Gaza Infrastructure Crashing but Missile Production Booming!

 

Gaza is having another of its all too frequent crisis with electricity at the lead amongst other crises. Not to fear, the free electricity provided by Israel is continuing to be provided free of charge, not exactly the best of principles at work there. Israel cannot be blamed this time and Arab nations are willing to sell Hamas the fuel which they could afford except that the Palestinian Authority (PA) demands they pay the extortionary tax on the fuel which the PA is refusing to forgo this time around. This is simply the PA attempting to extort more money from whoever ends up paying the fuel bill with their taxes added. Meanwhile the Gaza desalinization plant has had to shut down for lack of power, as have most manufacturers, as they cannot afford to run on generators and still realize a profit. The farms are being swamped with wastewater which is poisoning the crops which will lead to food shortages in the future. But the world will be glad to know that the luxury hotels and swank top end shops, restaurants and the mall are all operating as usual, as there are priorities, they just do not include the regular Arab residing in Gaza. There is one industry which Hamas claims is operating with such proficiency that they are ready to start an export business to the Arab nations surrounding Israel of missiles with which they too can launch attacks on Israel. They claim to be producing the highest quality missiles in quantities. But they are unable to rebuild the apartments destroyed over a year ago in their last war with Israel. Their tunnel and underground cement reinforced bunkers and tunnels are also coming along up to Hamas’s expectations while they appear to have run out of cement for rebuilding schools, clinics and residences.

 

It should not be too long before an emergency meeting of the European Union declares that Israel is not doing enough to assist the Gazans in their time of crisis and that Israel must once again allow tons of rebar and cement to be provided to Gaza for the rebuilding of schools, clinics and residences. This would be the third time that this demand would be being made. Apparently the European Union and it member states believe they did not provide near enough rebar and cement the first two times, even when combined, to rebuild these structures. Israel was guaranteed that the last time such provisions were provided that if progress were not seen that then the Europeans and the United Nations would give some degree of credence to the Israeli claims that these provisions were being diverted. Expect soon after the European Union begins screaming for the United Nations to jump ugly on Israel for not providing sufficient provisions, fuel, water, electricity and for not providing repairs to these functions in Gaza. Never mind that no Israeli would be permitted to enter Gaza to make such repairs and if Israel did go to make such repairs then Gaza would claim Israel had attacked them and demand an end to the Israeli incursions. It starts to get confusing when trying to figure out exactly what is expected by the European Union, United Nations and so many other governments and organizations when they claim Israel is to blame for the squandering of funds by the PA and Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

 

The Congressional Research Service report entitled, “U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians” states: “Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990’s, the U.S. government has committed more than $5 billion in bilateral economic and non-lethal security assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid.” The report continues to show the extent that it has been mismanagement and corruption which has led to a complete breakdown in governmental aid and normal function at the public level leaving the entirety of the Arab Palestinian governance in complete disarray mired in its own misappropriations and inability to form a functioning society at any level. The one thing that the PA has proven successful at is providing positions throughout the Security Forces for terrorists from the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. The corruption, nepotism and graft are at such levels that perhaps one dollar out of every five makes its way towards governmental operations for the public such as power, water and other services. In Gaza, the main area funded is the production of rockets, missiles, tunnels and underground bunkers with almost nothing making it in any way to assist the people. There is no government service and recent polling indicates that the vast majority of people in Gaza would leave for anywhere else given the opportunity to leave. This desire comes without any demands for financial aid or assistance, just simply open the border and they would be heading for elsewhere.

 

The article Gaza: Let their people go! by Dr. Martin Sherman opens stating, “If the borders opened for one hour, 100,000 young people would leave Gaza” – Rashid al-Najja, vice dean, Gaza’s Al-Azhar University; “…I’d go to Somalia, Sudan — anywhere but here” – Salim Marifi, student, Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, in Al Jazeera, May 6 2015. We would like to thank Dr. Martin Sherman for some of the other figures we use in this article. Obviously, something is rotten in Gaza and we would bet that similar feelings exist in the PA controlled areas. The PA controlled areas are somewhat better off solely because their infrastructure is almost completely kept in repair by Israel, as the systems are interconnected. Further, the PA areas are under semiautonomous rule while Gaza is completely separate from Israel. The so-called blockade is in reality simply a filter which attempts to limit imports into Gaza which are considered to be dual-use weapons grade equipment and supplies. Examples are such things as saltpeter, potassium, sheets of copper, rebar, cement, steel sheets, certain piping and other items of a similar nature. Even with such items readily defined by international agencies, Israel has often made exceptions under international pressure and every time, no matter who makes the guarantees, Hamas and Islamic Jihad divert the vast majority of the provisions into weapons, rockets, missiles, tunnels, bunkers and cement reinforced positions all in preparation for their next war with Israel. After detections of the diversion have become undeniable, the guarantor then professes innocence and claims they had been tricked and had honestly believed Hamas and friends when they claimed they would behave this time. Of course they knew full well that Hamas would not act in the promised manner and would use almost everything provided to arm up and make Gaza a far more treacherous place with ambushes and traps set all over the Gaza City and other built up areas and have interconnected tunnels plus bunkers with tunnels leading into Israel to try and kidnap Israelis and tunnels into the Sinai to infiltrate people in and out for terrorist acts against Egypt as well as providing other assistance to terrorists in the Sinai and to launch rockets from the Sinai into Israel opening yet another front.

