Some Advised Israeli Future Military Adjustments from the Recesses of Our Minds

 

Yesterday we covered a less than perfect world, perfect Israeli response to establish defensible borders when given the opportunity complete with resources they could coordinate with to insure the solutions would approach perfect. Those were more fantasy though eventually Israel will be forced by security necessity to either retake or simply make the Jordan River their eastern boundary and whatever Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria will be presented with four choices. The first is to have their properties, businesses and other permanent structures and inventory they are not taking with them plus a sizeable stipend and free transit using first class transportation to any location they choose and willing to receive them. Second choice is apply and go through a series of steps in order to become Israeli citizens with full benefits and rights. Third choice is to remain with their lands, business and other holdings taking up the equivalence of foreign resident which will avail them full protections and ability to live and carry out their business but not permitted the right to vote. The advantage of such is they could apply to move to any Arab nation without having to explain their Israeli citizenship which otherwise might make such a move or visitations far more difficult. They would also be permitted to apply to other nations for citizenship despite their lack of actual residence. The fourth choice would be to demand they are Palestinians and refuse Israeli sovereignty and intend to continue the fight to liberate Palestine from the River to the Sea. These gently folk and the hierarchy and known terrorist and their families will be invited to depart Israel and never return and arrangements will necessarily be made for a nation to voluntarily receive them or perhaps they can join the Syrian refugees in Europe.

 

All these things aside, what could Israel look into which would greatly enhance their defensive abilities beyond those items which are known to be being researched and tested? It is already well documented and known that the Iron Dome has proven to be beyond belief or expectations. That is an unbelievably successful system against shorter range rockets. The Arrow intercept systems are already in use but thankfully not recently tested, and we hope it remains that way. David’s Sling is another ballistic missile interceptor being tested and implemented while improvements and software upgrades are always being tested and applied. The one area which has had some questions raised recently has been the reliance of the fifth generation F-35 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) on programming upgraded and adjustment required before and after every mission, each flight whether training or actual military mission as reported by Caroline Glick. This places the viability and even use of every single F-35 JSF for missions in jeopardy as it could be prevented from performing a mission if the United States disapproved having their top flight fighter/bomber/interceptor/air superiority jets be susceptible to the whims of the United States. What if the United States should, which seems inevitable, have another President who disapproves of Israel or even, as apparently President Obama has felt, one who actively disapproves of Israel viewing them as the problem in the Middle East and the source of all the United States problems in the area if not the world and decides to ground the entire fleet of Israeli F-35 JSF aircraft. Israel is apparently stuck with the J-35 JSF for the near future and as suggested by some should also look into designing and building their own stealth aircraft fifth generation fighter with India which both could also sell as a competitor to the other such aircraft. As suggested, the airframe from the Lavi fighter could be utilized as the skeleton for such an aircraft as it is a known viable airframe and would simply need the correct skin applied to make it fully stealthy and with Israeli avionics it would be a match to any other fifth generation fighter. But Israel needs to go beyond just fifth generation into uncharted grounds, go into uncharted grounds taking air systems into a new area and manner of usage.

 

Lavi Fighter Jet

 

 

 

Israel has been amongst the leaders in drone development with drones across the spectrum of sizes, uses, ranges and about every other variance. These need to be developed further where drones can replace manned flight systems with remotely controlled systems with some degree of autonomy such that they can fly while each aircraft monitoring the aircraft in its area of operation with it communicating with the other drones such that in a military flight the drones would not waste their supply of missiles and armaments. These drones could be flown from the ground stations in areas around the borders of Israel in purely defensive mode intercepting incoming rockets, missiles or aircraft of any nature from human flown fighter/bombers to other drones either under automated control or human piloting. Offensive flights which would cover great distances and required human intervention and flying could be controlled from other aircraft lagging a set average distance behind. This control craft could hold multiple drone control stations thus controlling an entire flight of drones for a mission. For larger missions there would be multiple control craft controlling their drones with the systems using frequencies and coding such that no two drones would receive conflicting commands. These would be drones which were replacing manned fighter/bombers. There could be another form of drones which would be basically flying munitions similar to the cruise missile only smaller and with different delivery systems with a variety of capabilities to fit every type of mission. The strangest we can imagine would be a propeller driven craft which has a large wingspan allowing high altitude flight and a long and slender profile body with slender tail fins which would guide this on its final trajectory. Once this drone reached its intended target airspace would check with certain geographic markers and orient itself properly and drop from its wide wings becoming a projectile guided steel rod about twenty feet long weighing about seventy pounds dropping from an altitude of over sixty-thousand feet aimed at an armored bunker using pure kinetic energy to destroy and penetrate virtually any bunker. Just our idea, a fantasy you might say, not that I know of such a drone or other weapon, just dreaming.

 

Israel needs to go beyond what other nations go with innovation and development taking things at least one generation ahead of any of the arms of its potential adversaries. Israel has to find ways to make its skies safe from any attack, missile, mass rockets, manned aircraft or any drone attacks from single small high altitude to mass attack of large rocket armed drones. Israel should even look into man aimed rocket interceptors which can be used to intercept any threat along with self-guided interceptors as each has their use. While the self-guided missiles are fantastic, they are not as effective against low flying cruise missiles which are capable of terrain hugging trajectories and are far more difficult to hit with autonomous controlled interceptors which would be where human controlled missiles would work with higher efficiency. Israel should develop drone armor units, drone mobile artillery and drone soldier units with human control and integrated cooperation permitting every user/controller able to see at their station a composite view of the entire field of battle coordinated from ground and aircraft drones and a composite produced by a systems central processing and graphic interface which will produce a high definition representation of the entire battlefield with denoting system indicators identifying where all Israeli and friendly units are located and also where known enemy units are and where other enemy units are suspected of being located. Israel has to have the most advanced and infallible military systems and more highly developed intelligence such that no attack has a better than five percent chance of striking or invading Israeli ground, airspace or seas and waterways.

