Saturday - January 17, 2009

Gaza: no surprises

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A Hamas spokesman says the militant group will continue fighting until Israeli troops leave Gaza.

Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum made the statement Saturday as Israeli leaders met to approve an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that would halt Israel’s 22-day-old offensive but leave troops in Gaza for a 10-day cooling-off period. Barhoum did not explicitly say whether Hamas would hold its fire if Israeli forces do leave Gaza. His comments were in a speech aired on Hamas television in Gaza.

...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s top leadership met Saturday to approve a unilateral cease-fire that would halt the devastating 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of Gaza.

The 12-member Security Cabinet is expected to back an Egyptian-brokered proposal for a 10-day cease-fire with no sign of a commitment by Hamas to stop the rocket fire on southern Israel that sparked the conflict.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak indicated Israel’s readiness for a cease-fire, saying the country “was very close to achieving its goals and securing them through diplomatic agreements.” He spoke during a trip to southern Israel, which has been the target of militant rocket fire.

In the hours leading up to the vote, Israel kept up its bombardment of dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers have sent mixed signals on whether the group would reciprocate.

So Hamas cries to Egypt for a cease fire, because they’re getting slammed. So Egypt does what it can to broker a deal, and presents it to Israel. But before Israel can even make a decision, Hamas lets it be known that they’ll keep right on fighting and doing what they damn please, agreement or not.

These are the most infantile people on the planet. Reject the treaty Israel, and go right back to spanking these evil little babies. This is exactly what I said would happen, and it’s completely predictable because it has happened so many times before. Keep the fight going against Hamas. Make it 100 times worse. There is no peace with these vermin. Ever. Drive them into the sea and drown them like the plague rats that they are. Show Obama how a real war on terror should be fought.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/17/2009 at 02:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Israel • War On Terror •  
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   Saturday - January 10, 2009

Ain’t no stopping us now

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza Saturday and planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel.

Egypt hosted talks aimed at ending the violence.

Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City amid the heavy fighting. The Israeli threat to launch a “new phase” in its two-week-old offensive that has already killed more than 800 Palestinians came in defiance of international calls for a cease-fire.

“The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip,” the leaflets said in Arabic. “The IDF is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only. Stay safe by following our orders.”

The leaflets urged Gaza residents not to help Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, and to stay away from its members.

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27 to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. A week later, ground troops moved in.

The dropping of the leaflets appeared to be partly a psychological tactic. Israeli defense officials say they are prepared for a third stage of the offensive, in which ground troops would push much further into Gaza, but are still waiting for approval from the government.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information, said the army also has a fourth stage planned that calls for a full reoccupation of Gaza and toppling of Hamas.

I’m beginning to be impressed. Everyone expected Israel to back off after a couple of days. Then they expected Israel to back off after a week. Then they expected Israel to honor those calls from the Useless Nitwits for a cease fire. Even though Hamas continues to shoot missiles at them. And then they were expected to respond properly to another one of those UN resolutions. And they aren’t. At all. They just continue to pound Hamas. They just continue to ratchet up the pressure. They just continue to keep blowing up their enemies. The nerve. The gall. The audacity. I think there may be some Hope here for some actual Change. It’s about time. Keep up the push Israel. All the way to the Suez Canal. Been there, done that, doing it again.

               

Posted by Drew458     on 01/10/2009 at 11:30 AM   
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   Monday - January 05, 2009

It breaks my heart to see Israel’s stupidity.

Surprised me quite a bit to read this by of all ppl, a rabbi.
But then why not?  They have opinions too.
I just can’t understand how it’s possible for this man not to see things through.  He wants talk? Why hell. Why not?
Talk worked very well between Hitler and Chamberlain.  Europe had peace of sorts.
Might not be the best example I could have used but when I read about talking and diplomacy blah,blah, that’s what it reminds me of.

While it’s true that I haven’t known a lot of rabbis, the ones I have known were pretty sharp fellows.
Now this guy may be a very nice person when ya know him but right now I think he is beyond STUPID.  Read what this guy wants.  Oh he has the answer to peace alright.  More like, Israel. Rest in Peace.

Please folks, take time out to read this thing. He’s in some other world.  Or maybe I am.  That is possible.  I was known to be wrong once. Made the news. Maybe you missed it.

