This October, the US Navy and Israeli Air Force each took a pink fighter jet to the sky to join the fight against breast cancer.  In the USA, the F9F-8 Cougar was painted a vibrant shade of pink called “Heliconia.” USS Lexington Director of Operations and Exhibits Rusty Reustle got the idea from a technique he saw during the filming of “Pearl Harbor.” The pink paint job is not permanent. A dishwashing liquid is added to the latex paint to make it removable.

These jets are weapons of war. This outrageous PR act serves only one end – to spin a weapon of war as a benign tool for public health and in neither country should this be allowed to stand. Breast cancer is highest cause of cancer deaths among Palestinian women, many of whom lived in Israeli occupied territories where health care provision is basic and where jets like these are used to maintain an illegal occupation.  How smart the PR teams for the military in both countries; how eye-catching this image for the fundraising and marketing teams at the breast cancer charities; and how clear the depths they are all prepared to go in their push to brainwash the well meaning general public who simply want an end to the ever rising rates of breast cancer – not to mention and end to the terror of war waged from the air.