Gaza onslaught- Genocide plus Business of Innovation for Israel, US, Germany, and Military Industry?

 War or Conflict is not just about resource control, identity supremacy or even land control it can also be carrying on business in the evolving tech based military industry; or it can be multiple factors acting in combination based on actors involved. The onslaught of Israel on Gaza is linked to desire to depopulate the place and ensure Greater Israel and in the process achieve also the goal of annihilation of an ethnic religious group, Israelis have an inherent hatred towards and for which they believe they have religious justifications which even sanctifies war crimes or genocide carried out against Palestinians. It is an issue about Israeli society as a whole, how it evolved and what it assumed its existential goal is – to recreate past called Greater Israel.

The skewed mentality of assuming Israelis have the right to depopulate Palestine, is not linked to one party or a few individuals it is the raison d’etre of almost entire population. There is one question to the great visionaries of Israel, United States and Germany is it possible to recreate only a slice of the past, isn’t past a process, and so does it mean you are game for all the horrors that followed in the past.

Maybe you are but may be world has got tired of the Eurocentric interpretation of world, may be world does not consider it is just that less than 0.1 percent of world population decide world governance and politics. May be world believes in evolving from the past to a better humane existence, but then are you (Israel, United States and Germany) ready for it, to move beyond great sounding words of no consequences that you keep repeating on various international and domestic forums- you stand for Peace.

My interpretation of the onslaught on Palestine, which had been continuing for decades in milder form, is that there were three clear cut goals, a) to ensure scope for Greater Israel through the excuse of vengeance and security concern for Israel b) beyond the issue of Greater Israel, the important goal of profiteering and laying the crucial base for a more digital military industry intervention, where its products are precise, cost effective and adaptable for relevance across different scenarios. c) the choice of Gaza is crucial as globally there is no other context that can replace Gaza or Palestine.

For Palestine is the only country, where surveillance of an entire population was and is carried out as per the will and command of an occupying force. The only voices of protest from Palestine are silenced saying they are from “terrorist groups” wrongly named so, the evil power of Israel and its misinterpreted anti-Semitism so strong that it denied the right to resist for the occupied population and demanded they show reverence and love for their occupying power Israel, even as Israeli forces threw Palestinians out of their homes in dead of night, arrested their children without any specific charge after midnight, a half dozen Israel soldiers barging into the house, arresting the child in the family, with no clear explanation and leaving the parents feeling helpless and guilty of being unable to protect their small child. If these events happened in a Western country, the culprits will not only face criminal charges but will also have to provide financial compensation for the physical and mental torture. But Palestinians are expected to say “Thank You, Master Israel, We feel privileged to be at your Mercy!” Since, resistance groups from Palestine refused to toe the line, they were classified as Terrorist and in the process curtailed any limited options that Gaza had for governance.

To look specifically at the three goals mentioned above, the first of creating Greater Israel is nothing new, it has been spoken about from the time when Israel the project was thought of. The creation of Greater Israel is narrated in two different styles, one the aggressor version as expressed and acted on by Israel the State and the other narration as put forward by activists, small groups and those who aspire for peace. The former or the government style for peace and its goal are clear and evident for most within and outside Israel. The latter is far more amorphous, the dream is attractive until one scratches the surface, for how can it be possible to implement this and accepting Israeli rights in the present form. It would be impossible for the issue of Right to return exists, illegal settlers have no plans to vacate and making them legal would mean ensuring Israeli and Palestinians have rights over the same piece of land. When considering soft power, there is no way Palestinian can match Israelis in terms of resources available or in their power, and skill sets that create generational difference in future planning. Worst of all consider the power that raped you, tortured you, humiliated you and dehumanised you, sitting on your stolen land and dictating terms to you; that would be unacceptable to anyone with a little bit of dignity left in them. Palestinians are proud, independent and resilient people they can’t survive as second-class citizens in their own land into eternity. Besides, all this, Israel has proved again and again it can’t be trusted.

This paper far more dwells on the second and third goals as seen by the author.

Military Industry and Role for Peace

Role of military in creating, sustaining and maintaining peace has evolved through the years whereby negative peace has almost completely overshadowed the role of positive peace where people take the centre stage instead of weapons. Within Negative Peace the Military industry plays a significant role, and it is not only when battle is on, but also for surveillance, it is for deterrence, for maintaining status quo or improving on it, having options for pre-emptive strikes based on the Country’s international clout or that of its allies. The best indicator of role of Military in world peace is that in 2023 the global expenditure on Military reached 2443 billion USD.

