Every Qassam Counts! Don't Ignore The Facts

(Shiloh Musings) Yes, the Arabs attacked Israel again. The Gazan Arabs launched rockets, missiles, weapons, qassams at Israel. They landed in Ashkelon. The day before the Arabs had also attacked Israel; the missiles landed in the Eshkol Region.
Ashkelon and the Eshkol Region are easy targets for the Arab terrorists in Gaza. It's one of the reasons that Israel must prevent more weapons and terrorists from reaching Gaza.


The Israel Government, like all governments in the world, has an obligation to do anything and everything to protect its citizens.
I have no doubt that the Arab terrorists who are attacking Israel are connected to Bin Laden's terrorist organization. MEMRI.

In this picture, Abbas is seen with released prisoner Amal Jum'a. Jum'a was arrested with explosives in May 2004, the day before her planned suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv market. Abbas is holding a representation of the PA map of "Palestine" that includes Israel and the PA areas. A poem glorifying Martyrdom death is written on the map:

"Mother, death has come. Prepare the death shroud. Mother, to my death I march. I do not hesitate."

Those Arab terrorists who want to destroy Israel endanger the entire world!

Since the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly honored and glorified the released prisoners.
On the day of their release, Abbas greeted each one at a general ceremony in Ramallah and has since then publicly praised and honored them. (more on Palestine Media Watch PMW)

Iron Dome Economics Not Sustainable

the IDF has no plans to fund multiple Iron Dome batteries. Ha’aretz estimates that each intercept missile could cost approximately $40,000 and each Iron Dome battery $500,000, while Hamas’ Qassam rockets cost roughly $150 each to produce. If you shoot a large volley of rockets at it all at once, On Saturday, the terror groups attempted to break through the intercept system's defenses by firing a particularly large volley of rockets at Be'er Sheva, where one of the batteries is deployed... ...After the Palestinian launch teams realized that the intercept systems deployed in the past two weeks around Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva provided near-perfect protection from rockets, they began targeting Ashdod and Ofakim more frequently. And when they did aim at Be'er Sheva on Saturday night, they did not fire one or two rockets, as in the past, but rather a volley of seven rockets almost simultaneously. Iron Dome intercepted five of them successfully, but one penetrated the defense system, exploding in a residential area and killing Yossi Shushan. And wounding eight other people and doing lots of property damage. Seven rockets cost Hamas $1,050 ($150 each). The six that Iron Dome shoots down cost $600,000 to shoot down ($50,000 per interceptor, two interceptors per rocket). The one got through cost one dead Israeli, eight wounded Israelis, and several hundred thousand dollars in property damage.

Iron Dome is overrated, cannot protect Ben Gurion Airport from a 'Palestinian state'. Iron Dome would be very sustainable if Israel took over Gaza again. It is a safety. It is no economic factor in Israel's favor. It provides greater security... but economic security from a barrage of missiles would only come by direct control of Gaza.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to lower expectations about the Iron Dome system Sunday, telling the cabinet that the system could not protect every house, school and army base in the country.

Iron Dome defends against rockets
at a range of 4- 70 kilometers:

Barack says:Barak says Iron Dome anti-rocket system to be deployed within days.

Bibi:
“Israel has been
under the threat of
missile attack for 20 years,
since the first Gulf War.
I don’t want to
create the illusion
that Iron Dome,
which we are setting up
for the first time today,
will prove a full or
comprehensive answer,”

via matzav.com

Late Friday night a Kassam rocket exploded in Eshkol Regional Council area, causing damage to one house but no injuries. A local official said authorities were searching for a second rocket that had fallen in an open area.
On Thursday, a rocket fired from Gaza exploded north of Ashdod. While there were no injuries, Magen David Adom crew treated a number of people for shock.
Earlier Friday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that he authorized the deployment of the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Speaking
during a tour of the Gaza region, Barak said: "I authorized the IDF in
the coming days to authorize the first operational deployment of Iron
Dome batteries, here in the southern region."

.................................................................................................................................................................The test deployment, he said, "will continue for several weeks and the layout will vary with operational needs."

