An Israeli soldier admitted that she shot and killed unknown numbers of Palestinian people, including children, on a Ukrainian television program that aired in early November.So a person on a game show - a game show that encourages people to try to beat a lie detector - is the latest source for supposed Israeli atrocities.
Elena Zakusilo, a Ukrainian Jewish woman who moved to Israel in order to serve in the Israeli army, revealed on the Nov. 4 episode of the program "Lie Detector" that she had killed Palestinians and had shot at Palestinian children, but was unsure how many she managed to kill.
Zakusilo, who goes by the name Elena Gluzman in Israel, also explained that she trained army dogs to raid Palestinian villages and conduct video surveillance that she monitored from up to 10 kilometers away.
Zakusilo said on the show that one of the times when she shot Palestinians was during protests that broke out after Yasser Arafat died in 2004.
"It's scary, especially when children run with Molotov cocktails, and they send children, to turn the attention to them, little kid, barely walking, 3-4 years old," she added, explaining that she was unsure how many Palestinian children she had shot dead.
Although Zakusilo said was "not proud" of these acts, she blamed Palestinian mothers for sending their children to be "suicide bombers" and suggested that they did not care about their children's lives.
Zakusilo also spoke about her work training dogs for reconnaissance missions into Palestinian villages, which involved placing headphones and cameras on them and directing them to attack Palestinians they encountered until soldiers could arrive.
"The doggy gets a little bag in teeth, it can be a video camera."
"It has an electronic collar, and a camera that hangs on the collar, and the trainer has the remote control, and he, from a distance up to ten kilometers, can watch and give orders to the dog, to attack or not attack," she added.
Zakusilo explained that she was a "senior trainer" and trained a total of 150 dogs, and for her work she was promoted to the rank of major.
Zakusilo's mother was also present during the show's filming, and when asked if she knew her daughter had killed people, said, "Of course, how can you be in the military without (killing)."
Zakusilo responded in the affirmative when asked by the game show host if she was "willing to go back to Israel and continue killing enemies" if she had financial difficulties in Ukraine, and said that she was unafraid of potential repercussions for revealing what she had done while in the Israeli forces.
She also explained that she goes by the name of Gluzman in Israel, "so that they won't hear there our Ukrainian family name, and with the other name (Gluzman), with Jewish roots, they'd treat (me) differently."
Zakusilo added that while at first she hesitated to kill people, she came to see her fellow soldiers as "family," and they helped her come to terms with killing Palestinian children and other feelings she had.
Referring to her commander, she said, "He is a general, he tells you to go and shoot like this, so you go. But if you come to him and say, just for example, you know, I was walking down the road, and there was a kitten there, ran over by a car, or a person hit, and I feel bad."
"He will sit with you for an hour to talk, and try to understand why you feel bad."
Her story about her supposed IDF service was peripheral to the point of the show; she was saying to her mother than she'd rather kill children than live with her, which is why she says she went to Israel as a lone soldier. She also claims she was abused both by her mother and by her schoolmates. She does not sound like a very reliable source. (On the show, she passed the lie detector test, but people who believe their own lies would pass easily.)
The IDF investigates every killing, in great detail, especially children. But Zakusilo says she has no idea how many children or adults she killed. She says she only would speak about her troubles to her superior - a general! - and he would calm her down about a dead kitten!
There have been extraordinarily few killings by women in combat in the IDF.
On the day that Arafat died, exactly one Palestinian Arab was killed during riots, and it was not a child. (Two more were killed in Gaza during a house raid.) None were killed the day after nor the day after that.
I have never heard of IDF dogs being "controlled" by remote control from ten miles away without any soldiers around, and a quick search came up empty, even though this is supposedly a 10-year old technology. I also find it highly unlikely that a woman whose specialty is training dogs would also be thrown into a live fire situation with rioters, let alone be responsible for multiple deaths.
The Israelis I asked about this say it is not even close to being plausible. Russian language social media in Israel are also extremely skeptical about these claims.
But none of that matters to the Israel-haters, who will believe anything as long as it fits their preconceived notions of evil bloodthirsty Israeli soldiers who enjoy aiming at children.
UPDATE: The IDF says she is full of it.