What Will Iran Throw at Israel Next?

 

Beyond that, how will Israel react and how much will it take before Israel reacts by striking Iran directly? These are the kind of questions that even theoreticians tremble at tackling because the odds are you will be wrong at every step of the way. The first step is easier though as it only required preparing the stage with the recent history. Probably the kick-off was the combination of the Israeli Mossad absconding with the entirety of the Iranian documentation, political decisions, scientific research, discoveries, calculations, schematics, documentation, design specification and complete history consisting of over 100,000 files of the Iranian nuclear program since early in their program and through to the current day from Tehran in a single night. These files were shared with President Trump, the CIA and were offered to any European leader who desired to seek truth, and as far as we know, none of them took advantage of the offers. These files were then shared publicly by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu before the world speaking in English, so you decide whom his intended audience were, the Royals in Britain or the American people. This came right before President Trump announced the United States pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reinstituting severe sanctions by the United States on Iran and any companies trading with Iran covered by the sanctions.

 

Why would Israel make such theft of stolen documents public as doing so would implicate the Mossad and the Israeli government in an act of international espionage. The reason is obvious even to the most casual observer, as long as they were observing at all. Iran has already threatened to wipe Israel off the map (a relatively accurate translation of a Farsi phrase which does not readily translate directly into English*). Iran supports Hezballah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas holding a degree of operational control using such to order attacks upon Israel. Iran has flown armed drones across the Israeli border which were shot down before they caused damage, but that is still an act of war. Many of the rockets fired from Syria were of Iranian design which is another act of war. With the numerous provocations Israel has suffered initiated through Iran and the Mullahs, perhaps a small payback was in order. This theft resulted in additional strikes against Israel which were traced back to Iran by the same Israeli intelligence. The initial strike came from Syria in the form of a number, about a dozen or more, fired from Syria by the Quds forces assisting Bashir al-Assad in the Syrian civil war. These were mostly intercepted by the Iron Dome with a percentage that never made it out of Syria falling short within the Syrian border. The Israeli response extracted a large price of Iranian assets in Syria. These strikes caused very sizeable amount of damage to the Iranian ability to act further and caused al-Assad to instruct the Syrian military to prevent Iran from storing their assets within Syrian installations.

 

This direction from Assad to Iran forced Iran to alter their direction striking at Israel. This led to Hamas and Islamic Jihad to escalate their assaults upon southern Israeli at the border. Initially, the rioting at the border was escalated which had minimal effect as Israel has developed tactics to deal with much of these disturbances. The escalation then led to Hamas and Islamic Jihad to fire over one-hundred missiles and mortars into southern Israel. This also backfired as one mortar shell landed in an Israeli kindergarten merely an hour before it was to open and have the area filled with children and staff. This led to the picture of the fins of the mortar shell and the large damage to the play area to be circulated leading to even the European Union and several European leaders condemning Hamas in an unusual one-sided condemnation against Hamas and not making any comment of the Israeli following response (see image below). The Israeli response once again took a large toll killing three Islamic Jihad terrorists who were manning a lookout used to guide these strikes and destroyed large amounts of rocket and mortar stores as well as some of the production facilities. The question now is what Iran might do next and at what point Israel would respond by attacking Iran directly and how would such an attack be carried out.

 

Remains of Tail Section of Mortar Striking Kindergarten Play Area

 

This is where the situation stands at the writing of this editorial, and we hope that the exchanges have proven too costly for Iran to continue attempting to escalate any further. Israel has struck with greater destructive force in response to each of these provocations than what Iran expected. The Mullahs were likely expecting the Israeli retaliations to be as per what had been the normative and limited level. Instead, Israel struck with a definitive and escalated level thus weaponizing retaliation to a higher level such that the price made further escalations to have a far higher threat level for Iranian backed forces. Despite this escalating of the level of the Israeli response, it is still far short of what some politicians within the coalition, even some from within the inner Security Cabinet, who had hinted that the next time Hamas or Hezballah initiated confrontations with Israel that the Israeli response would be to erase their ability to threaten Israel. Where these escalations have caused Iran and their proxies to pause for the moment, the response was far short of the response implied by the politicians. These proxies are still standing which means that they still pose a threat to Israelis. When we talk of these proxies posing a threat to Israelis, we are not making any exaggeration. Hamas is still digging tunnels under the border with one leaving Gaza passing under the Egyptian border into the Sinai and moved along that border until it passed to the Israel-Egyptian border and after a distance then passed under that border into Israel. Fortunately, this tunnel was discovered despite it taking a very different direction than the former tunnels which all took a direct route. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are still attempting to breach the Gaza-Israel border allowing numbers, potentially thousands, of Gazans, including a large number of terrorists and armed Hamas supporters, into Israel with maps showing the most direct route to Israeli civilian populations (see below). The stated intent is for these invading Gazans to murder as many Israeli civilians as they would be able. This was proven with statements made by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar who stated, “eat the livers of those besieging” as well as “tear out their hearts from their bodies.” Such statements do not leave much room for doubt about the evil and murderous intent of the rioting at the Israel border. Add in the kites with incendiary explosives attached to their tails which have caused numerous fires and destroyed entire fields of crops and one forest within Israel. Obviously, any further escalation could be severe enough to cause Israel to begin a total and planned military response; though such is not hoped for by any on the Israeli side and we would hope a fair number of Gazans.

