While Barack Obama and John Kerry pressure Israel into making still more self-defeating concessions to the “Palestinians,” Hamas pursues violent jihad. Either way, Israel faces jihad. Surely even Obama and Kerry must not believe at this point that their negotiations will bring some kind of lasting peace to the jihadis and Israel. But they probably do believe that the negotiations will bring them votes and donors.
Meanwhile, it’s interesting that the inmates of the “world’s largest concentration camp” are able to get such sophisticated weaponry.
“Hamas Tests Anti-Aircraft Missiles Against Israel,” from IPT News, February 21:
While Israel and the Palestinian Authority engage in peace negotiations, Hamas continues to bolster its military capabilities for the next round of fighting with Israel. Al-Monitor is reporting that Palestinian terrorists had conducted a field test, firing an anti-aircraft missile at an Israeli airplane circling above Gaza’s eastern border last month.
The missile missed its intended target and was briefly reported by pro-Hamas media; however, the incident went unreported by Israeli newspapers. Israel lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations after rockets fired following former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s funeral, but Gaza sources claim that it was an anti-aircraft missile test, Al-Monitor reports. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, have bragged in the past that their anti-aircraft capabilities have changed the balance of power with Israel. The terrorist organization claims that they have damaged an Israeli helicopter and downed an armed surveillance drone.
Even if these reports are fabricated, it is clear that Hamas is desperately attempting to bolster their military capabilities. In September, the al-Qassam Brigades revealed that their fighters possessed SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles. Israeli military sources were aware of this significant development, blaming the collapse of the Gadhafi regime in Libya for the proliferation of such advanced weapons into Gaza.
The SA-7 missiles were displayed at a military parade along with light machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades and heavy weapons fixed on four-wheel-drive vehicles.
In addition, Al-Monitor reviewed a military document from the “Air Defense Unit” of one of Gaza’s factions, which claims the primary objective of acquiring anti-aircraft weapons is to neutralize the Israeli air force. But the flow of such weapons has been slowed since Egypt destroyed summing tunnels along its border with Gaza.
Earlier this week, the Times of Israel reported that Hamas used an intermediary to tell Jerusalem it “has no interest in furthering its conflict with Israel and seeking restraint on Israel’s part.” For now. All other signs show Hamas remains more committed to preparing for the next confrontation with Israel than it is to improving life for Palestinians in Gaza.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Uh oh, these are the fruits of Obama’s work with the Russo-Persian-Syrian axis. Big trouble for the air wing of the IDF, flying in such tight spaces.
Transmaster says
Actually the SA-7 Grail is more of a irritation than a danger The IDF knows how to deal with this missile.
Oh what a howler HAMAS does not want trouble with Israel. Why is that, could it be because Egypt is out to annihilate HAMAS, and unlike Israel Egypt will just kill them all. There is also a quiet agreement with Egypt, Egypt can follow Jihad killers into the Gaza Strip.
Defcon 4 says
What about for slower moving helos? Helos that fly close support missions?
Wouldn’t the be vulnerable to SA-7’s? Especially if fired en mass?
Transmaster says
No the Grail only arms itself when it is 50 feet in altitude, and at 500 ft the passive infrared seeker turns on. The former to keep the operator safe from an explosion, and the latter the prevent locking on the Abulla’s back barbeque They have sensors on military aircraft that sense the launch of AA missiles such as this in a Blackhawk an alarm goes off, heat flares are fired the point of launch is located and a hellfire missile it on it way, and the Holy warrior off to 71 nookie land.
mortimer says
Starving? HA!
23.9% of men and 42.5% of women are obese in Gaza.
73 is the life-expectancy in Gaza, even higher than in Russia or neighboring Egypt.
Gazans complained they didn’t have enough concrete for building, so Israel sent in lots. They built about 100 smuggling tunnels.
Gary Woods says
The U.N. lists gaza as one of the top-10 crisis zones for child/adult obesity on earth. But don’t tell Anderson Cooper about this because he was used in a hamas propaganda video in gaza to be shown only the Staged slums Sets for PallyWood Studios along with fake IDF oppression.
Td Sonnier says
I’m gay and Anderson Cooper is a rich a$$ f@?
joelsk44039 says
So, what’s your point?
Cindy Mccoy says
What does this have to do with anything??
Wellington says
As a staunch supporter of Israel, I will opine again to the effect that it’s a damn shame that a Greater Israel wasn’t established after the Six-Day War. This would have included, in addition to the Israel that existed prior to the war, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Sinai. Instead, only the Golan Heights (sorta’) and East Jerusalem (completely) were incorporated into Israel.
OK, perhaps, just perhaps, giving back the Sinai is defensible to a Sadat-run Egypt, though I would not defend such, but not annexing the West Bank and Gaza outright with expulsion of native populations from those areas was a huge mistake. I mean, who could argue that the alternative followed by Israel since 1967 has been the better choice? And if the Sinai were still part of Israel, Israel would be a medium size nation with significantly better defensible borders than the small size nation it remains to this day.