 

These betrayals of Israel by the United Nations and European Union are no different than the demands time after time that Israel makes concessions to the PA in order to pretend to restart the peace process. Let us be honest, there never has and never will be a peace process, there is only the concessions process by which the PA is enabled to demand and receive additional lands and other concessions in exchange for promises which will never be kept. Mahmoud Abbas is heading for Washington to meet with President Trump where he will once again spin his yarn about how desperately the Arabs desire peace with Israel if only Israel would allow them to have the Green line and half of Jerusalem as the basis for their promised nation. All Israel need do is withdraw back to the pre Six Day War lines and surrender claims to the entirety of the Old City of Jerusalem and not to fear, the PA will permit universal access to the holy sites of other religions. This was the same promise made by Jordan and by the PA in Hevron and in all cases, it was a deceit. Visiting Josephs Tomb in Hevron requires IDF escort performed at two o’clock in the morning and the visit has to be completed before the sun rises. The trip need be made in an armored bus and often upon arrival; they find the tomb has once again been destroyed. Then arrangements are made with the IDF for Israelis to steal in at night to repair the tomb only to have the Arabs destroy it again. The truth is the Arab Palestinians do not recognize any other religion other than Islam thus there is no other religious site to worry about and if it is not Islamic, then it must be destroyed.

 

 

There is a simple truth which is understood by most in the world about the Arabs in general and the Palestinian groups in particular, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLO, Fatah, Palestinian Authority and various other smaller groups, that concerns their claims to wanting a state of their own. That is a lie and everyone knows this full well but they continue to play the game because they cannot think of another option. There is no imagination which can understand that the only thing the Arabs, especially the Palestinian groups, desire, and that is the end of Israel. What the world fears is what would happen should the Palestinians game stop being played, and thus they were forced to make it on their own within the remainder of the Arab world. The answer is actually easy to figure out. One needs look no further than Kuwait after they regained their homes from Saddam Hussein after Gulf War I. The PA leadership, Yasser Arafat, sided with Saddam Hussein in that war and this sat rather uncomfortably with the people and leaders of Kuwait so when they returned and finished extinguishing the oil rig fires they turned their minds to their next item on their to-do list. It was an easy choice and they simply evicted three-hundred-thousand Palestinian Arabs out of Kuwait with absolutely no concerns for their safety of future. That is pretty much, what would happen should they ever seek somewhere to live in the Arab world; they would be rejected and left without anywhere to go and this worries the European Union and the United Nations. The fact that by pretending and playing the Palestinian Arab game, that its endpoint would be the eradication of every Jews and possibly Arab and others in Israel, is apparently far less of a strain on their consciences. Perhaps they believe they can continue this song and dance indefinitely and somehow Israel will survive, after all, she has done quite well despite all the obstacles, hasn’t she? Israel is resourceful and will find a way to continue and somehow remain a light unto the nations when they have disasters or need medical advances or unbelievable software not to mention being the great start-up nation all while producing more Nobel Prize winners per capita than any other country. Why would not the Europeans, Americans, and the world believe they could snipe and victimize Israel just as they always have and not simply expect the Israelis to rebound and continue making amazing contributions in virtually every field?

