“When you chop wood, chips fly”

[kpete]

After discussing Israel's attempts to minimize civilian casualties, and the pilot's anger at those who claim Israeli pilots disregarded civilian lives, the following moment takes place. The dialogue below occurs just after the pilot expresses that he is at peace with the efforts he saw military personnel take to limit civilian casualties:

Nonetheless, I say, many children and women were killed.

“When you chop wood, chips fly,” A. says.

"Do you know who said that before you?" I ask.

“No,” he says.

“Stalin."

He is shocked. “Delete that, delete that I said that,” the pilot asks.

I didn’t delete it. These pilots are wonderful people, but there is a limit to what I can do for the sake of their image.

It is a remarkable moment, the simultaneous acceptance of 'collateral damage' amongst Palestinians, and the horror that the metaphor used to represent such acceptance is one made famous by Stalin.

That horror is both a mirror into which most Israelis prefer not to gaze and a window most Israelis want blocked by opaque curtains, something which could equally be said regarding the United States and its drone campaign.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4565631,00.html
http://www.gendercide.org/case_stalin.htmlhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/01/1326261/--Delete-I-said-that-the-Israeli-pilot-asked