Also, as dumbedoresarmy (dda) pointed out recently on another thread, were the Sinai still under Israeli control, a monastery like St. Catherine’s would have the highest possible protection afforded it by any polity in the Middle East. Instead, a treasure to all the world like St. Catherine’s could eventually go the way of Buddhist statuary in Afghanistan. Ah, bonuses aplenty I think if only Israel had created a Greater Israel almost fifty years ago. Again, who of sense would argue, could argue, that the way things are to this day was the better option?
thomas_h says
Wellington, this is a bit late, but I have been away from the computer and just spotted your musing, in which I myself engaged on many occasions before:
you write:
“Ah, bonuses aplenty I think if only Israel had created a Greater Israel almost fifty years ago. Again, who of sense would argue, could argue, that the way things are to this day was the better option?”
I think it was already too late then. Not because Israel didn’t have the power to do the thing, but because it lost the power to dream the thing and follow the dream. The last time Israel dreamt that dream was in the 1948 – unfortunately, it didn’t have the power to follow it. In 1967 Israeli leadership was already more concerned about polishing its image of a nice Jewish boy in the eyes of the “world” than the perilous consequences of not fully exploiting victory in a (defensive) war. Something, to my knowledge, unprecedented in the history of war.
It was as if the Jews completely misunderstood the words of the prophet Isaiah about Israel’s obligation to be “the light unto the nations” meant. No nation was enlightened by Israel’s generosity, but a few emboldened by it. Already then Israel sought to appease Islam; the (Moslem) Arabs could not believe that Israel would not take administrative control over the Temple Mount giving it to, after Dayan’s order, Waqf, a Muslim council. Accordingly even the Israel’s flag was removed from the mount. What a terrible mistake. What a waste of good gesture. Pearls before hateful swine.
Does it mean that Israel is doomed to forever live in the state of full military alert and always anticipating terror attack against its population?
Nobody can know for sure what Israel will become in a decade or two or five. With the increase of Israeli Left’s power closely following the increase of its stupidity accompanied by increase of Israel Moslem population , Israel is on her way to ceasing being the Jewish state – a rather poor euphemism for brutal reality of Jews loosing their country and assuming their historical submissive position in a Moslem state.
I think for Israel to survive in the long run is to firstly stop understanding her situation as the result of the “Israel – Palestinian” conflict. That label is a confusing misnomer that obscures the fundamental nature of the clash. It is flawed at the best and deliberately confusing at worst. It is a phony label suggesting a clash limited to a tiny area and of a very recent origin while concealing its relation to Islam’s war against the Jews going back to Mohamed’s slaughter of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayzah and enslavement and expulsion of the entire Jewish population of the Arabian Peninsula.
Ultimately all these clashes are part of the major clash of civilizations – the one between Islam and the West. The Israel-Palestinian is a minor tremor along the fault line where the two tectonic plates of Islam and the West meet. I believe that if it will ever be resolved it will be within the context of the resolution of the conflict between Islam and the West.
To me the right strategy for Israel seems to be to do everything to endure the current conflict – except offering concessions. It needs to bide her time believing that there is not-so-remote possibility that the increasingly frequent frictions between the Moslem settlers and the Western “natives” will lead to an inter-civilizational explosion. Once the West starts ejecting its Moslem ballast it will lose its moral high ground to condemn Israel for doing the same – I mean banishing the Moslems from the West Bank and Gaza and annexing these territories. It takes lot of faith to wait for the West/Islam (or Christianity Islam) showdown, but I don’t think Israel has other options if she wants to remain the Jewish homeland.
veggiedog says
In 1948 the Jews that were settling Israel were a different breed than the Jews that now inhabit the country. Like the USA the far Left has had it’s impact, and I believe this will not reverse in the US for many years, after I am dead and gone, but I hope I am wrong. In Israel it is even scarier, some of the worst offenders are the orthodox who live off of the State. Israel cannot go back and do what they should have unless they are attacked and forced to take the land, will that happen??????? Israel will never find peace in the Middle East with it’s neighbors, heck, it cannot find peace with most of the rest of the world, Jews are universally hated, it is not just an Israel thing, it is a JEW thing. I am a JEW, I have seen this hatred close up where people did not know I was a Jew and I have heard what they say when nobody (they think) is listening. So until the world changes there is not much hope that Israel has a chance for any peace, not internally or externally. This saddens me greatly. If I was young I would go to Israel and live and work and serve my time in the military, but I am not able to do that the way I would want to at this time in my life. Muslims will never let a Jew live in peace, they have said this and that is that. It is not just Islamists but without the staunch Islamists maybe things would be different, hard to know. All I can say is that when we look at Israel today and the Middle East we need to realize the hatred that has been inbreed in the Muslim world for so many years. Mohammad did nothing but cause a people to be irrational, but if you want to go back to biblical times blame the banishment of one son because of a jealous mother… but I do not believe in any bible, I believe these stories are made up and have little to do with what really happened, including the Koran. May we all survive the monster than now lives amongst us.
