Rockets from Gaza and the wider effects
Moderator's Note
A new thread has been created for this developing conflict in the volatile Middle East. To my surprise there is not a thread on the previous Gaza (Hamas) -v- Israel conflict in December 2008 to January 2009. More on Post No.5.
Update January 2015: a small thread Mowing the Gaza lawn has been merged here, it referred to the Israeli-Gaza conflict after rocket attacks mainly in 2014. The thread has been renamed 'Gaza, Israel & Rockets (merged thread). There is a separate thread on Hamas. (ends)
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When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this week began taking military action in the Gaza strip against Hamas (as the IDF announced on Twitter), Anonymous declared its own war as part of #OpIsrael. Among the casualties are thousands of email addresses and passwords, hundreds of Israeli Web sites, government-owned as well as privately owned pages, as well as databases belonging to the Bank of Jerusalem and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/1...n=social+media
Rockets from Gaza and the wider effects
Quote:
[Video] Third attack on central city in three days intercepted by fifth Iron Dome battery, deployed in Gush Dan earlier in the day; Palestinian terrorists fire 740 rockets into Israel since start of operation.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=292277
Rockets from Gaza and the wider effects
A new thread has been created for this developing conflict in the volatile Middle East. To my surprise there is not a thread on the previous Gaza (Hamas) -v- Israel conflict in December 2008 to January 2009.
There is a long running thread, from 2006, 'Hamas in Gaza (merged thread)', which should give some background:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=6020
Elsewhere on the Web is ample coverage, such as Stratfor's briefings and on KoW a comment by an IDF veteran on being defensive:http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2012/11/sec...fensive-means/
Rightly AdamG has pointed out the cyber aspects, with a reported campaign by Anonymous against Israeli websites plus.
KoW tries to grapple with the role or failure of deterence:http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2012/11/deterrence/
Asymmetric warfare: change where you want to fight
A short, good article in The Weekly Standard; it refers to the North Koreans and reminds us only four of the twenty-one suspected tunnels under the DMZ were found (Cites SWC member David Maxwell too):http://www.weeklystandard.com/articl...html?nopager=1
It ends with:
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For decades Israel’s traditional military doctrine has been to fight its enemies on the other side of the wire. However, its enemies’ new North Korean-inspired doctrine is to go under the wire. If Israel doesn’t deal with first Hamas’s tunnels and then Hezbollah’s, the next war it faces may well be inside Israel itself.
We are losing legitimacy and the room to operate is no longer great...
Awhile ago there was a thread on an Israeli documentary, The Gatekeepers, which interviewed a number of Mossad / Shin Beth directors. Posts about the film are on the Israel COIN & CT thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=4661
Today Der Spiegel has an interview with one of them:
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Yuval Diskin was the director of Israel's internal security service Shin Bet between 2005 and 2011. In recent years, he has become an outspoken critic of the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Link:http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-982094.html
Hard assessments made, e.g.:
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Israel is now an instrument in the hands of Hamas, not the opposite. Hamas doesn't care if its population suffers under the attacks or not, because the population is suffering anyway. Hamas doesn't really care about their own casualties either. They want to achieve something that will change the situation in Gaza. This is a really complicated situation for Israel.
Gaza Tunnels: How They Work, What Israel Knew
A blogger has translated an Israeli press report, which helps to explain the situation:http://blogs.forward.com/jj
Gaza and the Lonely Death of Just War Theory
A Kiwi academic blogged on the issues. He starts with:
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Just war comes in various forms, but at its core it is based on seven key principles. These principles state that in order for a war to be just,
1. The war must be fought for a just cause.
2. The war must be declared by a lawful authority.
3. It must be fought for a right intention.
4. It must be a last resort after peaceful alternatives have been tried.
5. It must have a reasonable chance of success to avoid prolonging suffering.
6. The force used must be proportionate.
7. Innocent civilians should not be harmed.
In short, wars should be fought only for a just or legitimate cause, and the war itself must be conducted in a just manner. The argument is that in order for a war to be considered just (or legitimate), it should adhere to all of these seven principles.
(Later) In sum, it is plainly obvious that this is far from a just war. It violates four of the seven principles of just war outright, and may also arguably violate the other three. The only reasonable assessment is that this in fact, a deeply unjust war, a disproportionate massacre of a largely defenceless people. It is exactly the kind of war of aggression that just war theory was designed to prevent or mitigate, and by engaging in it, Israel is behaving like a rogue state.
Link:http://richardjacksonterrorismblog.w...st-war-theory/
Painful reading for some I think.
A 'war of survival' for who?
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Originally Posted by
JMA
Israel is fighting a war of survival and seem to be making every effort to limit the collateral damage in keeping with the survival of the state of Israel... IMHO..
This is not a 'war of survival' for Israel; rockets, mortar bombs and raiding from Gaza have occurred for many years. The current episode is no different. Yes the attacks, especially the rockets, can be lethal for unlucky Israelis not in a shelter - which is amply shown in the deaths to date:
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...two Israeli civilians and a Thai national killed by Hamas rockets fired from Gaza.
The bigger impact on Israel is the losses to the IDF:
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... 53 members of the Israel Defense Forces have died..
Alongside the mobilization of IDF reservists, the BBC cites 65,000.
In 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead Israeli losses were: 9 (IDF 6) and in the November 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense losses were: 6 (IDF 4).
All quotes, map and figures are found here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28252155
Leaving Palestinian deaths aside you can make a far more plausible argument that Gaza is facing 'national survival' as Israel's bombardment destroys buildings, alongside the extension of the imposed three kilometre "buffer" zone, further concentrating the population. Destroying the only electricity generation plant in Gaza will have an effect, although some power comes from Israel.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...624_latest.gif