A small example of muddled anti-Zionist thinking

Just in case anyone thinks that the "Russell Tribunal" that I mentioned yesterday has any objectivity whatsoever, here is a paragraph from their London final report:

Israeli corporations are world leaders (with significant turnovers) in developing weapons technology, which is used during military operations against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, such as the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed by Elbit Systems. A significant number of foreign states, including EU and western states, procure Israeli weapons technology, such as the UAVs (for instance Australia, France, Canada, UK, Sweden and USA). Recent evidence suggests that drone attacks may involve high civilian deaths in military operations. For instance, a 2009 report published by the Brookings Institution, suggested that it was difficult to confirm civilian deaths in drone attacks, but that reports suggest that for every one military target killed it results in approximately 10 civilian deaths.

Israel is a leader in drone technology. Other countries buy Israeli drones. Other countries may accidentally kill many civilians with drones - Israeli or otherwise.

Therefore, the tribunal broadly implies, Israel is responsible for the deaths of everyone killed by every drone worldwide! Otherwise what is the relevance of mentioning the Brookings report?

And if you look at the Brookings report itself, you see that they were talking only about targeted drone killings by the US in Pakistan. And the author concludes that the reason for the poor record is not because targeted killings by drones are inherently problematic:

To reduce casualties, superb intelligence is necessary. Operators must know not only where the terrorists are, but also who is with them and who might be within the blast radius. This level of surveillance may often be lacking, and terrorists' deliberate use of children and other civilians as shields make civilian deaths even more likely.

Now, since the escalation in rocket attacks at the end of October Israel has killed some 16 terrorists in Gaza with targeted drone attacks - and not one civilian. And while their record is not always perfect, at the time this report was written it was well documented that it was far better than a 10:1 ratio of civilian to terrorist deaths.

Moreover,if you accept the logic of the report, any country that manufactures drones should share the blame for every civilian death, since there is no indication in the Brookings report that Israeli drones were used in Pakistan.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the latest attack drone - from the United Arab Emirates:

Emirati group Adcom Systems introduced an armed drone at the Dubai Airshow on Thursday, developed at a time when many military powers continue to import the unmanned aircraft increasingly used in warfare.

The MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) plane should begin testing in early December and be available to customers in February, Ali al-Dhaheri, the president of the Abu Dhabi-based company, told AFP.

The device, known as United 40, can carry eight 60-kilometre (37-miles) range “Nemrod” missiles in its fuselage. Those are also developed by Adcom and are to be tested in January.

Adcom Systems, a conglomerate of 37 companies, mainly manufactures drones used for air force training.

Dhaheri stressed that the technology for the United 40 was developed by his company.

“All systems are ours. We are a leading innovator in aerodynamics,” he said.

My, my. What would the "tribunal" say to this?

This tiny example shows how deeply anti-Zionist hate affects people. You can be sure that the "tribunal" tried very hard to make their report seem as unbiased as possible, carefully choosing their words to forestall any accusations of them having an agenda. Yet they are so blinded by their seething hate for the Jewish state that they wouldn't even notice how untenable their words are.

And last night a book based on the London joke of a tribunal was released at an event that was filled with people who share that hate.