 

What is the most fascinating of truths is despite Israel having a military which could have decisively ended the Syrian civil war as soon as it started in response at any time for shelling border positions, but they refrained. When Hamas and Islamic Jihad were launching five, ten, twenty and even fifty rockets a day with some reaching close to Tel Aviv, the Israeli response was to place their limited Iron Dome intercepting over ninety percent of those falling within an Iron Dome range of coverage. When the numbers crossed one-hundred-plus rockets each day, Israel finally organized and set a line, a line much stronger than an Obama Red Line, while organizing troops which one would believe might get the attention of the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and perhaps bring an end to the rockets. The thing is that these leaders and their top supporting leadership and friends with their families and with their own families if they are even present as many were residing in safety in Qatar are all well protected in their underground bunkers or their safest command bunker in the basement of the largest hospital in Gaza City. They simply increased the number of rockets guaranteeing Israeli intervention and as soon as the first tank shell was fired into Gaza the world and its media, especially in Europe, went absolutely bonkers starting the chanting of the call for the day, “Israel is guilty of using disproportional force and had killed more in Gaza than have died in Israel.” They all but asked where were the dead Jews in every interview with Israeli officials.

 

What nation with the military capabilities of Israel would wait until over one-hundred rockets a day were being launched into their cities and surrounding areas before responding? How long would England sit still and not launch an all-out assault if Sweden was launching a dozen missiles a day every day for a month, would it take England more than two or three days before launching an air attack to end the rockets being fired at them? Any nation would, but when Israel does so after waiting beyond all imagination to respond largely because of their defensive ability to mute the effects; still the United Nations immediately, as Israel makes their first responding fire, goes into emergency sessions and denounces Israel while having ignored the rocket assaults on Israel for well over six months while it slowly escalated. The world is in a tizzy about Israel actually having the gall to protect her citizens from Arab assaults with knives, vehicles, firebombs and large rocks hurled at passing cars. The world is upset that Israel had the audacity to actually shoot at people who are stabbing everybody within reach and sometimes after ramming the sidewalk and bus stop jumping from the vehicle, one such incident using their company car from the Israeli telecom company for whom the Arab was employed, and attacking one of the people you struck with your car with a hatchet and continuing along the sidewalk attempting to chop people in the chest or neck and even after being shot continuing with the attack and after another shot still lunging at people until being shot repeatedly and still trying to lunge at people until they passed out. What was even more miraculous was immediately after the person shot stopped being a threat the person who fired the first three shots of five or six total shots striking the attacker went to apply first aid as he was also a medic. Then a Magen David Adom rushed the attacker to a hospital where they attempted to revive the attacker who died due to his wounds.

 

The question is whose responsibility is it that this man died? Was it the person who fired the critical shot? Those first three shots had not prevented him from continuing his assaults and had he stopped and surrender at that point he would likely be alive today. Somewhere during the last three shots he passed the point where he was going to survive. As it turns out, the vast majority of the recent stabbing assailants have told others including their parents of their intention of trying to murder as many Israelis in predominantly Jewish areas so as to murder Jews and that they will not stop until they are dead and they were then encouraged and told what a wonderful thing they were planning to do and family members celebrated as they know in their society they will receive honors and a stipend, a reward payment from the government due to their relative’s actions. That is the reality of the stabbing and vehicular assaults which are still being perpetrated daily in Israel though the media has ended their coverage as it is now treated by the media as normal.

 

Rockets, stabbings, vehicles, hatchets, firebombs, rocks and a governance which encourages its own citizen to attack their neighboring nation promising to pay a reward stipend for as long as they are able. The governance uses their social media, entertainment, television, radio, schools, religious services, and even name streets, parks, schools, soccer fields, auditoriums, parades, youth facilities, swimming pools, summer camps and virtually everything they can with the names of the greatest terrorists who murdered the most innocent people. If the United States were facing fifteen, twenty, thirty or more attacks and ten or more fatalities weekly from a Native American Reserve that reserve would be subsumed by the United States Marines within a week if that was what it would take. The world would not even raise a whisper against that act. Israel reacts similarly and the leaders of the United Nations and European Union go apoplectic gasping for breaths, enraged, spiting fire and denunciations, and calling for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s and Defense Minister Ya’alon’s heads on a pike. Then they would decide the penalty Israel would need to pay to soothe the anger from those self-same leaders who instigated the attack as they felt slighted as they did not get to lop off the heads themselves. Yet they are the leaders whose hands must never be soiled nor have the truth affect as those are the rules of the United Nations and all of its loyal followers, NGOs, Agencies and Human Rights Groups. Anyone else desiring to pile on Israel as no amount of detestations, cruel accusations, and just pure make-believe, lies and grand rakes of woe which originate from projection and anti-Zionism, anti-Israeli, or anti-Semitism one may prove to suffer from.