The defense minister praised Iron Dome's technology, calling it an "extraordinary development" by the defense industry. He cautioned, however, that it does not provide a 100 percent solution to the rocket threat.

The Iron Dome system will be part of the IDF's solution to the barrage of rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza in the last week, a statement from the IDF spokesperson said.

Iron Dome is designed to defend against rockets at a range of 4-70 km and each battery consists of a multi-mission radar manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and three launchers, each equipped with 20 interceptors named Tamir.

The defense minister also praised the IDF's operations in the southern region. "The IDF is doing a very good job - very professional and creative, with [good] results, along the border and in the Gaza Strip itself," he said.

"Terror organizations in the Strip took a hard hit during the last 10 days," Barak said, adding that the groups had lost fighters during that period.

He noted that "some 100 rockets and mortars that reached communities further [from the Strip] than usual" were hit, including Beersheba, Ashdod, Sderot, Ashkelon, and the Gaza border-region communities. "We have no intention to allow terrorist organizations to renew the situation and breaking the status quo," he said. The defense minister added, "We will act as it is needed to return the operations back to the [border] line itself."


"I don't recommend to Hamas or Islamic Jihad to attempt and return us to the situation when [rockets] were fired at areas deep into the country and at communities in the border region."

via jpost.com

Israel'a Iron Dome Rocket Defense System Set to Go Online

JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian rocket squad in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as a new defense system to protect southern Israel from militants' rockets prepared to go online after years of development, the military said.
Two Islamic Jihad militants were killed in the attack and one was critically wounded, said the group, which did not specify whether they were in the process of launching rockets.
Gaza militants, including Islamic Jihad and the territory's Hamas rulers, had said over the weekend that they would cease fire if Israel did. It was not clear whether they were reneging on that pledge or whether the air strike hit a rogue group of militants ignoring the cease fire.
Weeks of stepped-up rocket and mortar attacks have drawn fears of renewed war and led to new calls in Israel for the military to deploy the $200 million Iron Dome anti-rocket system.
The Israeli military said the system should begin operating on Sunday near Beersheba, southern Israel's largest city. A second anti-missile battery will be deployed in another large southern city, Ashdod, the military added, without specifying an exact date.
Security officials said the new spate of rocket attacks from Gaza and public pressure had led the military to deploy the system, which is still being fine-tuned. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss operational decisions.
More...

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

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Why Amira Hass Is Against the Firing of Qassams

Amira Hass

Amira Hass's Op-Ed yesterday, "The sanctity of the soaring Qassam," provides a fascinating look into the depths of her psyche.

In a display of verbal gymnastics, Ha'aretz's Hass attempts to explain to Hamas why the group should not fire Qassams at Israel. Why gymnastics? Because instead of simply saying, "Don't fire Qassams in populated areas because it is a crime against humanity and wrong," she speaks in terms of tactical interests.
Hass explains that Qassam attaks enables the Israeli military "to put on an act of being an army, one that targets civilians, and thus provide Israel with more ammunition for its victim show."
Hass gives additional reasons why Hamas should not fire rockets:

It's wrong to provide [Israel] with pretexts that would enable it to once again put Gaza's children and old people through an ordeal like Cast Lead, or even one half as bad.

And

The Qassams merely feed Israel's madness. The Qassams merely feed Israel's madness. It is not the Qassams that will ensure the Palestinians, both in and out of Gaza, a life of dignity. It is not the Qassams that will topple the Israeli walls around the world's largest prison camp.

Despite several attempts to explain why Hamas should not fire Qassam rockets, she never once mentions the significance of firing on civilians. Hass is simply not capable of just once simply saying: shooting rockets at civilians is a wrong and unjustified act. Period.
Her total lack of feeling for the lives of Israelis is on display when she states:

Who cares that the "appropriate Zionist response" to 50 mortar shells, which sowed fear but did not kill, was the killing of two 16-year-olds?