 

But, what if Israel no longer is willing to be denied the promises made by the entire world including King Feisal representing the Arab world signing the agreements from the San Remo Conference to the Mandate System and the numerous agreements all after the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. There are a growing number of Israelis who are becoming less and less willing to accept compromises and the stealth theft of lands promised the Jews and Zionists. We are speaking of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and particularly the lands of Judea and Samaria, the lands illegally occupied by Jordan who forced Arabs to move into these lands and then refused to accept their return after Israel liberated these lands in June of 1967. The majority of Palestinian Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria who resided in the area during the Six Day War still hold Jordanian passports and identification papers. This is another dirty little secret which is never spoken of as it leads people to the truth. Another little secret is that there exist large Palestinian Arab refugee camps within the PA areas and in Gaza ruled by Hamas, many of which have relatives on the other side of the barbed wire yet these Arabs are held separate and refused the right to work, travel or act in any way as if living a normal life. They are kept as prisoners whose only crime was believing the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem when he swore that the Arab armies would destroy the Jews with little trouble and then they could simply return home and share in the wealth the Jews would leave behind. Only one thing went wrong, the Jews did not completely lose the war, they just did not secure all the lands which had been promised the Jews in every treaty. The time is near when the Israelis will finally demand the world deliver on their promises and this will include finding nations to take the to be refugees who desire to relocate, and that should be the end of this circus.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Syria Attempting to Broaden War Threatening Israel

 

Israel sent her warplanes into Syria this past weekend in order to intercept yet another attempted shipment of weapons potentially including advanced anti-aircraft missiles into Lebanon arming further the Hezballah terrorists who rule the Bekaa Valley and most of Lebanon south of the Litani River. Hezballah has already taken control of most of Lebanon and has indirect, more like reviewing rights of any actions or laws, of the Lebanese government, an improvement of sorts over the direct rule they held a few years back. Apparently trying to rule and fight wars with Israel was taking too great a threat of Israel holding Lebanon responsible. Now Lebanon has been afforded plausible deniable for Hezballah military actions which has not helped much with the events across the border and within their borders with Syria. The length of the reach by Hezballah included their required approval of choice for the new Prime Minister when the new government was formed. Full display of both Lebanon’s difficulty and the threat to Israel are obvious in the map below. Syria will try to drag Israel into the war once again so they can claim to be fighting a holy war against the Zionist entity and will use all of Hezballah’s abilities if need be to accomplish this. That makes the weapons Hezballah already possess and any they are able to smuggle all the more important and why Israel must prevent certain weapons systems of ever being smuggled into Lebanon and to Hezballah forces there. That was the reason for the raid and why there may be more in the future with each one presenting the same difficulties.

 

Map Depicting Hezballah Control in Lebanon
Thanks to Syrian and Iranian Assistance

 

Israeli sources including Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman reported the raid was a success and that all planes returned and were undamaged. The Syrians reported things differently claiming to have shot down one Israel aircraft and damaging another. No pictures of the destroyed Israeli plane were provided to back the Syrian claims and they have made similar claims on previous occasions including once against American aircraft under President Obama’s brief attempt at a Syrian campaign against Islamic State. The Syrians also fired four missiles into Israel with one being intercepted by the Arrow III system which was the first real world use of the system which operated well in all aspects. The remaining three landed in open areas, two in the Israel area of the Jordan Valley and the final one landed in Jordan reportedly causing no damage or loss of life. The attempt by Syria to provide their Hezballah ally with rockets is far from new and Israel has taken to only intercepting weapon systems which would provide Hezballah with additional capabilities with the most serious being anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles. The Iranians have been attempting to provide the Hezballah terrorists with the Chinese C803 anti-ship missiles as well as SAM missile batteries of a more advanced series than those in the Bekaa Valley already. This probably requires an update on the extent to which Hezballah has been rearmed since the United Nations, United States and European Union guaranteed after the Second Lebanon War as part of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the doubling the size of the UNIFIL forces who were assigned to prevent Hezballah from rebuilding their tunnel and bunker systems and rearming with rockets, let alone missiles.

 

The UNIFIL forces have been photographed allowing and even assisting in loading their trucks to move Hezballah munitions, armaments, rockets and personnel around in southern Lebanon south of the Litani River, the area where they are presumably tasked to prevent Hezballah from accomplishing such minor details. Hezballah had completely restructured their tunnel systems, underground bunkers, and massively extended these systems and improved their command and control as well as their communications systems and networks. This will have massive positive effect on their abilities and lethality should there ever be a need for Israel to attempt to blunt their threat to Israeli existence. Before the Second Lebanon War Hezballah was suspected of having stocks reaching as high as thirty-five-thousand rockets of which a very small percentage were of the larger varieties able of reaching beyond Haifa and even fewer which had any guidance whatsoever. This had vastly changed. Their current armaments include tens of thousands of missiles with ranges reaching the entire length of Israel carrying as high as five-hundred kilo warheads which also makes the nuclear arms capable. The various names are easy to remember and they are with their range, diameter and payloads as follows:

