UPDATE: Another night, more rockets. The citizens of the Sdot Negev Regional Council (the communities of: Alumim, Sa’ad, Beit HaGadi, Givolim, Kfar Maimon, Magalim, Mlilot, Sharsheret, Shibolim, Shokeda, Shuva, Tkuma, Tushia, Yoshivia, Zru’a, Zimrat) were assaulted in the middle of the night by terrorist Hamas rockets fired by the Palestinians in Gaza. The IDF, as usual, did nothing.
TODAY’S BLOG:
One of the themes of this blog in recent months has been the increasing incompetence of the IDF–and its complete inability to learn from past mistakes.
One of Israel's few anti-missile 'Iron Dome' batteries: sometimes it works--sometimes it doesn't--but at least it usually stops Hamas from firing Grads at a particular location.
Think back to last August. At that time, the IDF inexplicably announced to the world that it was moving one of the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries from Ashdod to Haifa (to protect the oil refinery there). It was a particularly odd decision given the fact that no missiles were being fired at northern Israel at the time, and southern Israel was being pummeled.
And guess who was watching Israeli TV and reading the Israeli newspapers? None other than the Hamas terrorists in Gaza–the precise people shooting the rockets. And guess what happened? The day after the battery arrived in Haifa, Hamas starting firing Grad rockets at Ashdod and did not stop until the IDF announced that it had moved the Iron Dome battery back to Ashdod.
The Hamas action to begin firing was so predictable that many of us in Ashdod calculated to the exact hour when the first Grads would fall–and your humble servant actually was able to film our first run down to our bomb shelter.
In this context, you can imagine, dear reader, the angry consternation in southern Israel yesterday when this headline appeared in Israel’s popular Yediot Aharonot newspaper:
“IDF To Deploy Iron Dome in Central Israel”
The subtitle accompanying the headline was:
“Anti-missile system battery to be deployed in Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area for several days to simulate rocket attack”
The main paragraph of the article was:
“Residents of Central Israel will be able to get a closer look at the Iron Dome battery which has been found to be effective in intercepting rockets fired at southern communities. The aim is to calibrate the system in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area after previous deployments in Haifa and southern cities. The battery will be stationed in Central Israel for several days subject to permits currently being acquired by the Air Force.”
Again, incompetently and inexplicably, the IDF has announced to Hamas that it is leaving southern Israel undefended.
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And for what? So that the residents of central Israel (which have never experienced a rocket attack) “will be able to get a closer look at the Iron Dome battery.”
Is this even believable? If the residents of central Israel want to get a look at an Iron Dome battery, why don’t they just drive 30 minutes south and take a look at a battery that is actually defending (when it works) we people in the South?
The message to Hamas is clear. It’s open season again on the cities in the South that are vulnerable to Grads: Ashkelon, Beersheva, and Ashdod (of course it is always open season on all the communities further south in Qassam range).
It’s bad enough that the IDF General Staff is beset by passivity, but when this passivity is coupled with complete incompetence, it is a recipe for an even bigger disaster than is currently taking place in the South.
Addendum:
Can you believe that the defense system in Israel is in such disarray that the IAF has to get a permit to position the Iron Dome battery?
And there is serious talk about attacking Iran?
THIS DATE IN ISRAELI HISTORY
Anwar Sadat is often remembered as “a man of peace.” On February 20, 1971, Sadat’s government issued a letter indicating its apparent willingness to negotiate peace with Israel.
Nevertheless, as has been pointed out: “this seeming moderation masked an unchanging Egyptian irredentism and unwillingness to accept a real peace, as shown by the letter’s sweeping reservations and preconditions. The crucial sentences about a “peace agreement with Israel” were neither published nor broadcast in Egypt. Moreover, Egypt refused to enter direct talks. Just after issuing the letter, Sadat addressed the Palestine National Council (PNC) meeting in Cairo. He promised support to the PLO “until victory” and declared that Egypt would not accept Resolution 242” (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf7.html).
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.