 

Hamas Maps Showing Closest Israeli Communities and Directions to use in Potential Attacks

 

Perhaps now would be a good time to talk about how the Israelis feel about their desire for the future regarding Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezballah and our Arab nations who are our neighbors. We would like for them to accept that we have come home to our ancient and loved homelands. We would very much prefer that they learn to live in peace and harmony allowing our attentions can be used near completely for the advancement of science, societal knowledge, and the betterment of humankind and share in a rich future for all of our societies. Peace, as the word “shalom,” is one of the most repeated words in our daily prayers and at the forefront of our thoughts. Having the world learn to have every nation coexist and even some day cooperate, such that all of mankind will benefit from any improvement invented anywhere, that is what Israel is about. Our desire would be for the promises given the early Jewish Zionists who reached these agreements through the San Remo Conference, the Treaty of Sèvres, the Mandate System and all guaranteed through Article 80 of the United Nations Charter which guaranteed that the eastern border of Israel would be the Jordan River. The Arabs residing within these borders would have local autonomy in the areas where they desire such and those who are not now Israeli citizens would be granted the status of resident alien. They could have Jordanian or other citizenship should any Arab nation allow them such privilege. This would grant these Arabs to remain in their homes and work in Israel and other than national elections and other strictly Israeli rules, they would have complete equality. They would have religious freedoms, economic freedoms, civic freedoms and selective political freedoms and would be treated as any Israeli granted freedom of travel, medical care within the Israeli medical system, and would have the responsibility of paying taxes. These are very altruistic and extravagantly hopeful expectations, but we have been dreamers of the possible from the very beginning with Abraham with the concept of a single, all-powerful and unseen supreme being to the Torah which became the basis of much of the base for Western civilization to our longing to return to our homeland and never losing our faith that Hashem would return us to Eretz Yisroel and that faith supported and enriched us filling us with such hope for over two-thousand years.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

* For a further description by example, imagine having to translate these following phrases into a foreign language which would make sense in that language.

“Sick as a dog.”
“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
“Saving for a rainy day.”
“It is raining cats and dogs.”
“She is simply the salt of the Earth.”
“Don’t beat a dead horse.”
“I have butterflies in my stomach.”

Gaza Didn’t Make Us Wait Long Enough

 

Hamas has returned to their old tried and true means of irritating Israel, mortars and soon to be followed by rockets. At least eighty rockets and mortars were launched and while most were intercepted, one landed in the yard of a kindergarten, slightly wounding a worker, another in Netivot where one resident was treated for shock and another round struck three IDF soldiers were wounded by shrapnel with one requiring hospitalization. We thank Hashem that no children were injured in the kindergarten in that strike though ten people in various communities in southern Israel have suffered emotional shock due to the barrage of rockets and the resulting iron dome interceptions. The mortar striking the grounds of a kindergarten was in the Eshkol region bordering Gaza a mere short period before pupils were to arrive for the morning. This attack could be simply considered the next phase of the Hamas summer offensive. We have fortunately not experienced the levels of violence in the past few summers as we are this summer. We can only assume that Hamas has received orders from their Iranian masters to push Israel into another summer war along the Gaza front. Should things reach such a level demanding an Israeli response, we will know they were ordered from Tehran if the propaganda arm in Iran is ramped up in addition to the others who always decide before they witness anything that Israel has to be at blame.

 

One Tree Damaged by Mortar Strike Exploding in a Kindergarten Playground

 

The media which cover the Gaza and other confrontations between Israel and the various Arab Islamic forces on her several borders seldom leave their hotels and coffee bistros. They prefer the safety and the beach scenery found in Tel Aviv and leave the coverage to stringers readily provided by Hamas. The stringers all but write the final story and provide ample satisfying pictures to be included. These stringers also provide video for the major television and internet news agencies. Often five or six stringers will provide live coverage with a convincing moderator who speaks fluent English with just a hint of an accent. This is acceptable to the major news media as such coverage provided by Hamas is often exactly the slant on the reporting which they prefer, especially print media in Europe and much of it in the United States and Canada. Many news reports in the Western World will open their coverage reporting that Israel struck at numerous sites within Gaza today and talk all about the damage and other pertinent coverage making these attacks sound horrific. They will include that tank or artillery fire accompanies the screaming jet fighters overhead and then towards the end of their broadcast they will mention that the Israeli strikes were in response to Gaza mortar fire and they might even mention that a shell landed in a kindergarten. They will add that there were no children present when the round struck and make note that Israeli Iron Dome intercepted the vast majority of the rounds.

