Gaza anti-tank missile penetrated IDF tank, Ashkenazi reveals
21.12.2010, Israel
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi revealed on Tuesday that an anti-tank missile was fired more than two weeks ago at an Israeli tank on the Gaza border and penetrated its outer shell. "On December 6 a Kornet rocket was fired for the first time and hit an IDF tank and penetrated its outer shell," Ashkenazi told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, revealing that the Kornet missile penetrated the tank exterior shell but failed to explode inside it. "It is a heavy missile and one of the most dangerous in the region, which was also fired toward the IDF during the Lebanon War," Ashkenazi added.
"We hold the Hamas as the party responsible in the Gaza Strip," Ashkenazi said, holding the militant group which took over the coastal enclave in a bloody coup in 2007 as responsible for firing the anti-tank missile.
Ashkenazi also stressed that Israel's advanced anti-rocket system, the Iron Dome that has been in development and backed by United States funding, was not a "full proof solution" to rocket fire from Gaza.
Ashkenazi spoke shortly after a Qassam rocket struck the Ashkelon beach region, exploding in an open field near a kindergarten and lightly wounding a teenage girl in a nearby building.
Responsibility for Tuesday's rocket attack was claimed by a group calling itself the Army of Islam, which has the same "global jihad" ideology as the Al- Qaida movement. It said it was responding "to the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy."
Some 13 rockets have struck the western Negev over the last two days.
The Israel Air Force carried out a series of air strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight Monday in response to the increasing number of attacks emanating from Gaza.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel will deploy tanks equipped with
a miniature missile-defense system along the Gaza Strip border in the coming weeks now that Palestinian militants are using a sophisticated, tank-piercing missile, defense officials said Wednesday.
Violence has been escalating along the Gaza border in recent weeks, and Israel's military chief disclosed on Tuesday that militants from the Palestinian coastal strip had for the first time fired a Kornet missile earlier this month and that it penetrated an Israeli tank.
Gaza's Hamas rulers have not confirmed or denied possessing the missiles.
Israeli officials say the Iranian-backed Gaza militants who once relied on crude, locally made projectiles, have steadily acquired more powerful and accurate missiles produced overseas.
The Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss such matters publicly, alleged the laser-guided Kornet had come from Iran. They provided no proof and it was not clear how the missiles were delivered. Hamas, which has close ties with Iran, controls a network of smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt. "We are talking about a massive missile, one of the most dangerous in the battlefield," Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told a parliament committee Tuesday. He added the missile did not explode inside the tank, and no one was hurt.
But after this attack, the military decided to move to the Gaza border dozens of tanks equipped with the Israel-developed "Trophy" system, which detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down before they reach armored vehicles.
Production of the Trophy was stepped up after Kornet missiles fired by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas destroyed or damaged several dozens Israeli tanks during a 2006 war. The Trophy has not yet been tried on the battlefield, though the Defense Ministry says it has been tested successfully against a variety of weapons, including Kornets.
Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza two years ago in response to years of rocket fire. The operation killed some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis died in the fighting.
Since then, Hamas has largely avoided carrying out attacks on Israel. But smaller, even more radical militant groups, continue to fire rockets and mortars at Israel. The Israelis hold Hamas, which overran Gaza in 2007, responsible for all violence out of the area.
The Kornet — made in Russia and sold widely overseas — is the most advanced weapon believed to be in the hands of Gaza militants.
In use since the mid-1990s, it is capable of penetrating armor up to four feet (1,200 mm) thick and has a range of about almost four miles (5.5 kilometers). It carries a warhead of 22 pounds (10 kilograms)
Because it was designed to puncture multiple layers of armor, "this missile knows how to penetrate modern tanks. It is a very accurate missile," said Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli general. "That means our tanks that enter Gaza or move along the Gaza border are in much greater danger," Amidror added. "The military will have to move more quickly than it expected to bring in tanks with anti-tank cover that intercepts incoming missiles. That's the Trophy."
