory of Israeli public opinion.
Klein stressed: “The pictures of eight-year-old Ali Izzeldeen and his 12-year-old sister, Miar, are impossible to forget. They look too similar to our own children – after all, everyone knows a child of a similar age – and the thought that we killed them should give us no rest. These thoughts will always continue to haunt us because these pictures are not the result of just a minor misstep. It’s not like a pilot arrives, boards a plane, kills whatever number of nameless, faceless human beings and returns for lunch. Here, with the dead children from Gaza, these are pictures that will haunt him all his life and appear in his nightmares. I’m sure that in the pilots’ training course they prepare cadets for such a situation – a case in which their personal conscience stands in contradiction with their professional duty.”
These Israeli confessions may find their way to publication in time. It holds the occupation army responsible for committing violent massacres against Palestinian civilians, especially children, under the pretext of deterring the Palestinian resistance, which has proven, in all operations, its moral superiority over the occupation when it avoided targeting women and children. Unlike the Israelis – by their own admission.
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The Haaretz article :
Killing children brings Israelis together
Yossi Klein
Haaretz / May 11, 2023
There’s nothing like killing children for bringing together hearts and minds. For the past 18 weeks, Israelis have been fighting each other, unable to find anything to bring us closer together. Then came the killing of the children in the Gaza Strip and proved that we’re brothers, after all.
Barriers fell, and ill will was forgotten. Yair Lapid placed a consoling arm on Benjamin Netanyahu’s shoulder, while Benny Gantz leaned his head against May Golan, and it was surprising that the entire Knesset didn’t stand up and spontaneously break out to sing “Hatikva.”
It must be admitted. Killing children is the most heinous of crimes. There is no crime that is more contemptible. In that lies its despicableness and its power. It acts as a deterrent, it’s effective, and streams fresh, new blood to flow into our arteries.
If anyone had any doubt that the air force is strong and threatening, the childrens’ killing went and proved that it’s too early to say any eulogies for it. It’s strong, it’s terrifying, and it’s confronting an army of about 30,000 soldiers who lack the means for aerial combat.
The air force always wins, if not by a knockout then with points – and if not with points, then with the help of the mothballed pundits on TV. The killing of children and the bombing of civilians are of greater deterrence and effectiveness than any “target bank,” the infamous “collapsing” of buildings, or any attempt to “eradicate the foundations of terrorism once and for all.”
Killing children is designed to cause pain, to strike the most sensitive place of all. It isn’t designed to stop terrorism; it’s designed to deter the terrorists and make us happy. When Itamar Ben-Gvir talks about “a painful blow,” I imagine that he’s referring precisely to that. In fact, he should change his election slogan – not “50 dead terrorists for every missile,” but rather “50 dead children for every missile.”
Something about such a statement from him would uplift people and instill confidence, although everyone knows that after a proper rest period, a rise in the opinion polls and the end of Netanyahu trial witness Ari Harow’s testimony, we’ll be prepared for the next operation.
Killing children is an effective action that becomes carved into memory. Who remembers the terrorists we killed, those who were the reason why Ben-Gvir decided to embark on this operation? We killed two? Four will come to replace them. After all, we’ve been here before.
But the pictures of 8-year-old Ali Izzeldeen and his 12-year-old sister, Miar, are impossible to forget. They look too similar to our own children – after all, everyone knows a child of a similar age – and the thought that we killed him should give us no rest. These thoughts will always continue to haunt us.
These pictures are not the result of just a minor misstep. It’s not like a pilot arrives, boards a plane, kills whatever number of nameless, faceless human beings, and returns for lunch. Here, with the dead children from Gaza, these are pictures that will haunt him all his life and appear in his nightmares. I’m sure that in the pilots’ training course they prepare cadets for such a situation – a case in which their personal conscience stands in contradiction with their professional duty.
I’m sure that our brave pilots – those who oppose the judicial overhaul and who are preserving democracy, those who risk their lives day and night to safeguard our security and welfare – were also chosen based on their emotional resilience and their ability to deal with the terrible guilt involved in killing innocent children.
It’s also possible that they aren’t allowed to see the destruction that they have brought down on families, including children. It’s possible that just like a firing squad executing someone, they also share the guilt among themselves, to ensure that it doesn’t fall on only one of them.
The killing of children is not only aimed at deterring terrorists. When the ministers in this government spoke about the painful blow, they were referring to us. They let us know that they aren’t spineless, powerless defeatists, like the previous government. They certainly succeeded. They hit us right between the eyes. The pictures of the children are shocking and disturbing.
Perhaps we should just demand that Facebook forbid the publication of such pictures, which we find so upsetting and which divert attention from the air force’s brilliant operation to such petty matters as we’ve just discussed.
After all, the 500 children who were killed in the summer of 2014 didn’t bring down any coalition. And besides, you can hardly consider the dead children to be “children” – after all, the “children” are our soldiers who kill them.