Katyusha approx. 132mm diameter range 10 kilometer with a 5 kg payloads
FAJR-3 approx. 240mm diameter range of 43 kilometer with a 45 kg payload
FAJR-5 approx. 233mm diameter range of 75 kilometer with a 175 kg payload
Fateh-110/M-600 approx. 0.61 m diameter range of 300 kilometer with a 500-650 kg payload
Zelzal-2 approx. 610 mm diameter range of 210 kilometer with a 600 kg payload
SKUD-D approx. 0.88 m diameter range of 700 kilometer with a 1000 kg payload

The map below indicates the ranges as they pertain to Israel and the danger becomes evident, very evident. This is one of many reasons that Israel has developed the world’s most advanced layered missile defense systems and is working on secondary and triple level means of intercepting all varieties of indirect weaponry including missiles, rockets, artillery and mortars. Israelis are thankful as many lives have been saved and apparently more will need these systems in the future, which is unfortunate.

 

Hezballah Rocket & Missile Threat

 

Hezballah has not just tens of thousands of rockets and missiles but somewhere approaching two-hundred-thousand of varying sizes and capabilities. Additionally, there have been reports that through captured weaponry from various Syrian rebel groups that Hezballah has come into possession of a limited number of American MANPAD anti-aircraft weapons as well as similar systems designed from Russian and Chinese types of anti-aircraft weapons of a similar nature. These anti-aircraft and any anti-ship missiles which the Iranians have managed to provide to Hezballah are amongst the most dangerous should another war break out. The last war already provided ample indications that Hezballah has received numerous effective anti-tank rockets and have developed very effective tactics for their deployment. This was one area which the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) needed to develop some form of countermeasures. The greatest threat is to the Israeli public as Hezballah’s numbers of missiles are sufficient to use for swarm attacks as they can lose large numbers to interception providing they are able to get some percentage through the Israeli defenses. The numbers of missiles makes air superiority a necessity which is why Israel cannot allow large numbers or advanced air defenses to be provided to Hezballah as only through air superiority can Israel successfully destroy the stores of missiles and their launchers before they are sent in numbers over Israeli cities such as Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheba and numerous others.

 

The difference between Hezballah and Israel is a familiar one but still important to mention while we are on the subject. First, Hezballah uses identical tactics as does Hamas and will the PLO, which is to say the Palestinian Authority when they decide they have gained all they can through blackmail and using the world to demand Israel kowtow to demands for their surrender and return to their terrorist ways, which means firing from behind the people they claim to protect while Israel does everything possible to protect civilians, both Israeli and Palestinians. Hezballah has placed their rocket launchers inside civilian homes and place their command bunkers under hospitals, schools and even Mosques. They defend their positions using civilians and store their weapons and rockets in civilian’s homes, Mosques and schools. Hezballah builds tunnels and bunkers in which they secure their fighters and civilians are forced to remain on the surface usually near Hezballah fighter locations. Further, Hezballah uses villages and towns as their operations centers and builds fighting positions within these locations often people’s homes, schools and other public locations. The Hezballah tactic is to maximize civilian deaths, hardships and destruction of civilian structures all such that at the end of the conflict they can show this destruction to the media as proof of Israel offenses claiming the Israelis simply attacked civilian homes and structures out of spite and not because of their being used as military enforcements. Often the media can tell the claims are bogus as they can see the fortifications and still take their photographs using such angles so as to avoid displaying the fortifications while maximizing the obvious damage. Often the media has their photos and stories edited by Hezballah and in order to be permitted to return and cover future events each media outlet is required to follow the Hezballah story otherwise their entire news service will be barred from covering anything in Lebanon. Meanwhile, in Israel the media is permitted complete freedom and is free from any forms of censorship whatsoever which is why often the bad stories come out about Israel while Israeli enemies always get star treatment by the media. Israel suffers from the identical media difficulty that the United States also faces with total freedom of the media. When you have no operational control over the media and their stories and your enemy exercises total media control and is willing to lie and the media willingly follows along with their messages, it should be no surprise that Israel has the media difficulty.

