SOLDIERS OF       MISFORTUNE

How much does Israel spend and why does it need to hire mercenaries and criminals for its Gaza campaign?

 

By Sidney Hey

It was mid-February when four heavily armed masked men in dark uniforms tried to raid one of the skeleton buildings in Khan Younis in an attempt to sneak in and surprise the Palestinian resistance men. Unfortunately, they did not realise they were walking into a booby trap and were all killed. A few minutes later the Palestinian fighters were able to confirm that they were all foreigners (two of them Argentinians).

The IDF's problems with its own regular recruits of israeli Jews who are unable to do the job entrusted to them by their political leaders, is nothing new. Beyond all the propagandist folklore woven for years around this army's professionalism and supposed invincibility (already unseated by Hezballah in 2006), the reality in the Gaza Strip has put the lie to this speculation. To address this, Israel has been recruiting thousands of mercenaries from all over the world to carry out “special operations” against the Palestinian population of the strip.

These guys are not going for religious or ideological conviction, nor are they ‘volunteers’, they are all very well paid (between 2,200 to 9000 US dollars) to do what the regular IDF cadres cannot or will not do, because beating or killing unarmed women and children in the occupied territories is not the same as confronting a well-determined and motivated armed resistance.

Netanyahu and his cabinet of religious extremists know that they cannot count on the explicit support of the Americans and their Atlanticist partners on the ground. He is aware that such involvement would raise the moderate positions in Saudi Arabia that provide expectations of a possible deal. Thus, similar to what is happening in Ukraine with his neo-Nazi colleague Volodymyr Zelensky, he will not have the military support on the front line with combat troops and armoured units from the US Army or the British or the schizophrenic French. There are not only political and diplomatic limits that prevent this involvement, but also an obvious awareness on the part of each of these governments of the danger and sensitivity of the scenario.

Thus it has come to light that Tel Aviv, through its worldwide networks and without worrying about the monetary costs, has recruited Spanish, Argentine, Kurdish, French, British, German and American mercenaries, among other nationalities, to employ them in tasks as complex as they are dangerous, which even its “Merkaba” tanks and armoured vehicles have not been able to overcome. These recruiters contacted private security companies (including Argentine ones) such as GLOBAL CST (with a long history of assassinations and human rights violations in different continents) to seduce and recruit potential candidates to join the IDF.

The highly dangerous nature of the theatre in Gaza has tested the mettle of the infantrymen and Israeli commanders have concluded that it is not possible to carry out certain operations without losses that are impossible to justify to Israeli society. The cases of suicides and psychological problems among IDF cadres is one of the issues that Bibi and his cabinet cannot hide and which he is exploiting together with the hostages' families. Likewise, he seems determined to realise the extremists' messianic plans and for that he needs capable men. That is why criminals and unscrupulous mercenaries are the ideal candidates to realise them.

Among these “operations” are the search and exploration of Palestinian resistance tunnels, weapons workshops and bunkers that have often been death traps for IDF teams and have yet to be dismantled.

Among the best qualified (and best paid) to tackle these dangerous targets are the Kurdish PKK terrorists, elements that, in addition to attacking Turkey, have for a decade been serving US plans in northern Syria.

Although Muslim, the Kurds of these factions are committed to Zionism not out of any kind of conviction, ideology or sympathy, but because of political and economic pacts (involving trafficking in arms, drugs and people) made decades ago between the Mossad and the Barzani clan.

That is why the main recruiting base for these guys is in northern Iraq, i.e. in Kurdistan controlled for decades by the Barzani Clan mafia, old allies of the Mossad since 1958 and accomplices in terrorist raids and plots against Baghdad and Tehran. It is precisely in Irbil that Israeli intelligence has its bases for operating against the Arab-Islamic world and where Iranian intelligence managed to eliminate several of its agents.

With this we see how business and political interests of the states intertwine to achieve their objectives. Nothing new under the sun, but yes, today we can know it first hand. Mercenaries have existed as long as the world has existed and I believe they will continue to exist until this world ceases to exist.

But as in all walks of life, in the mercenary universe there are good and bad mercenaries. The ones Israel has recruited are the worst and are partly responsible for the proven torture, mutilation, rape and execution of Palestinian civilians that have begun to be seen in the mass graves found in various parts of Gaza.