Operation Cast Lead

Operation Cast Lead - One of over 300 hundred children slaughtered during Israel’s Hanukah celebration. On 27 December 2008, (Jewish Hanukah) without warning, Israeli forces began a devastating bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip codenamed Operation “Cast Lead.” Its “stated” aim was to end rocket attacks into Israel by armed groups affiliated with Hamas and other Palestinian factions. By 18 January 2009 some 1,400 Palestinians had been killed and large areas of Gaza had been razed to the ground. Many Palestinian civilians were killed in attacks by high-precision weapons which are capable of pinpoint strikes and can hit within a meter of their targets and which have exceptionally good optics allowing those carrying out or directing the strikes to see the targets in detail. Many other Palestinian civilians were killed in indiscriminate and reckless attacks using imprecise weapons which should never be used in densely populated civilian areas. More Palestinians were killed and more properties were destroyed in the 22-day military campaign than in any previous Israeli offensive. The operation is codenamed "Cast Lead" – a phrase taken from a well known Chanukah poem which refers to "cast-lead draydels." (Variation: dreidel) I am not sure that most people understand the meaning of the name "Operation Cast Lead" chosen by Israel for its murderous and criminal attack on Gaza. The name is borrowed from a Hebrew nursery rhyme which was (and may still be) very popular among Israeli children in the 1950s. In this song, a father promises to his child a special Hanukah gift: "a cast lead sevivon." Sevivon, in Hebrew (A dreidel in Yiddish) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Somebody, in the Israeli army, who apparently feels nostalgic about his childhood, decided that if Israeli kids would enjoy a sevivon cast from lead there is no reason why Palestinian children would not appreciate it too. In other words, Palestinian children were consciously selected as a target. Palestinian children were intended to be the recipients of the "gift" of a spinning top cast from lead, with the spinning top signifying the Israeli state's weaponry.