 

These attacks Israel appears to be woefully unprepared to respond to or perhaps they respond but nobody listens and it seldom if ever gets reported. Israeli restraint is the least recognized, most overlooked, unappreciated, disregarded, completely discounted and demeaned as a mirage as Israel eventually acts and that is the only item that matters. The media understands that nobody expects the Arabs, especially Hezballah, Hamas, Fatah, al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Islamic Jihad, al-Qassam Brigades or any Arab force attacking Israelis even if they are Arabs with Israeli citizenship, to behave in a modern developed world sense of way as they are from a society deserving of liberal pity while the Jews are reviled for their surviving and regaining their ancestral homelands so the world will carve piece by piece every square inch of her land granting any other claim which depletes Israel of her lands. The surrender of Gaza was the initial get the foot in the door scenario, Forcing Israel back within the Green Line or as close as possible a line as half of Jerusalem with the Temple Mount and the rest of the old city and all the other almost beyond numbers of Holy Sites which will be coopted as Mosques, destroyed or directed by UNESCO to be a Muslim Holy Site thus removing any Jewish claim will be next. If that works, then the next will be the Bedouin claim to the Negev Region and on and on. The whole future and what it will be is plain to see unless you are one of the too numerous blinkered Ministers of the Knesset who mostly refuse to see or are on the other side. As was said way back in 1546 by John Heywood, which still holds true today;

 

None are so blind as those who are too blind to see.

Beyond the Cusp

 

Please Name With Whom Israel is to Negotiate?

 

Israel is consistently demanded upon to negotiate an end to the occupation and allow for an Arab Palestinian nation to be defined with the borders to be established along the 1949 Armistice lines with mutually agreed upon exchanges of lands. The question is with whom should Israel negotiate? Mahmoud Abbas refuses to sit with any Israeli delegations approved by the governing coalition though he gladly meets with members of the opposition who hold little power or with anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Jewish NGOs mostly from the United States, Europe and some from within Israel who are mostly if not completely subsidized by European NGOs or even the European Union or individual European national governments. These sit downs often are held in Ramallah and with a large map of what Mahmoud Abbas demands are the actual borders of Palestine which depicts all of Israel including the beaches of Tel Aviv and Nahariya with not even the slimmest segment of Israel left standing. One might inquire as to how Mahmoud Abbas plans on determining the government for anything which results in becoming the Arab state. Will he finally hold elections which would appear to be a normal result of the forming of a new nation? But Abbas has refused to hold elections totally skipping the scheduled 2009 election cycle out of fears that he would be voted from office. He is now in the tenth year of a four year term, which many would probably claim is very telling as to his actual legitimate power. Abbas has declared himself, for all intents and purposes, President for life, and that might not be too much longer should he actually agree to borders and the founding of the state he claims to desire above life itself, which very well might be the price he could pay. Israel would not have anything to do with his sudden demise as there are those from within Hamas, Islamic Jihad, ISIS and even his own Fatah Party, PLO and Palestinian Authority who would permanently remove him from office. It is interesting that Mahmoud Abbas holds those final three leading posts plus now signs documents as President of Palestine. The world has never known a man with so many titles who wields so little power and controls perhaps the few blocks of his fortified office complex. The one truism which should be made known, especially to the Europeans and United States President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, is that Mahmoud Abbas is a man whose power ranges from the tip of his right hand to the tip of his left hand whenever he stands with his arms extended, and that is the largest area he can claim to control. Abbas is in no position to sign anything which would have any meaning ten minutes after it was signed, if it stood that long.

 

What makes matters even worse is that the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the other two main power brokers for the time being, have all abdicated their positions to Mahmoud Abbas officially despite retaining every ounce of control they held before the unification of the Arab Palestinian leadership. They claim they are still waiting for the promised elections, the elections which Abbas will never hold unless he has guarantees that he will retain his position whether deserved or not. Do not be too terribly surprised if President Obama with the backing of the European Union and European governments give Abbas a promise that he will be the only person permitted to run for President of any country if he would only reach an agreement and that write in votes will not be considered valid and still he would fear losing. Abbas, with good reason, has become a quivering mass of righteous paranoia which is fully justified after the executions carried out by Hamas at the end of Operation Protective Edge were largely actions utilized on without actual charges or trial simply going from arrest to execution with great efficiency ridding Gaza of numerous opponents and especially members of Fatah or other entities which might have loyalty to Abbas. Mahmoud Abbas got another dose of reality when a diplomatic team was dispatched to Gaza with the intended assignment to gather the name of the Hamas employees who had yet to be included on the paymaster’s roles and thus had not been receiving their paychecks and were less than thrilled over this situation but the team felt so under threat that they cut short their five day assignment after less than twenty-four hours and they never took a step out of their highly guarded hotel suite except to beat a hasty retreat to Ramallah without getting a single name of those Hamas employees. This might seem senseless that Hamas and Islamic Jihad would prevent the Arab Palestinian Authority to garner the names of their own people so they could be included on the payrolls and receive their wages but the reality is Hamas and Islamic Jihad are pushing for the Arab Palestinian Authority to collapse so they can pick up the pieces and be able to force the Europeans to deal through them and thus remove them from any terrorist roles and grant them political power and acceptance as the new chiefs for Israel to reach compromises and eventually reach a peace agreement. This would not be a huge step for most of Europe’s governments and political bodies and NGOs have, unofficially if not outright, removed Hamas from their terror roles and some even Islamic Jihad while the United Nations is set to recognize and legitimize the Palestinian Rights Center (PRC) which is a front group through which Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood operate and granting them full NGO status and all the legitimization which goes along with such. An extensive report on the PRC the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released concludes that the group is closely affiliated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as well that several of its members are terrorists who have fled to Great Britain. Such recognition would confer “full access to UN facilities and participation in debates in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and, perhaps most significantly, global legitimacy,” as well as all other benefits which are granted with being awarded “official UN badges.”

