The kites of Gaza have become one of the most powerful and controversial symbols of the conflict in the Strip: a fragile, childlike object that, depending on who is looking at it, represents play, freedom, resistance—or a threat.
As far as the Israeli security forces are concerned, please don’t laugh, I beg you: yes, the kites flown by Palestinian children, one of the few forms of play still possible in a devastated Gaza, are considered a threat, warranting not merely their ‘shooting down’, but the destruction of the encampments over which they fly.
So much for ‘Israel has one of the most powerful armies in the world’… It’s all a matter of technological intelligence. All true: great intelligence, little common sense, and a fear of ridicule.
And increasingly, more intelligence than the Italian government has—having outsourced the intelligence of the Italian people to Israeli intelligence services.
Now that’s what you call a government’s ‘foresight’.