[Freefromwar] Israel’s Psych-War Is Relentless, Vicious and Deliberate

[Arthur Blomme]

      Israel’s Psych-War Is Relentless, Vicious and Deliberate

One part of Israel’s military operation in Gaza that’s been largely 
ignored by the mainstream media is the extremely sophisticated 
psychological war that’s being waged on the Palestinian people. If we 
look carefully at some of the more unusual elements in Israel’s 
strategy, we see the outline of plan that is clearly aimed at inflicting 
maximum psychological damage on its victims.

Take, for example, Israel’s repeated demand that civilians leave a 
particular city at a designated time. Every time this demand has been 
made it was followed shortly after by airstrikes on the fleeing 
civilians. We could easily dismiss this unfortunate action as an 
operational snafu attributable to human error, but that does not appear 
to be the case. After all, these airstrikes have not happened just once 
or twice, but over and over again. This suggests that it is official policy.

The same is true of the seemingly random killing of civilians by Israeli 
snipers, (some of them waving white flags) or the so-called 
“indiscriminate bombing” of homes, hospitals and refugee camps, or the 
hyper-belligerent pronouncements by political leaders, or the massive 
slaughter of civilians peacefully gathering food at humanitarian aid trucks.

What we’re saying is that none of these things have any apparent 
tactical value, rather their efficacy can only be measured in terms of 
how they help Israel achieve its overall strategic objective which is 
the expulsion of the entire Arab population. In that regard, the 
strategy appears to be working quite well because the majority of the 
population is now convinced that “nowhere is safe”. This, in fact, is 
the cornerstone upon which Israel has developed its psychological 
battleplan, to eradicate any sense of personal security prompting 
feelings of anxiety, confusion and hopelessness. Keep in mind, this 
mindset did not appear out of thin air. This mindset is the product of a 
meticulously-plotted and thoroughly-sinister plan to inflict maximum 
psychological damage on 2 million people so they will be easier to expel 
from their historic homeland. That is the underlying goal of Israel’s 
operation, ethnic cleansing. And the psychological aspect of the 
campaign may be more critical to its success than the relentless 
airstrikes or nascent ground war. This is from an article at Save The 
Children:

“In times of war, people usually seek refuge in safe places. There are 
no safe places in Gaza right now, and there is no way of reaching safety 
outside. With a sense of safety, the constant reassuring presence of 
family, some kind of a routine and appropriate treatment, children can 
recover. But so many children have already lost family members, some 
have lost all, and the violence and displacement are relentless,” Jason 
Lee, Save the Children’s Country Director for the occupied Palestinian 
territory. Children’s Mental health Pushed Beyond the Breaking Point, 
Save The Children

While Lee recognizes the importance of “safe places”, he fails to 
connect the dots. He seems to think the present situation is an accident 
of war, but it’s not an accident of war. Israeli leaders have 
undoubtedly worked hand-in-glove with groups of behavior psychologists 
to settle on a plan that would achieve their political goals while 
minimizing casualties. (Mass casualties lead to fierce political 
opposition which Israel wanted to avoid.) The current psyops achieves 
both which is why we should assume that it is not ‘accidental’. In 
short, Israel’s bombing campaign is more focused on terrorizing and 
traumatizing than it is on killing. Can you see that?

Once we realize that there’s a rational motive for Israel’s seemingly 
random violence, we begin to see it everywhere. Every day there are new 
airstrikes on tent cities and refugee camps that have no strategic value 
at all. Why? Have Israeli leaders lost their minds?

No, they haven’t lost their minds. They are deliberately terrorizing the 
Palestinians so they will eagerly stampede into Egypt as soon as the 
wall is breached. This is the real purpose of Israel’s psychological war.

So, what are the consequences of Israel’s psych-war on the Palestinians?

Well, if we review the data from the past, we see that Israel’s frequent 
incursions have been nothing short of catastrophic. Check out this 
excerpt from a report by a group of scholars from the University of 
Washington in 2009:

“A recent report found that 91.4 percent of children in the Gaza Strip 
suffer moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”…

The most recent studies indicate that the vast majority of Gaza’s 
children exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)….. Of 
a representative sample of children in Gaza, more than 95 percent 
experienced artillery shelling in their area or sonic booms of 
low-flying jets. Moreover, 94 percent recalled seeing mutilated corpses 
on TV and 93 percent witnessed the effects of aerial bombardments on the 
ground. Vast majority of Gaza children suffer PTSD symptoms, Electronic 
Intifada

Repeat: “91.4 percent of children in the Gaza Strip” already have 
“moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

So, even back in 2009, Palestinians were experiencing a “staggering 
level of psychological trauma.” Imagine how many more people will be 
severely impacted by today’s bloody rampage. It’s worth noting, that the 
psychological damage from the current conflict will not vanish when the 
hostilities end. Many of these people will spend the rest of their lives 
wrestling with their own demons in a hell that is entirely of Israel’s 
making. Here’s more from a 4-month-old article at the Guardian:

Children in Gaza are developing severe trauma symptoms alongside the 
risk of death and injury, according to a Palestinian psychiatrist….

The psychological impact of the war on children was showing, said Fadel 
Abu Heen, a psychiatrist in Gaza. Children had “started to develop 
serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, 
aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and not leaving their parents’ sides.”

The “lack of any safe place has created a general sense of fear and 
horror among the entire population and children are most impacted,” he 
said….

Studies conducted after earlier conflicts have shown a majority of 
children in Gaza exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder 
(PTSD).

Among Unicef’s other findings were: 91% of children reported sleeping 
disturbances during the conflict; 94% said they slept with their 
parents; 85% reported appetite changes; 82% felt angry; 97% felt 
insecure; 38% felt guilty; 47% were biting their nails; 76% reported 
itching or feeling ill….

A report last year by Save the Children on the impact of 15 years of 
blockade and repeated conflicts on the mental health of children in Gaza 
found their psycho-social wellbeing had “declined dramatically to 
alarming levels”.

Children that the aid agency interviewed “spoke of fear, nervousness, 
anxiety, stress and anger, and listed family problems, violence, death, 
nightmares, poverty, war and the occupation, including the blockade, as 
the things they liked least in their lives”.

The report quoted António Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, 
describing the lives of children in Gaza as “hell on earth”. Children in 
Gaza ‘developing severe trauma’ after 16 days of bombing, The Guardian

We tend to think of the survivors (of war) as the “lucky ones”, but that 
is not always the case. When you strip a child of all sense of personal 
security and cast him into a world of uncertainty, violence and death, 
his ability to feel joy or love or self-fulfillment are greatly 
impaired. We think Israeli war planners deliberately created the 
conditions required for inflicting maximum psychological damage on the 
Palestinians living in Gaza. We don’t think there is anything 
‘accidental’ about what we are seeing. We think this is the only 
rational explanation for an erratic battle plan that focuses less on 
beating the enemy than it does on terrorizing the population. For 
Israel, driving the Palestinians out of Gaza is simply not enough. They 
want to ensure that their victims face years of agonizing psychological 
pain until the day they die.

While we do not yet have sufficient data to accurately assess the 
magnitude of the damage, we can safely say that the ongoing massacre 
vastly exceeds any in the past. For all practical purposes, Israel has 
destroyed the lives of every man, woman and child in Gaza. But when we 
see video of the wasteland Israel has created – with the rubble 
extending in all directions– we should remember that the psychological 
damage they have inflicted is far greater. These are the invisible 
wounds that will never heal and will thrust an entire population into a 
world of chronic anxiety, depression and despair.

Israel alone is responsible for their suffering.
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