In the south, this report from an article by Yaakov Katz of the Jerusalem Post, entitled "Hamas preparing advanced rockets and 'offensive' tunnels" , concerning additions to Hamas arsenals since Operation Cast Lead less than a year ago:
"Hamas is believed to have a significant number of shoulder-launched anti-tank missiles and 9M113 Konkurs, which have a range of four kilometers and are capable of penetrating heavy armor.
In addition, Hamas is believed to have today a few thousand rockets, including several hundred with a range of 40 kilometers and several dozen with a range of between 60 and 80 km. . . .
Iran already supplies Hamas with 122mm Katyusha rockets that are smuggled into Gaza in several pieces and then assembled by Hamas engineers.
. . . .
Hamas has also increased its use of civilian infrastructure, particularly mosques, which the terror group already used quite extensively for storage and launching rockets during the operation. Hamas is believed to have taken control of almost 80 percent of the mosques in Gaza, using them to store weapons and set up command-and-control centers.
Hamas, is 'padding' itself as well by setting up its command centers in large apartment buildings. This way, it believes, the IDF will not attack them by air, and will need to send ground forces deep into the population centers, where it will lose its technological advantage."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260181035814&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
All of this is in addition to the 40,000 missiles shipped by Iran to Hezbollah and capable of hitting all of Israel.
Meanwhile, where is Richard Goldstone? Or is it his job to reproach Israel only after the bellicosities?
Ultimately Israel will be surrounded by rockets, which are not missiles, have no guidance system and cause random terror but little real damage, as opposed to helicopter gunships and UAVs which cause precision terror with tragic real damage; for the Americans, average 15 innocent civilians killed for every target of 'value', but they're just 'Tango', so what'r ya' gonna do? Or is that being anti-Tangoic?
ReplyDeleteRegrettably, Israel's situation is not as simple as you make it seem. Without getting into too much detail, note the differences among the arsenals of 1) Hamas (Gaza); 2) Hezbollah (Lebanon); 3) Syria; and 4) Iran. Both Syria and Iran possess guided ballistic missiles. Hezbollah has been provided with precision-guided missiles by Iran. All of the above could cause little real damage? You obviously never witnessed a Scud attack during the First Gulf War.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey,
ReplyDeleteI thought you may be interested:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/15/calculated_terror?page=0,0
They say, their computer system shows low probability of war with Hezbollah. It seems to be a good article.