 

The final warping of the media coverage is the often result in civilian casualties between Israel and her enemies. The extensive efforts that Israel goes to in order to keep its civilians protected, its enemies all spend seemingly an equal amount of effort to maximize the destruction of civilian structures and the numbers of dead and injured civilians they are able to produce. This leads to a high civilian casualty count while Israel often suffers minimal civilian deaths and casualties. Israelis are well trained and are conscious of the closest shelter when there is a war and are willing to drop anything including prayers to head to their closest shelter. Israel’s enemy governments and terror forces consider shelters as a waste of resources which could be better used to purchase weapons. This leads to a civilian casualty count in Israel often approaching zero while her enemies who place their fighting forces and weapons stores and rocket tubes within civilian homes and use civilians as human shields suffer civilian casualties in the tens, hundreds or unfortunately thousands. Still, it has been shown and witnessed that Israel does far more than any other military to protect and avoid civilian casualties on either side even to the point of calling off strikes to avoid civilian casualties even when the civilians have voluntarily gathered to protect terrorists. The IDF is amongst, if not the, most moral military in all history. Don’t take our word for it; listen to Colonel Richard Kemp in the video below giving evidence to the United Nations.

 

 

An example came when the IDF had three terrorist leaders holed up in a Mosque in Gaza. The IDF troops refused to enter the Mosque as this is something they avoid out of respect for a house of worship (you never want to see what Israel’s enemies do to captured Synagogues). Hamas radio called for women to rush to the Mosque with some extra burkas and within minute’s two dozen women in burkas and some carrying burkas entered the Mosque. Soon afterwards, the women left the Mosque as a mob hiding the three terrorists wearing burkas somewhere in the group. The IDF officer ordered his men to simply leave as the alternative would have been unthinkable for IDF soldiers to potentially appear to accost Muslim women.

 

In conclusion, the problem facing Israel also involves Russia as the ally and enforcement arm of Syria. Israel coordinates with the Russian commanders before sending any aircraft into Syrian airspace such that Russian and Israeli aircraft are not in conflict. Thus far, by all information, the Russians have not been sharing such information with the Syrians intentionally but there is obviously some leakage. When Bashir al-Assad’s military commanders receive hints or information of an imminent Israeli strike they inform their militias and other unattached forces who have been armed and often actually are Hezballah and receiving support directly from Iran. Syria would love to open a front against Israel in the hopes of internationalizing the war and bringing it before the United Nations General Assembly where Israel will be once again denounced. The end result will be a front opened across the Golan Heights with Hezballah attacking from the Israeli northern border backed by the Lebanese Army which is American armed including tanks and aircraft. As they have already been given these arms, the merging of the Lebanese Army with Hezballah being placed under their control, Israel may be facing the combined forces of Hezballah, Lebanon, Syrians and presumably independent militias all of which are backed by Russia. Russia is not in any means taking action against Israel and with Iran gathering forces and aligning forces under a unified command group independent of the Russians, is going to put Putin into a delicate position. When these forces finally open a full force assault upon Israel in an attempt to bring things before the United Nations where Israel will be blamed for initiating the violence and this will place Russia in the position of deciding whether to pull out of Syria demanding that their port facilities in Latakia as Russian protected territory and otherwise Russian forces will stand down and release Syria to its fate or Russia continuing to back Syria and very possibly be drawn into a war with Israel. Should Russia engage Israeli forces, be it on the Golan Heights or against aircraft in Syrian or Lebanese territories, then what does the United States do and NATO and the United Nations. There is a distinct possibility that the United States will use these events to press Israel into making a crippling series of concessions to Abbas giving him his state with the Green Line as a border as a prerequisite for continued aid while facing the war on the Israeli north against Syria, Lebanon, Hezballah, and full Russian assistance and Iran who will also add another front at some point using Hamas on the Israeli southern border along Gaza and with aid of militias along the Sinai-Negev front. This would soon include the Palestinian Authority as Abbas would be overthrown immediately after the forced peace and the withdrawal of the IDF either by ISIS or Hamas bringing this as well as the final front. This could lead to Israel fighting a war with fronts on all borders even to include the Mediterranean Sea leaving Israel in a desperate war for her existence and Israel would at best finally establish her borders as the Jordan River and hold the southern borders while establishing the Litani River and Golan Heights as their northern border and end these wars by establishing defendable borders with the downside of the entire nations requiring the rebuilding of her entire infrastructure. It would take Israel over a decade to rebuild but once the restructure has been completed, Israel would be the envy of the world when it comes to infrastructure and the Third Temple would be constructed and the Arabs who are unwilling to live supporting the Jewish State deported and finally a bright future before her.

 

Beyond the Cusp