 

Before one starts to believe that things could not become even more bleak, there are a number of other developments which are peeking just over the horizon. Perhaps the more sinister and having the most dire long range ramifications is the threat to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Imagine a threat to Hamas and Islamic Jihad making the identical claim of being weak willed and not faithful or sufficiently devout in their manner and representation of Allah and having diverted from the true path. This challenge has been made by the only groups who might be believable when accusing Hamas and Islamic Jihad of temerity in purpose and inadequate devotion to the cause of Sharia and furthering Islam, ISIS. We have all likely seen reports which claim that ISIS has made inroads in the Sinai Peninsula and were taking control of much of the area closest to the Israeli border and ignored the fact that such positioning also brought ISIS close to the Egyptian border with Gaza and the heart of Hamas and Islamic Jihad power bases. This places ISIS in the perfect position to infiltrate Gaza in small numbers which would fairly soon become sufficient numbers to cause Hamas and Islamic Jihad great amounts of difficulty if not topple them both absorbing those who showed sufficient zeal for the ISIS cause while dispatching the leadership and others found wanting in spirit or purity mostly be depositing their bodies and heads separately. This might place Israel directly in the ISIS crosshairs or perhaps this would simply be the first stage to taking over the entirety of the Arab Palestinian cause and also making inroads to supplant the Arab Palestinian Authority including Mahmoud Abbas and also finding all of Fatah and PLO members to be wanting in their devotion and dedication to Sharia and Allah as these groups are nationalist secular or mildly Islamic and nowhere near the levels of self-proclaimed devotion and purity of spirit shown by ISIS, by their own proclamations, of course.

 

Such a turn of events would place Israel in a heavily compromised position, or that is what one would believe. What needs to remain in our consideration of the likelihood that ISIS would take control in Ramallah and replace Fatah, the PLO and the Arab Palestinian Authority are forgetting that the IDF and Shin-Bet operate an advanced and capable intelligence gathering network which was evident when preventing a Hamas coup through a general uprising such that in the confusion they could readily replace Mahmoud Abbas by whatever means were required and replacing the entirety of Fatah and the PLO from the upper echelons of the Arab Palestinian Authority. One could rightfully assume that any inroads made by ISIS would also cross the paths of the Israeli intelligence gathering infrastructure and their moves would be carefully monitored until the most critical moment and just before they struck their targets they would find themselves being welcomed to the Israel direct information gathering committee which operates from places unmentioned where discreet methods are employed to extract and glean any pertinent and necessary information which might have ramifications for Israel. ISIS taking the place of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza would not be in the better interests of Israel but there would appear to be little which could be done unless the Egyptians cared to assist in preventing such an event. The problem with this is that Egypt has just as much distaste for Hamas as it does ISIS and thus they may not care which evil takes its place in Gaza. All would come down to what the value of the people in Gaza had as far as Egypt is concerned. Where one might not see the connection immediately, allow us to give a hint on the one overriding reason which may give Egypt reason to act; there are numerous families who have Egyptian backgrounds and originated in Egypt and have large and numerous extended families who remain in Egypt and we all know how important clan ties can be, especially when members of one’s tribal group or even more severe, one’s relative from their clan faces an existential threat such as ISIS, the pressure placed on the government because of such ties could be overwhelming and Egyptian President Sisi may see the situation as an unavoidable necessity to intervene. The next question is whether President Sisi might request, through back channels and discreetly of course, for any assistance and intelligence Israel might desire to provide, especially to further the two nations’ unofficial relations and to have a card to play in the future. The truth is that it would be a dangerous development to have ISIS take a foothold anywhere in the region and their presence in the Sinai Peninsula must be unnerving for President Sisi and a concern for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Sometimes necessity makes for the strangest bedfellows and this is even more the case in the Middle East. Who would believe that Turkey and Saudi Arabia would be working together in Syria while at the same time as Saudi Arabia is working with Egypt in Yemen and Egypt with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States would be working with a silent partner in Israel against Iran who is working with Iraq, southern Iraq, Syria, less and less of Syria daily, and Hezballah in Lebanon as well as securing a naval port for the Russians with an assist likely to be provided by Hezballah. Iran will also need to protect as much of the Alawite areas as necessary which will require transferring some of the IRGC assisting against ISIS in Iraq and station them to fight ISIS in the areas Iran deems of military value, such as the roads from Damascus into the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon where Hezballah keeps many of its rockets stored.