Look guys, I have a newspaper right here with a full front page photo that shows Hamas rockets being fired. The photo is NOT stock footage, it’s what is happening NOW.  Would you like to guess just where those rockets are being fired from?  Correct.  Smack dab in the middle of a civilian area. You can see it all very clearly.  You simply can’t fight this type of war, and it is that, where the enemy hides his/her face and uses city or village centers as launching places.
Oh .. but Israel it the bully.  BULL S%$!  Someone on BBC last night (radio) talking about how unreasonably “brutal” Israel was behaving.  What is this?
A schoolyard fight or a nation’s fight for survival?

It has a right to respond to attacks, but will not achieve its ultimate aim - peace - until it stops thinking in military terms
Michael Lerner

Israel’s attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but stupid. No country in the world is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from neighbouring territory day after day. If Mexico had a group of anti-imperialists bombing Texas, imagine how long it would take for America to mobilise a counterattack. Israel has every right to respond.

But the kind of response matters. Killing 500 Palestinians and wounding 2,000 others (at the time of writing) is disproportionate. Hamas can harass, but it cannot pose any threat to the existence of Israel. And just as Hamas’s indiscriminate bombing of population centres is a crime against humanity, so is Israel’s killing of civilians (at least 130 so far in Gaza, not to mention the thousands in the years of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza).

Hamas had respected the previously negotiated ceasefire except when Israel used it as cover to make assassination raids. Hamas argued that these raids were hardly a manifestation of a ceasefire, and so as symbolic protest it would allow the release of rocket fire (usually hitting no targets). But when the issue of continuing the ceasefire came up, Hamas wanted a guarantee that these assassination raids would stop. And it asked for more. With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing acute malnutrition, Hamas insists that the borders be opened so that food can arrive unimpeded. And in return for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, it asks for the release of 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Hamas has made it clear that it would accept the terms of the Saudi Arabian peace agreement, though it would never formally recognise Israel. It would live peacefully in a two-state arrangement, but it would never acknowledge Israel’s “right to exist”. This position is unnecessarily provocative, and is deeply self-destructive for Palestinians who believe it is the only symbolic weapon they have left.

How do we get out of this destructive spiral? The first step is for the world to demand an immediate ceasefire. That ceasefire should be imposed by the United Nations and backed unequivocally by America. Its terms must include the following:

— Hamas stops all firing of missiles, bombs or any other violent action originating from the West Bank or Gaza, and co-operates in actively jailing anyone from any faction that breaks this ceasefire.

— Israel stops all bombing, targeted assassinations or any other violent actions aimed at activists, militants, or suspected terrorists in the West Bank or Gaza, and uses the full force of its army to prevent any further attacks on Palestinians.

— Israel opens the border with Gaza and allows free access to and from Israel, subject only to full search and seizure of any weapons. Israel allows free travel of food, gas, electricity, water and consumer goods and materials including from land, air, and sea, subject only to full search and seizure of any weapons or materials typically used for weapons.

— Israel releases all Palestinians in detention and returns them to the West Bank or Gaza according to the choice of the detainees or prisoners. Hamas releases Gilad Schalit and anyone else being held by Palestinian forces.

— Both sides invite an international force to implement these agreements

— Both sides agree to end teaching and/or advocacy of violence against the other side in and outside mosques, educational institutions, and the media.

— This ceasefire would last for 20 years. Nato, the UN, and the US all agree to enforce this agreement and impose severe sanctions in the event of any violations.

These steps would make a huge difference, isolate the most radical members of each side from the mainstream, and make it possible to then begin negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on a broader and deeper set of issues.

The basic condition for creating peace is to help each side feel “safe”. A first and critical step is to speak in a language that is empathic toward the suffering of each people in a climate of discourse in which both sides’ stories are heard and understood.

Yet Israel, as the militarily superior power, ought to take the first steps: implementing a massive Marshall Plan in Gaza and in the West Bank to end poverty and unemployment, rebuild infrastructure and encourage investment; dismantle the settlements or make settlers become citizens of a Palestinian state; accept 30,000 Palestinian refugees annually back into Israel for the next 30 years, apologise for its role in the 1948 expulsions and offer to co-ordinate a worldwide compensation effort for all that Palestinians lost during the Occupation; and recognise a Palestinian state within borders already defined by the Geneva Accord of 2003.