It is pure luck that the Qassams only "sowed fear but did not kill." Is Hass waiting for someone to (once again) be killed by Qassam fire before she will acknowledge that indiscriminate firing on civilians is wrong?
Beyond the fact that it has been a matter of luck that the mortars did not kill anyone in this round, Hass is completely unconcerned about the emotional trauma suffered by those who lived through 50 mortar attacks (as well as thousands of rockets over the last decade). Will Hass so easily dismiss Israeli strikes in Gaza that result in damage but not death?
-- By Yishai Goldflam. To see the Hebrew version of this blog post, visit Presspectiva, CAMERA's Israeli site.
TS
CAMERA/Snapshots
24 March '11
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2011/03
/why_amira_hass_is_against_the.html

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

image via palestinechronicle.com

This Ongoing War: A Blog: 24-Mar-11: Rockets fired into Israel yet again

Ynet is reporting this morning (9:00am Israel time) that a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area south of Ashkelon. There are no reports of injury or damage, but this outcome is not what the terrorists want. Today's Qassam comes after five mortar shells (possibly more) were fired into southern Israel yesterday from the northern Gaza Strip. Ynet says army sappers who examined the shells said some of them contained phosphorus, prohibited under the Geneva Convention for use as a weapon. Haaretz says yesterday's barrage included a Qassam. Fortunately again, no injuries or damages were reported in Wednesday's attacks - a tactical failure for the hatred-driven jihadists who are entirely focused on civilian targets.

via thisongoingwar.blogspot.com

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Hamas launches 50 rockets from Gaza into Israel, eight wounded

An Israeli security man stands next a damaged house hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Kissufim, southern Israel, Saturday, March 19, 2011. Israel's foreign minister has filed a complaint at the U.N. after Palestinian militants in Gaza shelled Israeli border communities with dozens of mortars. Palestinian militants in Gaza frequently fire rockets and mortars at Israeli border communities but Saturday's barrage was much heavier than usual. (AP Photo)

If it was 50 homes going up in Jerusalem, Obama would be having a coronary and blaming their construction for being an obstacle to peace, but it's only mortar shells aimed at Israeli civilians; nothing to worry about.

Gaza City (M&C) - Violence between Israel and militants of the Islamist Hamas movement flared on Saturday after nearly 50 mortar shells from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israeli communities.
Israeli warplanes and tanks responded, firing missiles and tank shells at four targets belonging to Hamas in the eastern Gaza Strip, Adham Abu Selmeya, Gaza's emergency chief, told reporters.
Selmeya confirmed that six Palestinian were wounded in the Israeli attack, while Israel Radio reported two Israelis injured. The two main Israelis towns hit in the attack were Sdot Negev and Eshkol.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, claimed responsibility for the renewed shelling.
More...

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

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An Israeli man walks near a house, which was damaged by a mortar shell fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza and exploded in Kibbutz Kissufim, just outside the central Gaza Strip March 19, 2011. The Israeli military confirmed dozens of mortar shells had landed in Israel, one hitting a house at an agricultural community close to the border, and that two people were hurt making it one of the heaviest barrages launched by militants for month. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