Bezelel says
“either way Israel faces jihad” exactly and so does the rest of the world unless a permanent stop is put to it.
mortimer says
The statement that Hamas “has no interest in furthering its conflict with Israel and (is) seeking restraint on Israel’s part” must mean they seeking another ‘temporary truce’ so they can prepare for the next phase of jihad murder.
Jerry says
Hamas is only demanding that they be left unhindered to pursue their right religious and political commitments as partially articulated in Article Seven of the “Hamas Covenant”:
“…the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem). ”
(see http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp )
In terms of Article Two thereof Hamas declares itself to be ” …one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam.” (ibid)
According to Hussein Barak Obama they must be as innocently moderate as their “Parent Organisation” which Obama has previously proved his determination to support.
Jay Boo says
Ref to:
[the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.]
—————————-
It is truly difficult to believe that anyone claiming to be a prophet of a MERCIFUL and COMPASIONATE ‘Creator’ would be so despicable as to actually stoop so low to satiate his self-serving bloodlust with such a farce.
Talking trees and stones.
Do Muslims actually repeat such stupidity with a straight face?
The only revelations Muhammad received were while he was arguing with what he believed was a talking donkey.
The donkey won the argument every time.
Salah says
“All other signs show Hamas remains more committed to preparing for the next confrontation with Israel than it is to improving life for Palestinians in Gaza.”
Hamas is bluffing. Hamas won’t last long, the clock is ticking…
“In a scenario Israelis would have found too far-fetched to believe just a few years ago, Egypt is set to become the Jewish state’s new best friend in the fight against Hamas terrorism.”
Read it all here:
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24373/Default.aspx
Buraq says
Deploying drones would prevent the loss of Israeli pilots. However, the more sophisticated the weaponry, the more well trained the operators must be. In Hamas’ case, the loss of even a few trained operators in an Israeli defensive strike would hobble their capabilities enormously.
Hamas does not have reserves of anything in depth. Their ‘strategy’ is simply to fire everything at once, make a big noise, and hope for the best.
Clowns!
Defcon 4 says
Maybe Israel could employ some Buraqs themselves! Maybe ridden by Djinns.
veggiedog says
The Far Left, the self hating Jews, the ignorant, this is the American problem with Israel. We have left our only Mae ally to it’s own devices, we have probably done them a favor.
Paleologos says
Here’s the equation:
Muslim, Kenyan born, pos, moron POTUS, who forgot that there are NOT 57 States in the Union …
Note to barry hussein: stop reading the Heinz 57 varieties on your ketchup, asshole, before you have your cheese burger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKqFBpk_1Eo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws
… PLUS moron Secretary of State …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbdzMLk9wHQ
EQUALS:
… a high probability Israel will have to go it alone in next Arab/muslims vs. Israel War
Hopefully, the train wreck of obamacare will lose the Senate to the Republicans. But methinks the next Arab/Israeli war is on a shorter timetable.
In any case Bibi will do what is necessary to save Israel, God willing.
R/
Paleologos
Mannie says
Not morons. Deliberately evil. And very dangerous.
Paleologos says
Mannie,
Point well taken.
Morons, yes, to the fact that obama and his fellow islamocrats think they can bury a lot of what the Founding Fathers strived for, but may sink their own Democrat Party instead, with the abomination of obamacare.
But, … evil? Absolutely!
One of the best voices on what this muslim pos POTUS is doing to the America so many fought and died for, although he doesn’t publicly declare obama to be the muslim fraud president the way I do, is Mark Levin, commentator, author, and constitutional lawyer.
R/
Paleologos
duh_swami says
Israel should just take Gaza back and get rid of Hamas. Eventually they will have to do it anyway.
veggiedog says
The solution to the ME problem is probably suicide. The Israeli State will feed her enemies before she does what is needed. Peace in the ME is an oxymoron.
Mannie says
Time for more carpet bombing. Launch a missile, lose a grid square (1 sq km).
Defcon 4 says
Why not just give every non-muslim Israeli citizen a 105mm howitzer and ammunition? Then if the pale-swein get the itch to fire rockets into Israel the people of Israel can fire back in self-defense.
Veggiedog says
Because my Lansmen will not use those weapons, something in the mentality of most Jews. That us why we may not survive the ME or the rest of the world.
Defcon 4 says
Personally, I think there was more to the Israeli victories in ’48’, ’67’ and ’73’ than mere tanks, guns, planes and bombs.
gravenimage says
Starving “Palestinians” Update: Hamas tests anti-aircraft missiles against Israel
…………………………….
I can think of no people as absurdly mischaracterized by the MSM and popular imagination as the “underdog” “Palestinians”—really, homicidal Jew-hating Mohammedans intent on the utter destruction of Israel and the genocide of her people.
veggiedog says
And what is it about the world that refuses to see this, political correctness or Jew hatred? It is beyond anti-Israel.