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.