The greatest military spender across the globe is United States and it has held this position for a very long time. From the total global expenditure on military in 2023, United States account for 37 percent of global expenditure, and it spend 916 billion USD. The second largest spender is China but the difference between US and China is steep, in 2023 China’s expenditure stood at 296 billion USD. With regard to other important players collaborating with Israel, United Kingdom had spent 74.9 billion and Germany 66.8 billion. During last year India’s expenditure stood at 83.6 billion USD, but with Israel its trade links for military has been limited compared to other countries.

The other countries in Middle East who are big spender for military are Saudi Arabia with 75.8 billion and Turkiye 15.8 billion in 2023. The greatest threat for world peace as portrayed by United States and its allies, Iran spent 10.3 billion for military in 2023, a little over one percent of US military expenditure (ibid).

Military expenditure of a country eats into its money allocation for other relevant Governance realities, but the for the main player countries where military industry is an upcoming tech based military initiative and it's also a way to make money while having a hold on countries. United States in not just the main global exporter it has also exported arms to over 58 countries.

According to SPIRI, US is exporting arms to far more countries now, than ever before. This is happening at a time when US Economic and geopolitical dominance is being challenged. After 25 years, US is the main exporter to countries in Asia and Oceania, it counts for 34% of imported by these countries, Russia account for 19 Percent and China 13 percent.

The main actor within the present context, Israel is an important military power, and it does export its wares across the region and globe, mainly to Europe, United States, countries in Asia. According to SIPRI Fact Sheet, from October 2023 onwards when Israel started its onslaught on Gaza, it has spent billions on its military expenditure its expenditure increased from $1.8 billion per month to $4.7 billion in December 2023 (ibid). But this expenditure is not incurred by Israel, for it does receive aid from different western countries, the main supporters being United States and Germany and hence an understanding of their military focus is relevant or rather crucial.

According to SPIRI (March 2024) US accounted for 69 percent and Germany 30 percent of Israel imports, from US the main imports has been combat aircraft (61 of them) and this has played a major role in Israel’s “military” action against Hamas and Hezbollah. Other equipment supplied to Israel included guided bombs, missiles from US and four submarines from Germany.

Business in military industry is influenced by different factors, political equation, contextual factors but technical innovation has the scope to be defining one. In the coming years given the diversity in regional political and trade association and evolution of different power nexus and diversity in economic associations, may mean that scientific innovation turns out to be tipping factor.

Relevance of Innovation in Military Industry

Now, technology has evolved beyond expectation, be it Artificial Intelligence or Robotics and both fields very relevant for military industry. This makes it possible not only use of Robo Soldier real, as in case of Robo Dogs already used in Gaza, but also makes possible to digitize weapons of war and reducing need for humans in the loop. While UN may be able to bring in rules, who will actually be able to monitor whether human play any role at all in future wars. It would be just the powerful having a field day, like Israel is enjoying.

The relevance of research for US is very clear, for it has prioritized Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT & E) in 2023 than in 2022, with increased and biggest funding allocation for this category. US has been focusing on RDT&E from 2014. This aligns with its decision to shift its focus away from counter insurgency operations and asymmetric warfare to developing “new weapon systems” that could be used in a potential conflict which adversaries with advanced military capabilities (6). It is interesting to note, that through Israel, US is using its best technology to declared an onslaught on Civilian population in Gaza with 35,000 resistance fighters with very limited in comparison to US, Germany or Israel.

Besides, the moral and ethical questions the United Nation need to ask United States and Others,

a) on what basis the energy consumption for developing Tech based warfare will be justified especially as cloud system do not exist in the cloud but on land and need constant cooling, this is energy intensive even though different methods used.

b) who will pay for environmental damage incurred in short term or long term.

c) Who will pay for health consequences on population where testing is done or places where these lethal inhumane weapons are used upon as the devastation can be real across generation.

d) Who will ensure surveillance and violation of basis rights is not a corporate reality but a governance act of justice.