 

Hezballah brings us to the final subject. This coming week, and even if this is a secret presently it will be fully evidenced as the week unfolds, Israel is running a full participation, country-wide defense in case of war scenario. This will include Israelis entering their shelters as if under rocket attack and every other contingency. The common prospect behind this according to some postulations is to ready the public for a potential conflict with Hamas and Islamic Jihad this summer. Close but no cigar. The real threat will be Hezballah who will need to make large points with the Lebanese after placing them in peril of attack by ISIS. The reasoning goes beyond just satiating the Lebanese hunger for another war with Israel as the last one proved to be so much fun, but Hezballah also will need to make headlines across the Western World which will supercede any news off of the front pages as Iran takes whatever steps are required in Syria to get Assad out and to solidify those areas which Iran considers vital for their desire which include an operative airport in Damascus through which to supply Hezballah, a safe port for the Russians to utilize in the Mediterranean Sea which is Latakia, Syria. And finally they also would desire to retain some of the natural resources such as mining operations and also have a staging area with direct access to the Golan Heights for wither Hezballah to utilize for an assault on Israel or for the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or Pasdaran Persian: سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی) to have a launch facility to strike Israel or even to assault the Golan Heights. This all means that Iran will require another Hezballah war with Israel to divert attentions from their actions, which will be ruthless and potentially cataclysmic as well as to divert attention from the Iranian dash to produce a number of nuclear warheads and the final preparations for their launch at select targets. Thus Iran will require approximately six to ten weeks of conflict. With the known supplies of rockets and a fair number of larger missiles provided by Iran, Hezballah would be capable of launching over a thousand rockets daily for the entire six weeks and approximately eight-hundred rockets launched daily for ten weeks. Should any higher quantity be required they would need to utilize any Syrian rockets remaining under Iranian control or for Iran to provide a fair number of additional rockets which is why Iran requires the Damascus airport as they are unable to resupply Hezballah through Beirut probably because the Bekaa Valley lies along the Syrian border and the Alawite areas, how convenient. This leaves one with a serious question, what will be the Israeli reaction to a war with Hezballah. As Hamas has also threatened a confrontation this summer with Israel, it is entirely plausible that Israel will desire to keep any confrontation from escalating and to decisively end the conflict leaving little doubt as to who won. Thus any confrontation between Israel and Hezballah will result in Israel striking hard and fast swallowing up the lands south of the Litany River and then sweeping up the eastern banks of the Litani River through the heart of the Bekaa Valley taking out the training grounds, provisions, reserves and bases Hezballah has throughout that region. Any violence from Hamas should also be responded to with great prejudice and force of arms with nothing held back. With the growing challenges and rising threats throughout the areas of the Middle East, Northern Africa and the Horn of Africa, it is starting to appear that the whole area has lost their minds, possibly the whole world even. Then there is the continuing threat with Russia menacingly eying the old regions of her power before the fall of the Soviet Union and China literally building new islands and placing oil rigs and military airbases and other facilities in the South China Sea in order to widen her area of control and claim islands which are also claimed by her neighbors but China is the eight-hundred pound gorilla who can basically do whatever she desires unless the United States takes a stand against her, and that is seeming less and less a possibility as the islands grow. Furthermore, most of Europe is also looking at civil unrest in the near future as the growing immigrant population feels stronger and denied an equal opportunity to get a job and live an equal life. Add that they also desire to start a religious war forcing their religion on those they views as a people who have forsaken religion. Then there is violence threatening to break out full force both on the United States college campuses during the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic and anti-America demonstrations and potentially within many cities possibly escalating and spilling throughout the city, especially if the police are restrained and ill–equipped as was the case in Baltimore and has had continuing ramifications, especially in western Baltimore where the police have basically been chased from the streets. Similar situations are possible throughout the country, especially in the twelve largest cities. One would be hard pressed to find an area on the globe where there are no threats.

 

Even Kathmandu is still recovering from the series of earthquakes which struck there not that long ago. Will Shangri-La be next? Just because it is mythical might not except even Shangri-La from the ravages of societies gone mad. Maybe only the quiet places in our minds where we can concentrate on the peace and love in our hearts can the world be healed as we heal one soul at a time. But with the Churches, Synagogues, Temples and other religious houses all nearly empty even on the holiest of days, what hope will the world have against true and fanatical believers, especially those who cannot be tempted with baubles and glitter that shines at us in every store window beckoning us to worship consumerism. The hectic pace of modern life with so little time that one simply must collapse for those brief moments between the scheduled meeting, workout, night-school, and the children’s activities. Who has time for anything more? But unless we take the time to refresh our consciences and recharge our moral compasses society will continue spinning further and further out of control. What is it we seek with our frenetic paced lives; do we even know any more? Listen to the quiet little voice in the back recesses of your mind, it is still there, trust me. It will tell you secrets that you once knew but soon got squeezed from your life. I know the crippling schedule for those working two jobs, both full-time. The requirement that you take some time to recharge yourself does not disappear just because, it remains and eventually it will come screaming to the fore and demand you stop and take a deep breath. Sigh in from the mouth and let it out so slowly from the nostrils that you barely tickle the air. Again only deeper and with a more measured exhale. This is the easiest way to slow your pace and make you see reason. After you have done this at the end of each day or at lunch or whenever you can schedule your take a breath for sanity, then that voice can finally be heard and its message is simple, you know not every answer. Sure the news and science and everything you read tells how there is so little left that science does not know that is the lie told to make you forget. The little voice remembers and knows the bliss one can feel when we know that there is reason and value in life. Whatever manner of faith you are comfortable in, that is possibly just the recharging you need. It is just once or twice a week unless you desire more once you return and feel the encompassing warmth, love, acceptance, understanding and all those emotions and assurances which were missing in your life, there is a place where they can be found. We all want the world to be a better place but we seem lost in figuring out how. All each of us can do is our own part. Own, a strange word as it is in this case where it has so much meaning. There is our own part; the part assigned us even if that assignment comes from within us. There is the part in the world we own, we are responsible for and we get to structure it just how we desire others to know our part. Part from the business of life and take a moment with which we part from the fast paced caffeinated life and take a lemonade break on a hot day and you can part from the world and just enjoy the moment. We can take part in displaying that we have found the answer and then you can play the part which you know is what is really important. But the most important part is when you realize that the only real thing you can do to repair society and the world is make your little area, your part clean, warm and with its own sparkle and once you have done your part, then you can invite others to slow down and remember that they too can have a part in the world which they can be proud of and eventually the individual parts reach a point where they can change one small part of the world and from there who knows what they can part, maybe the Red Sea and again we can cross and be received. Just remember that the more we learn about the world the more we often realize how little we know, it is as if each answer spawns ten questions, and that’s what keeps scientists employed.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Threat Facing Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Others in Gaza

