By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Gaza terrorists fired a Kassam rocket on the Western Negev Monday morning, causing no damage or injuries but showing Israel they do not intend to keep the “calm.”
Rocket attacks on rural areas are a favorite tactic by Hamas and allied terrorists to harass Israel and draw the IDF into a retaliation that foreign media usually portray as “disproportionate.” Occasionally, a Kassam rocket explodes at a building and causes injuries or even death, in which case the media judge that Israel has more of a right to respond.
The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) Monday defined the eruption of missile attacks on southern Israel 10 days ago as “inconclusive fighting” with “possible implications for the future.”
Despite the success of the Iron Dome system in protecting Be’er Sheva, Ashkelon and Ashdod, its 80-90 percent rate of success still leaves one million residents open to a lethal missile attack, the report noted.
“Unless active defense is 100 percent effective, it will not eliminate the need for passive defense or prevent massive disruption of normal life inside the envelope of the rockets. Nor will it spare the government the need to take weighty strategic decisions that it would prefer to avoid,” according to the Institute.
“Only sheer luck stood between government reluctance to embark on large scale escalation and irresistible domestic pressure to do so,” it observed.
The report also said that the unstable political situation in Egypt does not guarantee that the regime can act in the future as an intermediary to tone down the violence, as it did last week.
“Political volatility in Egypt means that the Egyptian security establishment may not be able to go on playing this role in the future, even if its world-view remains unchanged,” the INSS study stated. “Presidential elections in Egypt are scheduled,…[and] unlike in the past, the outcome of this Egyptian presidential election cannot be known in advance."
It also pointed out that the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) have “hijacked” Hamas’s agenda and were behind most of the attack.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for all terrorist attacks from Gaza, where the terrorist organization took over in a bloody militia war five years, ousting the Fatah faction ruled by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. However, Hamas has lost total control over rival terrorists, leaving the Gaza region subject to unofficial anarchy under the guise of an organized government.
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New IDF Systems Counter Gaza Anti-Tank Missile Threat
Source: Arutz Sheva
By Gil Ronen
IDF has implemented two new defensive systems to detect and deflect anti-tank missiles that are fired from Gaza. The systems are becoming operational nearly one year after terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at a yellow school bus, killing a Jewish youth.
"Due to the anti-tank missile threat in the Southern Command, we've been looking for a means of detecting where missiles are launched from," the Head of the Southern Command Weapon and Technologies Department, Maj. Nissan Mizrachi, told the IDF Website.
One of the new systems allows for detecting of laser-operated weapons and warns against possible threats. The technology detects the direction of the threat and its type, and it informs the commander in the field both visually and using audio. The system is based on the direction and speed the system calculates where the missile will land, and it can thus assist a tank, for example, to direct its fire at the threat. The warning provided by the system provides a 360-degree range.
The second newly implemented system, also developed by Elbit Systems, diverts missiles that have been fired. The system redirects the missile using several different technologies, ensuring the vehicle carrying the system is not harmed.
Both systems became operational in the past few months and provides defense against the growing anti-tank missile threat in the Gaza Strip region. The Southern Command has also paved a new road, which it says is safe from anti-tank missile threats, for use by Jewish communities in the area. The road's unique location in a land fold provides ultimate protection from anti-tank missiles.
Observers believe that Israel announces its new defense technologies partly because it is interested in selling them abroad.
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MK Dichter: Improve Iron Dome Ahead of Gaza Operation
Source: Arutz Shiva
By Elad Benari
MK Avi Dichter (Kadima) on Sunday said that Israel should prepare for a major ground operation in Gaza, to deal with the terrorist state that has been formed in the coastal enclave.
Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Dichter, who is a resident of Ashkelon which has been suffering from rocket attacks and who also headed the Southern District of the Israel Security Agency, said that Israel cannot agree to the reality that has been created in Gaza in recent years. He noted that Gaza is run by a terrorist organization that has managed to develop real military capabilities.
He also noted the additional change that has occurred in Gaza as Hamas, a terrorist organization with 20,000 military men, has begun to sever its ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and at the same time is strengthening its relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Islamic Jihad has entered the vacuum left by Hamas, said Dichter, and it has 5,000 men with a military capability similar to that of Hamas.
In order to deal with this reality, Israel should significantly expand the Iron Dome system as part of preparations for military action, according to Dichter. “The scope of the batteries and the quantity of missiles of Iron Dome right now is unlikely to be enough in the face of the threat from Gaza,” he said, adding that in order for Israel to prepare to “destroy the military infrastructure” in Gaza, it should strengthen Iron Dome so that eventually, when the IDF enters Gaza for a long operation which may continue for over a year and a half, the home front will be better protected.
He added that after it prepares to protect Israeli citizens against rockets, the IDF will have to enter Gaza for a ground operation that will include arrests, investigations and other activities that will persist over many months.
Dichter, who officially announced last month that he will run for the leadership of the Kadima party, addressed the upcoming primaries in the party, which will be held on March 27.
Dichter rejected the calls that have been made to him to drop out of the race and support MK Shaul Mofaz, thus preventing current leader MK Tzipi Livni from winning. He explained that the main difference between him and the other candidates is the point which he raised at the outset of his campaign, that upon winning, he plans to join Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition.
“It cannot that be a party with 28 seats does not affect processes and deal with challenges,” he said. “The party headed by me will enter negotiations with the coalition to influence things from the inside. Unfortunately the other candidates do not deal with issues of principle but only care about who will win the election. This is very nice but irrelevant.”