Military Industry, Business and innovation:

Technical innovation within military industry would focus on precision, impact, reduction in civilian death as that can led to backlash at times (and other times it can be a goal to disturb the opponents or disturb their people support), future action or cycle of events that follow, raw data accessible and its continuity, individuals carrying out the act, systems involved and its precision and speed and scale of changes in ground realities.

Within art of war realities, one factor has been identified to play a crucial role is Situational Awareness (or Situation Awareness) as it determines the action, its outcome and extent of future impact. During 1995, pilots identified that Situational Awareness is an important factor in the outcome or the ace factor.

Situation Awareness (SA) is a human reality, a reality that is shaped by skills, capabilities, knowledge, emotions, and capacity to think about outcome option and scope for using the outcome option to one’s advantage or preventing the same. At least, human skill was central to SA and its understanding, but that has changed largely with technological innovation. Today in tech-based war the so-called accident or human error is nothing but inadequate situational awareness. While the cognitive understanding of SA and theoretical models may have evolved with regard to aviation realities, SA can shape use of Tanks and even automated weapons or even drones.

Relevance of SA is far beyond aviation realities within military context or otherwise, the fields identified to benefit from SA are law enforcement, aviation, air traffic control, ship navigation, health care, emergency responses, military command and control operations, self-defence and offshore oil and nuclear power plant management.

Different theoretical models have been put forward, one that is most popular is by Mica Endsely, Cognitive Model of SA. This is a wholistic schema includes both humans, technology and as they interact to create a different complex reality with scope for change from individual factors, changes in task and environment factors or combination of all factors.

Endsley’s Cognitive Model of SA presents three levels of SA which leads to Decision making and Performance of Action. All factors individual factors, Tasks & Environmental factors can impact the three levels of the process: SA, the Decision making and Performance or Action. Here individual factors refer to Goals, Knowledge, experience, training, experiences, preconceptions and abilities. In this context there were videos shared on individuals resigning their jobs because they had received inadequate training to make decision in tech process as the decision could make it fatal for Palestinians. This may be probably be result of live action research being carried out with trained and untrained individuals for comparative purposes and marketing of the same based on findings. The market for precision tools that can tackle complex war reality without training would be far more attractive to customers than those needing extensive expensive training.

With regard to Task and Environmental factors the items to be considered include workload, system design, stressors and complexity. These aspects inclusively being considered as State of Environment systems.

SA includes into three different levels: 1) Perception of elements in the environment 2) Comprehension and understanding of the situation 3) Projection of Future status. Three facets of SA that have been focus of research a) SA States b) SA Systems and c) SA Process.

SA States refers to the actual level of awareness people have of the situation.

SA System refers to technologies that are developed to support Situational Awareness in different environment.

SA Process refers to the updating of SA States and what guide the moment-to-moment changes.

SA is equated to “Observe” and “Orient” phases of the famous Observe-Orient-Decide-Act-loop (OODA loop) or Boyd Cycle. According to John Boyd “In Combat the winning strategy is to “get inside” your opponent OODA, not just making one’s own decision quicker, but also by having better SA than one’s opponent and even changing the situation in a way that the opponent cannot monitor or even comprehend. Losing one’s own SA in combat equates being “out of the loop’.

Another simple analogy that has been used it's like dog fight, survival in a dog fight was typically about observing the opponent’s current move and anticipating his next move a fraction of a second before he could observe and anticipate himself.

All levels of SA, Decision Making and Performance of action are continuous impacted on by Individual factors, Task and environmental factors.

Situational Awareness and Relevance of Gaza

There is no other reality like Gaza, for it ideal for collecting raw data as there is scope for thorough surveillance given the power of Israel as an illegal criminal occupying force.

a) Scope for continuous data on situation, it can include situational elements like objects, events, people, system, and environmental factors and details of their current status (location, conditions, modes and actions). There is no other place in the entire world where a country can easily get such rich raw data.

b) Situational Awareness research has extensively focused on making F 35 fighter jets more relevant in difficult and chaotic battlefield. In onslaught on Gaza, Israel has used F35 fighter jets extensively. F35 jets are described as those to be used in high threat environment, West Sanctioned use of F 35 means US, Germany and others considered civilians in Gaza to points of high threat to others. Wow, on one hand supply arms meant to Kill and on the other hand provide AID?