 

This summer may prove to end differently than previous summers; it may end without the usual rocket attacks ramping to a crescendo eventually forcing Israel to mount an offensive to put an end to the rockets raining down on Israeli civilian areas. This came to mind that the summer rocket season may have started as a rocket was fired into Israel instigating an Israeli response. Those of us who follow the news in Israel are well attuned to the Hamas and friends usual offensive play out. It starts with a single rocket followed by an arrest to show the European and other Western media that Hamas is a real governing body that does what they can to interdict terrorist activities, especially rockets launched into Israel. There will be a few weeks where one or two rockets are fired on Israel with a smattering of arrests of supposed rocket launchers. The one item missing from actual governance is there are never any arrests of those running the production of the rockets. Also, before launching at Israel, Hamas holds some tests firings into the Mediterranean Sea of their newest rocket designs to test their accuracy and range. If this ends up being a normal summer, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the rest will start to fire a rocket a day after the first few weeks of slowly ramped up rocket firing into Israel. Within the next three weeks there will be increases in rocket launches into Israel initially forcing Israel to deploy Iron Dome interception batteries around the civilian areas to protect the population. The launches soon reach tens of rockets per day to eventually hundreds of rockets, many fired in barrages, eventually forcing an Israeli military response into Gaza. Then will begin the Great Hypocrisy.

 

The comparison is easy to make if the media were not attempting to sensationalize the story and make it all about how Israel is causing disproportional civilian casualties. There will be daily releases of each day’s body count as well as a running body count intended to depict Israel as inflicting such harm while there really was no need as virtually no Israeli had been harmed by anything Hamas, Islamic Jihad et al had done. So what if a few rockets are launched at the Israelis as most do not strike built up areas and those that might are intercepted with amazing success by the Iron Dome systems. That lead story sets up the body count comparisons. So, exactly what causes such a high body count within Gaza and such a comparatively low casualty count in Israel? Israel has an extensive warning Code Red System in place where as soon as rockets are fired, using advanced tracking radars the Israelis plot its most probable strike profile and then sound Code Red alarms off in any area which potentially could be struck and the Israelis head into shelters and safe rooms until the threat subsides. This alone would make for a minimized number of casualties within Israel. Secondly, Israel deploys the Iron Dome Intercept Systems around the civilian areas where it will serve the most effective. These systems track the rockets very carefully and can with great accuracy compute their trajectory and determine whether or not each rocket will strike within urban or other populated areas. These systems will compute which battery needs to intercept rockets determined to strike populated areas and then the Iron Domes fire an intercept rocket and intercept the rockets with an unbelievable over ninety percent success rate thus adding another layer of protection.

 

On the Hamas ruled Gaza areas the story is quite different. The first thing to remember is that Israel pulled every Israeli civilian, police and military personnel out of Gaza during the disengagement intended to permit the Arab Palestinian Authority, their presumed governance, to take control of the area and prove their ability to run an efficient governance. This experiment gave almost immediate results which were less than promising as the well-armed and United States trained Arab Palestinian Authority armed forces were unable to prevent the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror entities from launching a coup which sent the Arab Palestinian Authority troops running for their lives into Israel and eventually back to their protected areas in Judea and Samaria. The showing of force put up by the Arab Palestinian Authority troops who were trained in Jordan by United States Special Forces and armed with modern weapons by the United States proved to be of little value when it came to protecting Gaza and its Arab Palestinian Authority governance. They were almost as pitiful as the Iraqi troops have proved in fighting ISIS, and this may prove problematic in the near future. This means that Gaza is a self-ruled entity which is governed by a coalition of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist representatives who are intentionally kept separate from the actual terror acts they willingly permit to be launched and financed by the Gaza leadership, which is only loosely allied with the actual government. So, we need to remember two items. First is that Gaza has been a separate area outside of any Israeli influence since the disengagement in August of 2005. Second is that Gaza has its protection and governance provided by terrorist government provided mostly by Hamas and Islamic Jihad which also runs their police and military units as well.

