Above It All

In my 29/12/08 post F-16s/Apaches etc I asked for a round of applause for the pilots of the glorious Israeli Air Force (IAF). A week of hard work and still no sign of rest for these heroes of the skies.

To them I dedicate the following:-

Real Mensch

"I just can't relate to those crazy Palestinian suicide bombers. No decent person could. The bombers I relate to wear nice uniforms with nice badges... Handsome, clean-shaven... They fly proper planes with proper insignias. They drop their bombs on people in an orderly, ethical and successful way... then they fly home for a beer, a hamburger and a good movie to unwind... Yes, I can relate to that." (How can you relate to evil, inferior weirdos when you're so fabulous & good? Michael Leunig, The Age, 13/4/04)

Fiddlers On the Roof

"The IDF has code named such operations 'roof knocking', in which the army informs the residents of a suspected building that they have 10' to leave the premises. In some cases, residents of suspected houses have been able to prevent bombing by climbing up to the roof to show that they will not leave, prompting IDF commanders to call off the strike. In these cases... the IAF sometimes launches a relatively harmless missile at the corner of the roof, avoiding casualties but successfully dispersing the crowd." (On 7th Day of Gaza op, IAF bombs 20 Hamas targets, Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2/1/09)

What did you do in the turkey shoot, Daddy?

"In 4 days they killed 375 people. They did not, and could not distinguish between a Hamas official and his children, between a traffic cop and a Qassam launch operator, between a weapons cache and a health clinic, between the first and second floors of a densely occupied apartment building with dozens of children inside... As in training flights, they bomb undisturbed, facing neither an airforce nor defense system. It is hard to judge what they are thinking, how they feel. It's unlikely to be relevant, anyway. They are measured by their actions. In any event, from an altitude of thousands of feet the picture looks as sterile as a Rorschach blot. Lock onto the target, press the button and then a black column of smoke. Another 'successful' hit. None see the effects on the ground of their actions. Their heads must surely be filled with Gaza horror stories - they themselves have never been there - as if there aren't a million and a half people living there who only want to live with a minimum of honor, some of them young like themselves, with dreams of studying, working, raising a family but who have no chance to fulfill their dreams with or without the bombing." (The IAF, bullies of the clear blue skies, Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 31/12/08)