 

Remains of Tail Section of Mortar Striking Kindergarten Play Area

 

They love to point out that the rocket and mortar attacks are intercepted by Israel as if that makes it as if the attack never happened. Then they stress that the rounds fired by Israel all hit their targets or struck within Gaza thus the force used is disproportional as more Israeli rounds successfully struck while the Gazan fired mortars were intercepted. Israel, apparently, is only permitted to shoot an equal number of rounds to the number which successfully struck within Israel and Israel must suffer an equal number of casualties as does Hamas and Gaza or the war is considered an unfair fight. Since when was warfare supposed to be a fair fight? We have always believed the object of warfare was to win and to win as convincingly as possible while raking the minimum amount of damage and casualties while imposing the maximum damage and casualties on your enemy. Apparently, the real rules of war as they fit other nations are modified for Israel.

 

 

The reality which will most likely follow this reinitiating of hostilities by Hamas and Islamic Jihad out of Gaza will be followed by resumed, or should we say increased, rioting and violence along the border. The terrorists will follow on with more rockets and mortar fire continuing initially at a lower level attempting to gauge Israeli responses such that they avoid a general attack by Israel to clear the terrorist groups’ storehouses and destroy as many of the launchers as can be located. This is what has happened in the past three offensives which Israel resorted to after the previous series of launching of these projectiles reached levels which had become intolerable. Still, despite taking far more assaults by terrorists into the small nations of Israel than even far larger nations would ever suffer without responding, the media still questions Israeli decisions to respond even after weeks of ever-increasing indirect fire into her territory threatening her citizens in an ever-wider area. Over the years, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, despite the blockade which Israel has imposed in order to prevent weapons of ever greater destruction, greater range or moderating technologies from reaching the terrorists in Gaza, Iran had managed to smuggle plans and rocket motors and even basic guidance systems through tunnels or other clandestine means into Gaza greatly increasing all areas of range, warhead weight, explosive volatility, accuracy and more advanced technologies making the potentials of such fire out of Gaza causing unimaginable damage has become a dire threat for Israel.

 

As wonderful and unimaginably effective as the Iron Dome system has proven, Israel does not possess anywhere near sufficient such systems to prevent every dangerous launch. Another problem is that in some of the tallest buildings in Tel Aviv, there is no way to get everybody out of the building and into a below-ground shelter. This is why there are safe-rooms built inside the newer high-rise buildings allowing for the safety of the occupants. There is still one major difficulty with the system, Hamas has been provided with the M75, also called the Khyber-1, missile which has a guidance system with a range which easily reaches Tel Aviv and possibly even Haifa. This missile carries a 175 kg (385.8 lb) warhead which is most often fired from a multiple rocket launcher, typically truck or trailer mounted. It is the range and warhead which make this into a large problem for Israel, as they are a multiple-launch-system, and they could potentially strike a target with more than one of these larger missiles. The potential for a barrage of this rocket system has the potential of bringing down any building it strikes making the shelters no longer the safe-rooms. The danger of a war between Israel and the terror government of Gaza has become an existential threat which if the worst should come to fruition, the governing coalition would probably fold if their reaction was not immediate and of a scale which would prevent Hamas, Islamic Jihad or any other terror group to ever operate from Gaza ever in the future.

 

Monument for the M-75 Ballistic Missile Named the Jerusalem Rocket

 

This is the reality which the government is currently facing. They are attempting to walk the fine line between lower end military response such that the world does not explode and bring every imaginable pressure down on Israel causing great damage to the Israeli economy and not striking sufficiently hard to prevent further attacks and escalation by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others from Gaza resulting in a disaster such as bringing down a high-rise skyscraper in Tel Aviv killing potentially well over a thousand Israelis causing a general revolt of the electorate bringing down their government. The pressure to simply overreact to any provocation grows within the Israeli populace and should further assaults continue from Gaza, there will be a point where the Israeli population will demand that they be brought to an end and to do so once and for all. The patience in Israel for these constant attacks every few years has grown short and the pressure to simply respond to any attack with overwhelming force is growing. Along with this intolerance for attacks and terrorism, there is also a growing pressure to simply apply Israeli law to every Israeli population center beyond the Green Line and ending the military rule and their often choosing to impose British, Jordanian and even Ottoman law and a system which demands the defendant prove their innocence, the guilty until proven innocent style of old French style law. There are currently moves being made to demand that all Israelis be permitted the respect and modern law enforcement such that the weight of proof falls upon the State, and the accused is innocent until proven guilty. We pray that Israeli law is extended and the innocent until proven guilty becomes the rule throughout the land for all Israelis. We also pray that there are no more attacks from Gaza and if there is another attack such as today, the response be such that none of the terrorists in Gaza desire testing Israel any further. We have a suggestion on how exactly such could be managed; simply target every Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership’s homes. Warnings should be given such that their families are not killed and only the homes are destroyed. We would hope that such would be sufficient to prevent their escalating further. Lastly, should they insist on attempting to murder Israeli civilians; the next attack should, after warnings, take out the beautiful mall, the grand hotels, the top end shops, the fine restaurants and other such places where the leaders and cronies enjoy the good life. The time has come to leave the people of Gaza in peace and make those who push the terrorism be made to pay.

 

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