 

With Hamas and Islamic Jihad responsible for protecting the civilian population of Gaza, one might inquire exactly what kind of protection is provided by their governing bodies and their military forces which term is loosely applied to the terrorist forces which wear face concealing ski masks and often parade through Gaza City shooting AK 47s and other weapons into the air as a show of force and meant to impress upon the civilians exactly who is in charge in Gaza, as if they need constant reminders and cowing. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and company (HIJ) have an extremely unique system in place to protect the Arab and other civilians within their jurisdiction; they initially rely on Israel taking extreme care in choosing their targets when they strike such that the possibilities for human losses are minimized. The recent strike was a perfect example as Israel struck a rocket making facility and storage area, otherwise known as a Hamas government building of importance, at an hour which was most likely to prove it to be unmanned and thus having the least possibility for civilian casualties. This is the first line of protection provided by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and company, a complete reliance that Israel will minimize the possibility of civilian casualties. It must be noted that should this actually highly effective manner in which Israel provides for the safety of the Arab population in Gaza, then it can be counted on that there will be press conferences and memos sent to every media agency listing the name, number of unfortunates who now have no means of support and everything required for a fully fleshed out story about the horrors under these incessant Israeli strikes which appear to have no rhyme or reason and just come out of the blue. This rendition of the events will be copied studiously by the reporters as they would not want to have to explain to HIJ how and why their story did not include the entirety of the story line and Heaven forbid should the fact that the responses by Israel are to the provocations of the rockets raining down on their civilian populations. It can never be reported that HIJ have been launching rockets into Israel targeting civilian targets in hopes of maximizing casualties. If it proves necessary to report that HIJ have been firing rockets into Israel, such mention must come after the coverage of the Israeli strike and be framed as much as possible as a retaliatory strike for the Israeli initialized cycle of violence. HIJ know exactly what story must be made the central pillar of the coverage and this is largely predicated on the idea that Israel started the violence, while Arabs are being murdered by Israeli strikes there have been almost no Israeli casualties and most hypocritical is that Israel has not positioned any of the Iron Dome batteries in Gaza to protect the civilians in Gaza, especially in Gaza City and the refugee camp located on the outskirts of Gaza City. There is also never any question of why there are Arab refugees held in Gaza as refugees but not permitted citizenship or freedom, very peculiar, are not these so-called refugees part of the Arab Palestinian population which needs to be repatriated with the rest of the Arab Palestinian population such as that of Gaza? Sometimes one just has to go, ‘Huh??!??’

 

Once the rocket fire by HIJ out of Gaza and striking in Israel with many targeted at civilian population centers and Israel is launching return fire with the intent of destroying the launch site, then HIJ immediately apply their second level of protection for their Arab population. This is a very interesting system used by HIJ as it makes one wonder how it is supposed to minimize the number of Arab residents injured or killed, especially children, during periods of exchanges of fire with the Israelis using highly accurate artillery in counter-fire modality. Counter-fire modality is a highly technological achievement which can be found in the arsenals of most advanced nations. The manner in which this functions is almost automatic and with minimal human input other than to interdict to prevent a return fire for some reason. The event train of counter-fire technology is very simple to explain and much harder to accomplish. Upon the firing of a rocket, artillery round or mortar fired the radars intercept its trajectory and which type of projectile is being tracked. These radar systems are so pin-point accurate in their calculations and so fast that human response of similar complexity would take hours, but that is why we have computers and advanced systems. The computers use the trajectory and type of projectile to compute both its likely area it will strike and even more accurately the exact location from which it was fired. This second set of coordinates are then automatically fed to the fire and control module of an artillery piece which then targets the location and fires a return round meant to destroy the firing location and equipment preventing its further use. All of this computing, targeting and firing of the return counter-fire takes less than fifteen seconds until the computed and counter-fired round strike its target. The HIJ system employed to prevent casualties is allowing and even encouraging children, often under age ten, to stand around the firing battery so they can see how it works. This evil use of children just to provide media coverage pictures of a slaughter, the more gruesome the better and children killed is putting the cherry on top as such guarantees front page top of the fold coverage of the inhuman carnage caused by Israel. The eventual story and caption to the article will completely ignore the five ton artillery piece having been rendered a twisted wreck at the center of the carnage as the pictures will be ever so carefully framed so as to not include the weapons which was central to the attack.

 

The hypocritical and inhuman use of women and children goes much further. When HIJ knows of a coming Israeli air strike, something requiring the most minimal of intelligence work as the Israelis will first send a drone or strike aircraft to pass over the location and environment around it dropping leaflets warning of the coming air strike advising the people to be elsewhere for the immediate future. Upon such warnings the HIJ controlled radio station will make a call for women and children to protect the building or whatever target by ringing the roof or target location with their bodies such that upon reaching the location to make the strike the IDF pilot will see the civilians and abort the strike mission. Once again HIJ is depending on the humanity of the Israeli soldiers and airmen and directly risking their civilians’ lives. Another defense of the people provided by the HIJ leadership is their placements of their rocket launchers, mortar tubes and artillery pieces. It is a rule of warfare to place such tools of war distant from places where civilians are gathered, especially if such place is purported to be a safe zone by their government, but HIJ commanders and operatives intentionally place these weapon systems adjacent to civilian designated shelters counting on the human carnage which such acts potentially can cause when counter-fire systems are being utilized by the other side, a practice often employed by forces to destroy such enemy position and a known system used by Israel. The HIJ forces have been known to place rocket and mortar launching systems on the roof of buildings being utilized for displaced civilians to be cared for, schools and even hospitals. Israeli counter-fire systems are given the coordinates for schools and hospitals and these locations and close proximity require a human to interject and permit such strikes only if the location has multiple launchers or other extenuating circumstances which might make firing necessary. These officers make their decisions with the full knowledge that every such decision will be reviewed by a panel of ranking officers which will include non-infantry and line officers and may include lawyers from the JAG offices. Such consideration likely caution the officers making such decisions to opt for the most passive of responses and not risk a strike going bad.

