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GIDEON LEVY / The IAF, bullies of the clear blue skies By Gideon Levy Tags: Gaza, Israel News, Hamas  Click here for more articles by Gideon Levy Our finest young men are attacking Gaza now. Good boys from good homes are doing bad things. Most of them are eloquent, impressive, self-confident, often even highly principled in their own eyes, and on Black Saturday dozens of them set out to bomb some of the targets in our "target bank" for the Gaza Strip. They set out to bomb the graduation ceremony for young police officers who had found that rare Gaza commodity, a job, massacring them by the dozen. They bombed a mosque, killing five sisters of the Balousha family, the youngest of whom was 4. They bombed a police station, hitting a doctor nearby; she lies in a vegetative state in Shifa Hospital, which is bursting with wounded and dead. They bombed a university that we in Israel call the Palestinian Rafael, the equivalent of Israel's weapons developer, and destroyed student dormitories. They dropped hundreds of bombs out of blue skies free of all resistance. Advertisement In four 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 populated apartment building with dozens of children inside. According to reports, about half of the people killed were innocent civilians. We're not complaining about the pilots' accuracy, it cannot be otherwise when the weapon is a plane and the objective is a tiny, crowded strip of land. Our excellent pilots are effectively bullies now. As in training flights, they bomb undisturbed, facing neither an air force 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 inkblot. 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. Do the pilots think about them, the children of refugees whose parents and grandparents have already been driven from their lives? Do they think about the thousands of people they have left permanently disabled in a place without a single hospital worthy of the name and no rehabilitation centers at all? Do they think about the burning hatred they are planting not only in Gaza but in other corners of the world amid the horrific images on television? It was not the pilots who decided to go to war, but they are the subcontractors. The real accounting must be with the decision makers, but the pilots are their partners. When they return home they will be welcomed with all the respect and honor we reserve for them. It appears that not only will no one try to provoke moral questioning among them, but that they are considered the real heroes of this cursed war. The Israel Defense Forces spokesman is already going over the top with praise in his daily briefings for the "wonderful work" they are doing. He too, of course, completely ignores the images from Gaza. After all, these are not sadistic Border Police officers beating up Arabs in the alleys of Nablus and the center of Hebron, or cruel undercover soldiers who shoot their targets point-blank in cold blood. These, as we have said, are our finest young men. Maybe if they were to confront the results of their "wonderful work" even once they would regret their decisions, they would reconsider the effects of their actions. If they were to go just once to Jerusalem's Alyn Hospital Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center, where for nearly three years Marya Aman, 7, has been hospitalized - she is a quadriplegic who runs her wheelchair, and her life, with her chin - they would be shocked. This adorable little girl was hit by a missile in Gaza that killed almost her entire family, the handiwork of our pilots. But all of this is well hidden from the pilots' eyes. They are only doing their job, as the saying goes, only following orders like bombing machines. In the past few days they have excelled at this, and the results are there for the entire world to see. Gaza is licking its wounds, just like Lebanon before it, and almost no one pauses for a moment to ask whether all this is necessary, or unavoidable, or whether it contributes to Israel's security and moral image. Is it really the case that our pilots return safely to base, or are they in fact returning to them as callous, cruel and blind people? Bookmark to del.icio.us   Disturbing trend Jewish Agency says Anti-Semitic acts in Jan. 2009 triple last year's records. After the war IDF gains in Gaza have softened Israel's stance on Shalit deal.   1.   Is this writer Jewish, with a name like Levi? 09:47  |  Harvey 31/12/08   2.   