This is the only way Israel will ever achieve security. It is the only way to permanently defeat Hamas and all extremists who wish to see endless war against Israel.

The most significant contribution the new Obama administration could make to Middle East peace would be to embrace a strategy that homeland security is best achieved not by military or economic domination but by generosity and caring for others. If this new way of thinking could become a serious part of US policy, it would have an immense impact on undermining the fearful consciousness of Israelis who still see the world more through the frame of the Holocaust and previous persecutions than through the frame of their actual present power in the world.

It breaks my heart to see the terrible suffering in Gaza and in Israel. As a religious Jew I find it all the worse, because it confirms to me how easy it is to pervert the loving message of Judaism into a message of hatred and domination. I remain in mourning for the Jewish people, for Israel and for the world.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine. (rabbilerner@tikkun.org)

I hope you will email this guy. that’s the address above. Not that we’ll change his mind I’m sure.  RCOB

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2009 at 12:07 PM   
Filed Under: • International • Israel • RoPMA • Terrorists • War On Terror •  
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   Sunday - January 04, 2009

A prayer for the IDF

Via IsraellyCool who is almost live-blogging the situation, comes this prayer from Treppenwitz:

Translation:

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Force, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

May Hashem cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighting men from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.  May He lead our enemies under their sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is Hashem, your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.  Now let us respond: Amen. 



The ground campaign will probably get very nasty very soon. Say a prayer for those fighting this enemy who is our enemy as well.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/04/2009 at 03:04 PM   
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   Saturday - January 03, 2009

Honourable way Britain dealt with Irish terrorism.  Israel needs to do the same? This guy thinks so

British lesson about terrorism
By Peter Oborne
Daily Mail

Defenders of the Israeli government have spent the past week claiming that Britain would behave just as ruthlessly if it came under attack from, say, a neighbouring territory in the same way that Israel has been targeted by militants in Gaza.

This analogy is utterly false. As we all know, Britain was attacked over a period of 30 years by the IRA, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent people and the near annihilation of the Cabinet.

But ministers never ordered the bombing of the Falls Road in Belfast, the town of Dundalk or any of the other Republican strongholds. The one exception, when indiscriminate deaths resulted during the events of Bloody Sunday in 1969, has been the subject of a public inquiry. On the contrary, the British reaction to terrorist attacks on our own soil has focused on sensible policing and the opening up of lines of communication with the enemy. The eventual outcome was a peaceful end to a terrible conflict.

Israel has a great deal to learn from the honourable way Britain dealt with Irish terrorism.

OBORNE

Well this was short sweet and to the point. I also think he’s nuts.  Brits finally talked to who? Or is that whom?
Murderous thugs who wantonly killed and maimed with bombs thrown into public places?  Killing ppl who did no more then question tactics of murder?
I’m a bit thick on this subject.  Hamas has a goal. It’s Jew killing, period.  Only my opinion but I really believe that if Israel caved in on everything Hamas says it wants, that still would not be enough. 

Would like to hear from Brits on the subject.  Lyndon? Chris? Anyone else?

Posted by peiper     on 01/03/2009 at 01:57 PM   
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   Tuesday - December 30, 2008

Israeli Navy rams Gaza-bound aid boat, forcing it to dock in Lebanon. ( They shouldda sunk it! )

UPDATE: Lunatic ex-Congressman Cynthia Mckinney was on board the ship at the time of the incident!

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht in the Lebanese seaport of Tyre, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.

“Our mission was a peaceful mission,” McKinney told CNN. The recent Green Party candidate for U.S. president and frequent center of controversy is the most prominent political figure to join the relief voyages sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said Tuesday that U.S. diplomats had issued no protests to Israeli authorities. “When you enter a zone of conflict, then you have to realize that it’s very, very dangerous,” the spokesman told reporters.

In a news release Tuesday afternoon, one of the 16-member mission, Caoimhe Butterfly offered a conflicting version. The Israeli gunboats “gave us no warning” and “rammed us three times,” she said.

The jerks should consider themselves lucky they weren’t fired on.  I’m much disappointed that the Israelis didn’t blow the bastards out of the water.

On the tired side, it’s late so pulling the plug on my puter till the morning.

Cheers All.

By Michael Theodoulou
Last updated at 6:26 PM on 30th December 2008

The British skipper of a boat carrying medical supplies and peace activists to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade told today how his vessel was rammed by an Israeli gunboat.