Hamas Backed Now by Egyptian Government Strikes Israel with Mortars

The Netanyahu government has not informed the Israeli public about the ominous new winds blowing in fromCairo although they are already in motion: Cairo has given Hamas rule of the Gaza Strip de facto recognition, is about to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and is forging new understandings with Damascus and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad radicals based there.
The Egyptian military which has taken over in Cairo also turned a blind eye to at least two or three Iranian arms ships which, prior to the capture of the A.S. Victoria last week, made it through the Israeli sea blockade and delivered weapons, including C-704 shore-to-sea missiles at El Arish. Hamas will be free to go out and collect them through the reopened Rafah crossing.
It is now obvious that Cairo’s permission for two Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal on Feb. 22, knowing that at least one was laden with weapons for extremists, was in line with the new Egyptian policy.
Israel had earlier allowed two Egyptian mechanized infantry brigades to enter Sinai and deploy along its Mediterranean coast, although this opened up the demilitarization clause of the 1979 peace treaty. Israel expected these troops to guard the gas pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan and block the Iranian arms deliveries to Hamas. But this did not happen.
This week, spokesmen on behalf of the pipeline company announced that Egyptian gas was again flowing. It was not. After Israel appealed to the White House and the heads of the Senate and House foreign relations committees to intercede with Egypt, just a trickle of gas reached the pipeline on the pretext that the pipeline needed testing after it was blown up by Hamas on Feb. 5.
The Egyptian charade is ably supported by the Israeli government and its defense spokesmen, who keep on assuring everyone that nothing has changed in Egyptian-Israeli peace relations.
According to debkafile’s Cairo sources, the live wire behind the Egyptian policy U-turn is the new foreign minister Nabil Alaraby. Only two weeks on the job, the first tasks he set himself were to lift the Egyptian-Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip, reopen the Fatah crossing to free passage of people and goods, downgrade relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, and open a new page with Syria.
During the two days US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent in Cairo (March 15-16), the Egyptian Supreme Military Council sent the Mahabharat (Secret Service) chief Gen. Mourad Mwafi to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad received him for a long conversation Friday, March 19, on the third day of his visit.
Thursday, the Egyptian general met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. He was not put off by Meshaal’s participation in the Iran-backed Islamist radical summit in Khartoum in the first week of March and its approval of two missions — to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Cairo and to step up terrorist attacks on Israel.
So far, Israeli forces have had no success in tracking down the Hamas perpetrators of the vicious murders of five family members at Itamar on March 11. Considering the precipitous downturn in Israel’s political and military situation and the ostrich-like reactions of its leaders, it looks very much as though Hamas is now dictating Israel’s security agenda. Hamas, backed to the hilt by Iran, Syria and now Egypt, feels it can safely intensify its warfare on Israel without being slapped down.

via crethiplethi.com

From the Jerusalem Post:

Civilian areas in southern Israel were heavily shelled by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza on Saturday morning, when more than 50 mortars were fired at the regional councils of Sha’ar Hanegev, Eshkol and Sdot Hanegev.
Two Israelis sustained light injuries by shrapnel and were transferred to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for a dozen of the mortars fired.
The IDF responded to the barrage of mortars with tank shells and helicopter attacks. Six Palestinians were reportedly injured in the strikes.
Following the attacks, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed diplomats in New York to lodge a complaint with the United Nations over the mortar barrage…

via solomonia.com

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired more than 50 rockets into Israel on
Saturday, the heaviest barrage in two years, Israeli officials said.

Palestinian Hamas border policemen inspect a destroyed Hamas compound after an Israeli strike in Gaza City Photo: AFP/GETTY

4:30PM GMT 19 Mar 2011

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired more than 50 rockets into Israel on
Saturday, the heaviest barrage in two years, Israeli officials said.

A Hamas official was killed and four civilians were wounded when Israel hit
back with tank fire and air strikes, said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman
Adham Abu Salmia.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he will file a complaint at
the U.N. after Saturday's unusually large barrage of rockets. In a
statement, Lieberman said the Palestinians "primary goal is destroying
Israel."

The violence comes amid increasing calls for reconciliation between
Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his bitter rivals,
the Islamic militant group Hamas. Abbas is seeking U.N. recognition for a
Palestinian state by the fall and is currently lobbying for votes worldwide.
Hamas used force to disperse a reconciliation rally in Gaza. Some reporters
were later beaten up, threatened and briefly detained.

Israeli police spokesman Tamir Avtabi said Gaza militants fired 54 mortar
shells at Israeli border communities within 15 minutes. He said two Israeli
civilians were lightly wounded by shrapnel and residents were advised to
stay at home or in bomb shelters.

Hayim Yellin, head of the Eshkol region where the mortars exploded, said they
were of the same type as those intercepted on a cargo ship last week loaded
with weapons Israel said were sent by Iran to Palestinian militants in the
Gaza Strip.

Hamas acknowledged it launched some of the mortars — an unusual move as the
Islamic militant group does not usually take responsibility for such
attacks. Hamas fears triggering another Israeli invasion similar to a
three-week operation aimed at stopping daily Palestinian shelling two years
ago that killed about 1,400 Palestinians.

Israeli police said the mortar barrage Saturday was the heaviest since that
round of fighting.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all violence originating in Gaza, though
Hamas usually blames smaller groups for rocket fire.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said the shelling was in reaction to recent
Israeli airstrikes that killed militants. He warned Israel "not to test
Hamas' response."

Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in bloody street battles in 2007. Since then,
Hamas controls Gaza and the Western backed secular Fatah rules the West Bank.

Repeated efforts to reconcile the two rival governments have failed.
Palestinians have held rallies in Gaza and the West Bank in recent days
calling for the two sides to resolve their differences.

The internal Palestinian rift makes their vision of statehood harder to
achieve and hinders their ability to reach a peace agreement with Israel.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed last year over
disputes about Israeli construction in the West bank, areas Palestinians
want as parts of their future state.

via telegraph.co.uk

Letter from a war criminal

I have no doubt that this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the claims of Operation Cast Lead.

Last week , it was reported on a website that posted photographs and details of some 200 IDF officers and soldiers whom the website named as 'war criminals' for their actions during Operation Cast Lead. Here's a letter from a reservist who is insulted that he wasn't named to the list. It's quite powerful.

As it turns out, the Israeli who produced the list – and there is almost no doubt it’s an Israeli, who is intimately familiar with the IDF – did not do a particularly thorough job. In any case, he missed me.
I served in the Gaza Division war room for 26 days and saw everything in real time. I saw how every time we had to curb Qassam fire from populated areas, officials considered it seven times and meticulously calculated the firing range and angle, as not to hurt civilians by mistake.
I also saw how, to be on the safe side, the army consulted with its legal advisor and with a representative of the Coordination and Liaison Administration who were regularly deployed in the war room.
I saw the great seriousness in addressing a water pipe that burst in Rafah, and the kind of effort invested in order to bring food into the Strip and allow ambulances to evacuate wounded Palestinians from the war zone.
I also participated in assessment sessions with the division commander; a major part of them pertained to humanitarian issues.
I walked around Sderot, which looked like a ghost town after sustaining dozens of Qassam rockets, and I also saw the Grad missiles making their way to Ashkelon without anybody being able to stop them. Believe me, it’s not a heart-warming sight.

Read it all. The picture is a 'Palestinian' crying over a friend who had just been executed during Operation Cast Lead. No, not by Israel. By Hamas.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

It would be an interesting idea to create a "Media Museum" based on the three factors: Claims by the Media and or NGO, claims of individuals and claims of the government and present this information side by side to show how the International or shall I say Islamic community manipulated truth to attack a people with genocide. They call it Lawfare, but I would love to see a museum dedicated to exposing the lies. There are plenty of museums dedicated to atrocity, but how many museums are dedicated to exposing lies? I propose that there should be a museum dedicated in Israel to the abuse of media

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

This Ongoing War: Incoming Qassam again - Rockets called Khaibar?

Iranian Fajar-5

The Jerusalem Post reports belatedly this morning that yet another Gazan-Palestinian Qassam rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel 24 hours ago, on Saturday morning. It exploded in an undisclosed part of the Negev and thankfully there are no reported injuries or damage. This of course, as we have said here time and again, was not the intention of the jihadists who fired it; nor was it the outcome that the political echelon who gave the instruction to shoot desired.
The back story is that Hamas rockets are getting more deadly all the time. Four days ago, Ynet reported that the Hamas regime in Gaza has completed a series of experiments on its version of the Iranian Fajar rocket. The enhanced model now has a range of almost 80 kilometers (roughly 50 miles) meaning, for those who understand the extremely compact nature of central Israel, it can reach as far Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv. Thus most of Israel's population is now within range of the terrorists' weaponry. The Fajar-5 is the length of a telephone pole and carries a 90-kg payload. [Our terrorist enemy in the north, Hezbullah, call this rocket the Khaibar-1, and holds vast stocks of this civilian-oriented weapon.]
The progress made by Hamas is serious, considering that the original Hamas Qassams had a range of around 1.5 km (roughly 1 mile). The rockets are believed to have been developed by scientists working for Hamas and for research institutes located in Arab countries in the region that have been working intensively to further arm the Hamas terror regime. Ynet says Hamas will be able to begin manufacturing these rockets within the next few months.

via thisongoingwar.blogspot.com

survival is dependent on attacking back.  I just thought about something.... they called the rockets Khaibar?  Does anyone know the significance to that?

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