Now US is transferring F15 or F15Ex to Israel instead of F 35, for the latter is not conducive for use in marine environment and F 15 fits very well to bomb marine area, US probably feels is a perfect fit for Gaza. It is very evident how much US really cares for Palestinians in Gaza, probably Linda Thomas, Ambassador to UN expression “deep concern” may after all have been too strong for what President of United States Joe Biden and his administration feel for people in Gaza. Besides, F15 can carry extra ammunition up to six missiles and covers a greater range up to 200kms. Other advantages include it has higher speed 2000kms per hour and has a life span of 20,000 as against F35’s life span of 8000 hours.

c) Everyone complaints about drones and noise probably, that is continuous surveillance of the environment, to understand, people, events, environmental factors, system and their current status or location, condition, modes and actions. Drones would be the apt way to collect data 24X7.

d) When considering different types of massacres, as named by local people: Rafah massacre, flour massacre, sea pier massacre, prayer massacre, the concept used would be “Observe-Orient-Decide-Act-Loop (OODA-loop). Through the massacre, the local population and any resistance members where kept out of the loop and hostage takeover possible.

Why were these massacres carried out, while one was clearly to facilitate hostage release the others could be disturb the resilience of Palestinians and facilitate depopulation or explicit vocal expression of the same. Whether Israel and US had additional goals when using “kept out of loop strategy” is not known.

Additional input received by Israel and US through massacres would be understanding the impact of the strategy. This is possible only in Gaza as it is well monitored enclosed space and most of the individuals would already be in Israel’s Data bank. Such data could be useful for crowd management in violent, chaotic situation. Since, the present-day conflicts are turning to be urban guerilla warfare, this information could be very useful.

e) Destruction of centres of Hope, be it treatment centres, schools, university, mosques, library, small business can easily and systematically be targeted by digital surveillance data. Prevention of AID is a direct way to indicate to Palestinians that their lives are at the mercy of Israeli forces and its better they leave Gaza. This is part of art of war strategies.

f) While for us general public it would look like air strikes are same for it kills, but for those military industry doing research can see the same situation very differently: to asses impact when stimuli changed or the individual making assessment or final call changed; or the use of different kinds of fighter jets or different types of ammunition, different optics, varying different situational reality, time of day or extent of population present; or the angle of strike, the type of structure of building, design of the infrastructure are some of the possibility for research variation and innovation.

In this regard it may be useful to note that in case of Rafah massacre where bodies were burnt and the material of tent ensured that the victims had limited option. While Israel, US and other may scream out it's an accident, it is no accident for the situational awareness which includes data on objects involved would have indicated that the threat of fire is real and outcome of impact of fire on tent material. That fire was not an accident, or a human unknown error, it was a conscious decision taken with full knowledge of its impact and consequences.

g) Targeted killing for Dismembered body parts and total obliteration of families.

Israel has progressed in its use of F 35 jets which are difficult to manoeuvrer and lack agility that’s the reason reviving F15 Ex that is with greater range, higher speed and there by avoiding being shot down in a dog fight. Now with scheduled transfer of F15 EX will Israel give up on the onslaught, would it not want to check out its new toy gifted by the great President of the world greatest Democracy United States.

Now the bombs are ensuring no full corpse is recovered, largely dismembered bodies, Israel has achieved its goal of target killing possibility and complete wipe. The market value of products used will increase. When only dismembered bodies remain, Israel and US will say no proof of death; US and Israel are probably happy about these fine tuning.

Arab Nations who believe in normalization of links with Israel think again, Israel a country that can do research for profit while carrying out genocide and war crimes with active collaboration from US and probably Germany as technology is shared; then Arab Nations, you are being lied to.

The world should ask UN for accountability, how can Israel be a member of UN and How can US be in the Security Council.

Israel is not serious about Peace talks never was, it was planning to depopulate Gaza, for it knows they are independent and resilient and with population of Gaza out of picture, Israel can be the rogue king of the region with US and West support.

Molly Charles

For further details check

1) Nan Tian. Diego Lopez da Silva. Liao Liany. Lorenzo Scarazzato. 2024. Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2023, SIPRI Fact Sheet April 2024. SPIRI: Sweden

2) Wikipedia: Situation Awareness

https://en.wikipedia.org/wikki/Situation_awareness

3) Pieter D. Wezeman. Katrina Djokic. Mathew George. Zain Hussain and Siemont T Wezeman. 2024. Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2023. SPIRI Fact Sheet March 2024. SPIRI: Sweden