New Combat Game for Isreal Vs Iran

Raising Eagle, a free download first person shooter with a high propaganda rating. The image shows a in game spray of the president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a monkey. Inset: the games ' financier Sydney businessman Kevin Bermeister.

The game, which contrary to its setting does not include any Palestinian fighters, is an update to earlier versions of the game set in Paris and China. It pits the Iranian Revolutionary Guard against Israel's elite Golani Brigade in a first-person shooter setting.

In an interview with Fairfax Media's Jerusalem Correspondent, Jason Koutsoukis, one of the game's Israel-based designers, Yaron Dotan, said it would be "taking things too far" if the game had Israeli soldiers fighting against Palestinians.

But Dotan, 34, was delighted at the suggestion that his game, which includes billboard-size photographs of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looking like a monkey, might cause offence to Iranians. He describes the Iranian soldiers as "the Waffen SS of today".

"I want this to upset people. I hope it causes the biggest shitstorm in history," he said.

In the game, players can choose to play either as the Israelis or the Iranians. Bermeister said in an interview he hoped this would encourage people on both sides to log in and communicate with each other in a non-threatening, virtual setting.

"People will get to know each other in a competitive battleground environment, get to text each other, speak to each other, connect with each other and figure out that they're human beings and they can get on with each other," he said.

But Bermeister conceded the game would inevitably make a political statement. (SMH)

Raising Eagle joins America's Army and the Hezbollah's Special Force in pitting real world enemies against each other in virtual environments. Spreading the message of hate into the 21st century.