Denis Healey spoke of ‘panic stations’ on the Gibraltar-flagged Dignity after the pre-dawn collision in international waters.

Two Israeli gunboats had been shadowing the 20-meter motor yacht for half-an-hour, ‘shining powerful search-lights at us, blinding us,’ Healey said.

Then, without provocation or any warning we were rammed. It was a blow to the front port side. It wiped out the wheel house and took away some of the upper deck.’

Healey, a 53-year-old Cyprus-based marine engineer from Portsmouth, said the Israeli Navy had made no radio contact before the collision nor fired any warning shots.

‘They told us to turn back to Cyprus. They claimed we were involved in terrorist activity,’ he said.

He managed to guide the limping Dignity into the Lebanese port Tyre.

‘Initially, we took in quite a bit of water but managed to stem the flow once we got the pumps working.’

There were no casualties among the 15 passengers and crew, among them four Britons, including Dr David Halpin, an orthopaedic surgeon who had volunteered his help to Gazan hospitals and clinics.

Israeli officials portrayed the collision as an accident and insisted the patrol boats had radioed the Dignity to turn back before the collision occurred.

They accused the international activists on the boat of ‘being intent on creating a media incident’.

Karl Penhaul, a Briton correspondent for CNN on the Dignity, said suggestions it was a mere collision ‘doesn’t square with what we saw here at sea’.

The US-based Free Gaza Movement, which operates the Dignity, said it was intercepted 90 miles from Gaza in international waters and accused Israel of an act of ‘piracy’.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said that ‘the UK is internationally responsible’ for the Dignity because it is registered in Gibraltar.

He said: ‘We advised all British nationals on the boat to Gaza that it would be reckless and dangerous at this time. At the same time, we told the Israeli government that we take the safety of our nationals seriously and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.’

PEACE ACTIVISTS

Posted by peiper     on 12/30/2008 at 02:07 PM   
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   Monday - December 29, 2008

Israel pounds Gaza for third day: Interior ministry destroyed.

Early in the morning for some places in BMEWS so thought I’d post this now.

Israel kept up its bombardment of Gaza overnight expanding its targets to include an Islamic university and government buildings such as the interior ministry.

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 8:29AM GMT 29 Dec 2008

Local Palestinian medical sources said six Palestinian children were among the estimated 300 people killed in the attacks, including four sisters aged from 1 to 12 whose house was hit when Israel tried to bomb a nearby mosque.

The night skyline was lit up repeatedly by huge explosions as Israeli F- 16s dropped laser-guided precision munitions on targets inside the densely populated of Gaza City and Rafah.

Witnesses said the Islamic University was struck at least six times and the interior ministry headquarters levelled by bombs.

The ministry was run by Hamas and the university had close links to the Islamist movement.

Israel issued a statement claiming the university labs were used by Hamas as a weapons manufacturing and development centre and it accused university lecturers of teaching bomb-making.

For the first time since operation Cast Lead began on Saturday, Israeli warships got involved, firing naval artillery at positions close to the main port in Gaza City.

Dead and injured Palestinians continued to be brought to Gaza’s hospitals with local medical sources saying the death toll since Saturday had reached 307. The number of injured has climbed to 1,400.

Four girls from the same family aged from one to 12 years old were killed in an air raid in the northern town of Jabaliya that targeted a mosque near their home.

Two boys were killed in raid in the southern city of Rafah, and a seventh person killed was a Hamas member.

With Israel showing no sign of heeding international calls for an end to hostilities the people of Gaza were left guessing what the next range of targets would include.

The centre of Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the local power station stopped functioning because Israel had refused to allow deliveries of diesel oil needed by the generators.

Israel provides most of the power to the Gaza Strip although a local power station, bombed by Israel in 2006 but now partially repaired, provided electricity to Gaza City’s most densely populated area.

The antiquated switching system of Gaza’s power distribution network meant that the power still coming in from Israel could not be diverted to Gaza City so the hundreds of thousands of people got set for lengthy power cuts.

Israel took care to justify the bombing raids on the Islamic University issuing the following statement: “One of the structures struck housed explosives laboratories that were an inseparable part of Hamas’ research and development program, as well as places that served as storage facilities for the organization.

“The development of these weapons took place under the auspices of senior lecturers who are activists in Hamas.