 

The final hypocrisy is the HIJ commanders place the majority of their troops and leadership underground in their bunker and tunnel systems. If instead of being utilized to strike more effectively at the Israelis the HIJ commanders would allow for Gazans to also take refuge in these sheltered areas there would be far fewer civilian casualties. Unfortunately the HIJ commanders would rather have a larger than necessary body count so as to be able to point to the fact that the Gazans have died as a result of Israeli actions than have Israelis died from anything HIJ had succeeded in doing. The implication is that Israel does not care and ruthlessly murders innocent Arab Gazans as all one need do is view the disparity in the numbers of casualties. Never mind that the Israeli forces attained the highest percentage of combatant to civilian ratio than any other modern day army in recent history and far superior ratio than the drone strikes ordered by United States Presidents Bush or Obama where the ratios approached nine-to-one civilian to combatant kill ratios. That is nine civilians killed for every combatant killed in the United States drone strike program since 2010 while during Protective Edge Israeli actions in Gaza killed at a one-to-one ratio, a far better average than the United States drone strikes which President Obama had lauded as one of the best and most effective programs available to strike terror targets. Meanwhile, a review of the media coverage of the Protective Edge military intervention from last summer we find some telling trends. The main theme was ‘disproportionality’ which accused Israel of using disproportionate force. This was a farce in that the HIJ forces fired a greater number of rockets, artillery and mortar rounds intended for Israeli population centers than Israel fired or bombed in Gaza. Israeli strikes were clearly intended for military targets and safeguards were taken in an attempt to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. It was in order to minimize Civilian casualties which led to the Israeli ground troops going into Gaza rather than continuing to use aircraft and counter-fire ordinance. Had Israel honestly not cared about loss of life in Gaza she could have indiscriminately fired into Gaza City where most of the HIJ firing locations were placed and simply leveled all of Gaza city and the bordering refugee camp, Arab Palestinian refugee camp. Israel did not need to send her young men into urban areas to fight the most dangerous and difficult of all forms of warfare. This also is why the Arab casualty count was so high and needlessly so. Despite the lie that Gaza is so heavily populated that HIJ forces have no choice but to fire from urban areas as no open areas exist, this is disproven when one also remembers that the HIJ spokespeople often criticize Israel for not doing enough to allow for the Gazan farmers to get their produce to market. Farmers? That means farms, right? That means open fields if I remember what farming requires. We covered this in the article “Gaza, Hamas, Corrected Falsehoods, Frightening Realities”. There is a short video exposing the placement of rocket launching sites to endanger civilians, this time reporters staying in one of Gaza’s hotels, and has a small map showing the urban areas versus the open areas where according to the rules of war is where one is supposed to place their artillery, rockets and mortar tubes.

 

But there may be a wholly different war this summer and it has nothing at all to do with Israel initially. There have been threats against Hamas, which will mean all of HIJ, made by ISIS claiming that they have been too light and easy in their so-called war with Israel. That is ISIS’s complaint, not mine. ISIS has promised HIJ that they will soon be replaced by real Islamic warriors who fight for the glory of Allah, not wimps such as those forces so ineffective against Israel who are unable of even keeping up a continuous level of assault. So, ISIS is threatening to come in and firstly make sure that the Gazans and the members of HIJ meet the strict standards if ISIS in their observance of the proper and righteous form purported by ISIS. What will be interesting should this calamity strike the people of Gaza, I am less concerned about the holy and Islamic members of HIJ as their stringent observance of Islam has to be beyond question, at least which is what I have understood their statements to prove. Maybe ISIS has a different measure of Islamic purity than the various members of HIJ, though I am a bit concerned for the members of the nationalist and secular Fatah members. There is a definitive possibility that ISIS will arrive just in time to judge the efforts made by HIJ as they should be getting close to hitting their stride and launching over a hundred projectiles a day into Israel. Past experience has taught the world that this is where Israel draws the line, seventy-five or so missiles a day, potentially understandable, moving towards one-hundred, not as easily explained away and may require avoiding public appearances and microphones, over one-hundred a day, well now you’ve gone and gotten Israeli leaders undivided attention. This will be made obvious as speeches will ring forth from the podium of the Knesset. You will know you are in a dire situation when the Prime Minister takes to the floor and demands an end to the rockets raining from Gaza or else. After that warning a simple launching of that two-hundred-fiftieth rocket and loose the IDF and the dogs of war. Then again, ISIS might actually mean that their forces in the Sinai Peninsula are going to be tasked with replacing HIJ this summer. They might need Gaza to hide from the Egyptian forces which Egyptian President Sisi (the opposite of ISIS) is reaching the end of his rope, a wholly different meaning than that will have for former Egyptian President Morsi in the near future. ISIS forces may believe they can hide in Gaza as that would place them beyond the reach of the Egyptian army, or at least that may be their assumption. Either way it sounds like HIJ may have some real problems heading their way and then ISIS will find that should Egyptian President Sisi really wish to strike them, their being in Gaza will be of no help as Israel will have no complaints for Egypt sweeping ISIS from Gaza would probably be looked upon favorably by the Israeli government. They might even place the IDF strategically around Gaza just to assure that no ISIS fighters or members of HIJ cross into Israel seeking sanctuary. Perhaps a sign put in place stating ‘No Vacancies’ would be helpful. Looks like any way one slices it, Gaza is in for a rough and tumble summer.

 

Beyond the Cusp