If, in the past, tanks relied on thick layers of armor or technology that weakened the impact of an incoming rocket, the Trophy is designed to change the battlefield equation by preventing missiles from ever reaching a tank.
Israeli media have said the cost is about $200,000 per tank. The Defense Ministry company that produces the system would say only that the price is a "small fraction" of a tank's overall cost.
The U.S. and Russia are developing similar systems, but the Israeli one is believed to be the first to be deployed on the battlefield.
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Israeli Historian: Israel Could Find Itself Forced To Wipe Out Europe
March 12, 2010 by politicaltheatrics
Noted Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld stated that Israel could find itself one day forced to exterminate the European continent using all kinds of weapons including its nuclear arsenal if it felt its demise neared, stressing that Israel also considers Europe a hostile target.
This came in a press interview broadcast by the seventh Hebrew radio and was translated on Wednesday into Arabic by the press information analysis and study center.
“We have hundreds of nuclear warheads and missiles that can reach different targets in the heart of the European continent, including beyond the borders of Rome, the Italian capital,” Creveld said, adding that most of the European capitals would become preferred targets for the Israeli air force.
Dimonah; the facility where the weapon of mass destruction are made
The Israeli historian reiterated Israel’s ability to destroy the whole world whenever it felt its existence would be doomed to extinction.
As for the Palestinians, the historian said that Israel at the present time pursues a specific strategy based on mass deportation of the Palestinian people and has intentions to expel all Palestinians without exception, but it is awaiting the right moment to take this step.
“Two years ago, there was only seven to eight percent of the Israelis believing in this solution towards the Palestinians and just two months ago this percentage rose amongst the Israelis to 33 percent, but today, according to a survey conducted by Gallup institute, this figure surged to 55 percent,” he noted.
The historian highlighted that Israel must take advantage of any incident that would give it a golden opportunity to expel the Palestinians as happened in Deir Yassin massacre in 1948.
Replying to a question whether Israel does not have fears of being classified as a criminal state if it expelled Palestinians, he said, “Israel is a state that does not care about what others say about it and you must remember the saying of former defense minister Moshe Dayan when he said that ‘Israel must always act as a wild dog because it should be dangerous in the eyes of others, rather than be harmed.’”
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Well, so fare after reading the two articles posted above, and in light of each other as I feel a general thread is connecting both articles together, one may ask himself a few questions.
- Q-1: Is the incident of the Israeli merkava tank alleged to be shot by Palestinians true?
- A-1: Well under the suspicious declaration and the description of the incident, I believe it is most likely, the incident did not happen. And as usual Israelis, whenever they have a filthy card up to their sleeve, they throw dust in the eyes before playing the card. Now they want to finish what they could not finish 2 years ago; a total destruction og Gaza.
- Q-2. Is israel capable of erasing Europe from the map?
- A-2: If Israel can, so can other countries, too. They can hurt Europe and even can erase Israel from the map.
- Q-3:Why is this historian saying what he is saying?
- A-3: Propaganda and intimidation because recently the European nations has shown signs that they are waking up to the ugly face of the rouge state of Israel. Fear factor can be effective. They have been using it for decades; their tools cards they constantly play: anti-Semite, Holocaust, Self-hating, religious falsehood, etc.
- Q-4: Will Israel really carry out the threat if she felt her demise neared?
- A-4: What this historian is saying is in my mind nothing but a crockpot of steamy and stinky BS. Neither Israel will do that, nor any other country with nuclear capability will do that.
- Q-5: Oh, haven't the American use weapons of mass destruction On two cities in Japan?
- A-5: Weapons of mass destruction have become far more sophisticated and far more powerful, and I do not think Israel will risk it. The only way I'll believe Israel can do it is when I know that the Rothschild of England, of France, of Germany, of Holland...have made aliyah to Israel.
Snakes, Lizards and Scorpions
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