No levy, they`re not blind they need you and your ilk to guide 09:55  |  tour guide levie 31/12/08   3.   Your Pilots 09:59  |  dariush 31/12/08   4.   Gideon Levy, we are at war. 10:13  |  Tzfonit 31/12/08   5.   It`s a war stupid! 10:14  |  Zev 31/12/08   6.   Gideon Levy did you ever visit Sderot or Be`er Sheva? 10:24  |  arthur 31/12/08   7.   Greetings from Top Gun 10:39  |  Shimon Cleopas 31/12/08   8.   # 1 Harvey 10:39  |  alan 31/12/08   9.   Blaming the pilots?? 10:41  |  Dan 31/12/08   10.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 10:47  |  Paul 31/12/08   11.   Gideon Levi 10:47  |  ALON 31/12/08   12.   Pilots carry political burden 10:47  |  Brian 31/12/08   13.   to those who attack Levy 10:50  |  Jack 31/12/08   14.   It`s the Geneva Conventions, stupid 10:53  |  Jeremiah Haber 31/12/08   15.   More Koolaid, Gideon? 11:00  |  Zebra 31/12/08   16.   israeli restraint 11:03  |  Jordan 31/12/08   17.   you must have not felt the pain yet 11:04  |  Miriam Smith 31/12/08   18.   Marya Aman 11:15  |  Hilary 31/12/08   19.   Pilots 11:19  |  dariush 31/12/08   20.   It is NOT a war, it is a political stunt 11:21  |  Manny Goldstein 31/12/08   21.   It is NOT a war, it is a political stunt 11:21  |  Manny Goldstein 31/12/08   22.   Gideon Levy:IAF bullies 11:25  |  dano 31/12/08   23.   gideon levy - a traitor 11:26  |  andyboy 31/12/08   24.   Bullies: 11:27  |  Gary 31/12/08   25.   Gideon, it`s not the pilots, it`s the politicos 11:37  |  sh 31/12/08   26.   This response ... such a shame 11:40  |  Stéphane 31/12/08   27.   It is Levy who is callous and blind to the needs of his people 11:43  |  Mcqueen 31/12/08   28.   Offensive articles by Levy have opposite effect of one he intend 11:46  |  Mcqueen 31/12/08   29.   To Ghideon Levy and to 19 11:46  |  Israeli 31/12/08   30.   With friends like you, who needs enemies? 11:47  |  sandy cohen 31/12/08   31.   Is Gidon Levy Blind to the Suffering of Israelis in the Negev 11:48  |  ERSB 31/12/08   32.   Gideon Levy 11:48  |  PATRICK RIORDAN 31/12/08   33.   bombings in gaza 11:49  |  bobby 31/12/08   34.   To Hilary #18 11:49  |  Ned 31/12/08   35.   GIDEON LEVY, A MAN WITH A GREAT MIND, CONSCIENCE 11:50  |  JH 31/12/08   36.   Holier than thou Gideon 11:51  |  A mother 31/12/08   37.   Levy the misguided. 11:53  |  Charles Smyth 31/12/08   38.   When will Haaretz fire Levy ? 11:54  |  Proud Israeli 31/12/08   39.   Gideon haters, You still dont get it 11:55  |  Neshan Balian 31/12/08   40.   Gideon Levy 11:55  |  Me 31/12/08   41.   Manny Goldstein shooting from the hip 11:56  |  Tzfonit 31/12/08   42.   washing your hands 12:00  |  Someone neutral 31/12/08   43.   Gideon Levy: the human standard, finally! 12:00  |  hans schnitzler 31/12/08   44.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 12:02  |  Mark B. 31/12/08   45.   Gideon Levy - a true mensch and a credit to Judaism 12:03  |  Clickfool 31/12/08   46.   Serious Question 12:04  |  Dave 31/12/08   47.   "they bombed...the Palestinian Rafael" 12:05  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 31/12/08   48.   Hamas = Evil Iranian subcontrator 12:05  |  Gil 31/12/08   49.   Done with Ha`aretz and I`m a leftist 12:05  |  Yael 31/12/08   50.   iaf `bullies` necessary? 12:18  |  elliot 31/12/08   51.   Thanks 12:19  |  Tao 31/12/08   52.   Levy is wrong, the Arabs are the bullies, the Jews are the victim 12:19  |  Devorah 31/12/08   53.   Gideon Levy, The IDF protects your right to vicious critisism 12:21  |  Daniel 31/12/08   54.   IAF Bullies 12:25  |  az 31/12/08   55.   I live in a town called ... 12:26  |  Edith 31/12/08   56.   Morality 12:26  |  Gail 31/12/08   57.   Response to "It`s a war stupid" 12:29  |  Tao2 31/12/08   58.   a new low for Levy 12:30  |  David Scott 31/12/08   59.   #26 Stephane from Lyon 12:33  |  sh 31/12/08   60.   guidelines for reactions 12:34  |  hans schnitzler 31/12/08   61.   That`s obvious 12:38  |  Smahane 31/12/08   62.   stop to agress Mr Gideon Levy 12:41  |  David 31/12/08   63.   Sad Comment by a Journalist(?) 12:41  |  Ori 31/12/08   64.   Gideon Levy & Hamas 12:42  |  Shmuel Aharoni 31/12/08   65.   Hideous &Cynic 12:44  |  Souheil 31/12/08   66.   Israel thinks it operates in a hermeticially sealed world 12:47  |  Clickfool 31/12/08   67.   Gideon a disgrace 12:47  |  Monica 31/12/08   68.   #17 right on the mark 12:50  |  lily 31/12/08   69.   War is their own free choice 12:53  |  Shoshana Thomasson 31/12/08   70.   A rotten society 12:59  |  natterer 31/12/08