“Among the weapons that have been developed and manufactured at this site are Qassam rockets.

“Hamas has been working tirelessly to extend the range of the rockets, as has been shown during the past few days.”

Israel has repeatedly said the operation could last a long time. The aim is to stop militants in Gaza firing rockets into Israel.

Israel has threatened to launch a ground assault and is now calling up 6,500 army reservists.

An Israeli civilian was also killed this morning by a rocket fired by militants from Gaza. He was hit while working in the centre of the Israeli port of Ashkelon, about eight miles north of the Gaza Strip.

He is the second Israeli to be killed by rocket fire from Gaza since Israel launched the operation.

GAZA

Posted by peiper     on 12/29/2008 at 09:27 AM   
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   Saturday - December 27, 2008

Should’ve kept their mouths shut

Last week, Hamas declared an end to their cease-fire truce with Israel, and started shooting rockets across the border again. Bad move. It looks like the Izzies are putting a beat down on their lice riddent heads. Gee, too bad.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security sites in Hamas-ruled Gaza Saturday and early Sunday, killing at least 230 people in one of the Mideast conflict’s bloodiest assaults in decades. The government said the open-ended campaign was aimed at stopping rocket attacks that have traumatized southern Israel.

Most of the casualties were security forces, but Palestinian officials said at least 15 civilians were among the dead. More than 400 people were also wounded.

The unprecedented assault sparked protests and condemnations throughout the Arab world, and many of Israel’s Western allies urged restraint, though the U.S. blamed Hamas for the fighting.

But there was no end in sight. The first round of strikes began around noon Saturday followed by successive waves of attacks that continued into the early hours Sunday.

Israel warned it might go after Hamas’ leaders, and militants kept pelting Israel with rockets — killing at least one Israeli and wounding six.

Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said late Saturday that the goal was “to bring about a fundamental improvement in the security situation.” He added, “It could take some time.”

The Israeli airstrikes caused widespread panic and confusion, and black plumes of smoke billowed above the territory, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas for the past 18 months.

Good. Lay it on, nice and thick. Drop every bomb you have, and kick as much ass as you can for the next 23 days. Oh hell, don’t stop there. Make Joe Biden’s wet dreams come true, and have “a created international crisis” on DAY ONE going full steam ahead.

Lay waste to the whole damn area with my blessing. If I can help in any way, let me know. Trigger fingers getting tired? Fingers getting callused from pushing the big red button too many times? I can do that for you. No problem.

Yeah, all the lefties will side with the terrorists, who are already screaming this was either an unprovoked attack or an excessive one. Fuck them. With a burning cactus. Get it done, once and for all.

           

Posted by Drew458     on 12/27/2008 at 11:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Israel • Paleswine • War On Terror •  
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   Saturday - July 05, 2008

US Pentagon doubts Israeli intelligence over Iran’s nuclear programme

Looks like things might get very interesting before long.

Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 6:38PM BST 05/07/2008

Pentagon chiefs fear that Israeli plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear programme will fail to destroy the facilities because neither the CIA nor Mossad knows where every base is located

American commanders worry that Israel will feel compelled to act within the next 12 months with no guarantee that they can do more than slow Iran’s development of a weapon capable of destroying the Jewish state.

Gaps in the intelligence on the precise location and vulnerabilities of Iran’s facilities emerged during recent talks between Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Israeli generals, according to an official familiar with the discussions who has briefed Iran experts in Washington and London.

The assessment emerged as Iran in effect thumbed its nose at proposals by the West to freeze its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for easing economic sanctions. In its reply, sent to the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, Iran said it was prepared to negotiate but only from a position of equality – and made no reference to the specific proposals.

At the same time Gen Mohammed al-Jafari, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, warned that any attack on Iran would be “regarded as the beginning of war”.

A former head of Mossad, the agency whose main responsibility is overseas intelligence, told The Sunday Telegraph last week that Israel would have to act within a year to prevent Iran securing nuclear weapons.

Those familiar with the Israeli-American military talks believe that Israel is still determined to act before Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb, and before Tehran has acquired the Russian SA-20 air defence system to protect its nuclear facilities. “The Israelis have a real sense of urgency,” the official said. “They are stepping up their preparations. But the Israelis and the Americans are worried about the other’s lack of intelligence.

