Israel in Gaza: High Tech Advantage Doesn’t Help on the Political Front

• New technologies, including the Hermes 900 UAV, are being put to the test [Haaretz] by the Israel Defense Forces in their campaign against Hamas. But their efficiency may be backfiring as public opinion, rightly or wrongly, draws moral conclusions from very lopsided death numbers.

• Indeed, given the mounting death toll [WaPo] among Palestinian civilians, international pressure is building up on Israel to pause its attacks. But the left-wing Ha’aretz newspaper says [subscription req.] that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to pull out of Gaza could be a political disaster for him, and pave the way for Economy Minister Naftali Bennett to lead Likud.

• According to IsraelDefense via the Jewish Press, Turkey has inked a $4B air defense deal with the US last week. There’s no 3rd-party confirmation yet about the contractor, system, or whether this replaces the deal Turkey was considering closing with China.

• That pending deal between Turkey and China also poured cold water [Nikkei Asian Review] over putative cooperation with Japan on engines for Altay tanks.

• Tunisia closed its main border crossing [Al Jazeera] with Libya as thousands try to flee the country’s worsening violence [AFP]. China evacuated its workers [CCTV video] to Tunisia. The Chinese are now finding their investments in oil infrastructure hard to secure, in Libya as well as Iraq.

• Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, said [The Guardian] his country should consider military action. Two weeks ago 22 border guards were killed [AFP] at Egypt’s border with Libya.

• ISIS insurgents have been clashing [NYT] with pesh merga Kurd forces in northern Iraq.