“The Americans had spies in Iran until they were rounded up in 2003 and now they do not have much by way of humint [human intelligence] on the ground. The Israelis have better information. But the Americans went away from the meetings unconvinced that the Israelis have enough intelligence on where to strike, and with little confidence that they will be able to destroy the nuclear programme.”

The shortage of good intelligence could explain reports that President George W Bush has quietly sanctioned a dramatic increase in covert operations by American special forces inside Iran. These intelligence gaps lay behind Admiral Mullen’s decision to speak out on Wednesday against military action, saying it would be “extremely stressful” to “open a third front” in the war on terror. But the admiral is at odds with hawks in the Bush administration, led by Vice-President Dick Cheney.

A former CIA officer with three decades of Iranian experience said: “Their belief… is that the US would get the blame from Iran whether or not we play a major role in any attack, so we might as well do the job properly.”

Former defence and intelligence officers who advise the Pentagon have disclosed that the US military is looking into possible outcomes for military attacks featuring varying levels of American involvement.

The ex-CIA officer told The Sunday Telegraph that the planned attacks ranged from a full-blown assault on 2,000 targets inside Iran to logistics and intelligence support for Israel, if the Jewish state decided to go it alone.

The United States is preparing ways to cope with retaliation from Iran, likely to include attempts to cut off oil supplies, block the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf and launch attacks on American naval ships there and on US bases in Bahrain. The US Navy has recently changed its rules of engagement for warships in the Gulf to make them better able to combat “swarming” attacks by large numbers of small boats, used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Iran could also attack Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility, or even oil production and processing facilities elsewhere in the Gulf, according to a report published last
week by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an influential think tank with close links to both the US and Israeli governments.
http://tinyurl.com/6pqhcc

Posted by Drew458     on 07/05/2008 at 01:36 PM   
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   Tuesday - February 12, 2008

sounds good to me

story at The Jerusalem Post

A new Facebook group is urging Sderot residents to use the Internet to learn how to build crude rockets, much like the Kassams launched at them from the Gaza Strip, and fire them back at the Palestinians.

Defense Minister Barak is heckled in battered Sderot

The group, which currently has 45 members, posts material from the Internet on how to manufacture rockets.

Facebook, a social networking site that has taken the on-line world by storm, allows anyone to create groups and to invite people to join.

The group’s creators, Shai and Batya Messenberg from Petah Tikva, posted a description that reads: “It cannot be so difficult: If those retards from the Gaza Strip can do it then so can you.”

The description encourages residents of the town to trawl the Net for information on how to build ballistic missiles from materials found in the home.

“I’m sure that very soon they [the Gazans] will get the message,” the group’s creator wrote.

The message goes on to say that Sderot residents can also do their part in cutting off the flow of Israeli electricity to the Gaza Strip, “even if the High Court of Justice won’t allow it,” by finding someone with a tractor who is willing to drive into nearby electrical poles.

I love it. The people are rising up. If their own government won’t fight back against the constant rocket barrage they suffer daily, then they’ll do it themselves. It’s about time.

I’m not a missile expert, but I did compete in NAR model rocket events as a kid. These little Kassam rockets are deadly but pretty ineffective in both rocketry and military terms. Most of them carry a warhead that weighs barely 15 pounds, and have at best a 6 mile range. That’s pathetic. But they are effective terror weapons because you can see and hear them coming. Plus they are unguided, so they can hit anywhere, randomly.

On the other hand, a far more effective anti-Kassam counter rocket campaign could be waged with a small amount of government help. Maybe If the government were to build a couple little factories (one makes rocket motors, one makes mortar rounds, one makes tubes with fins) and just leave the back doors open at night ...

There. That took me longer to try and draw than it did to design. All it is, is a simple aluminum tube that houses a booster rocket motor and a standard M933 120mm mortar shell and an inertial ignition device. Build them on the cheap by the thousands. They’ll outrange and outblast the Kassams but good.

The Kassam rockets have two major drawbacks - they don’t use military grade warheads and they are single stage rockets. Single stage rockets carry a lot of dead weight around with them, so they are range limited. On its own the M933 has a range of 4 1/2 miles. Use the booster stage to double the velocity and you’ll get more than double the range. And the whole damn Gaza Strip is only 20 miles long.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/12/2008 at 11:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Israel • Terrorists •  
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3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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