Free Republic

JERUSALEM (January 4) – Combined navy and air force units on Thursday night captured a freighter in the Red Sea carrying some 50 tons of offensive weapons bound for the Palestinian Authority, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz announced an hour ago. The ship, the Karin A, a 4,000 ton freighter of unspecified registry, was boarded by naval commandos without firing a shot some 500 nautical miles from Israel in an operation code-named Noah’s Ark. The captured vessel is now en route to Eilat, Mofaz told reporters in Tel Aviv. Among the many weapons on board, Mofaz listed long-range ...

The budgetary difficulty that has been delaying Israel's armament with the anti-missile defense system Iron Dome has apparently been resolved. The Pentagon has issued a message to Israel's Defense Ministry that U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the transfer of special assistance totaling $205 million (just under NIS 800 million) for the purchase of more than ten Iron Dome batteries. Iron Dome defense system gets new backer: Barack Obama U.S. agrees to fund anti-missile defense system, long delayed due to budgetary difficulties, beyond regular annual defense assistance afforded to Israel. The budgetary difficulty that has been delaying Israel's armament with...

SNIPPET: "A North Texas imam is calling on Muslims to take up arms in defense of Palestinians in Gaza. Sheikh Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti, director of the Islamic Center of South Plains in Lubbock, Texas, participated in an online chat, "Fatwas on Gaza," at the web site IslamOnline.net. El-Shinqiti encouraged readers to fight - or if they can't, to send money to those who are fighting - in response to six out of the eight questions posed to him in the online chat. When asked what can be done to help the people in Gaza, El-Shinqiti emphasized war over sending food...

After the year of the Katyushas, raining first from Gaza on Israeli cities in the South, and then from Lebanon in the North all the way down to Haifa, can anyone doubt the need for Israeli land mass which would have to include the West Bank? Is there still a question that the Olmert Disengagement Plan is dead, if not also Kadima and Olmert as a political leader? The lessons the Arabs/Persians have learned here is that the rocket attacks work. True, longer range missiles are still a threat even with Greater Israel, but those threats are less available to...

August 10, 2006, 3:16 a.m. Why Do Katyushas Have Free Rides?The stifling of a promising defense. By Angelo M. Codevilla As thousands of artillery rockets fall on Israel, all too few people know that an excellent device for intercepting them has been available for about seven years, but that Israeli and American officials, who should have known better, decided not to deploy it. Katyusha rockets from Lebanon have been falling on Kyriat Shemona and in the neighboring vicinity for more than two decades. They are Soviet-army surplus from World War II, when they were known as the “Stalin Organ”...

Some of the rockets work on a timer and are as small and thin as lampposts. The backs of pickup trucks, side rooms in one-story homes and thick brush in valleys and on ridges are the places from which Hizbullah is succeeding in firing rockets despite intensive IDF operations to stop the attacks. On Wednesday, Hizbullah fired more than 220 rockets and on Thursday another 150, proving that despite the IDF operation, which entered its fourth week on Wednesday, it was still functioning just like it was on July 12, the day the war erupted. From the beginning of this...

I am having an argument with a Palestinian friend of mine on the Israel/Hizzbullah situation and I am stuck and unable to prove that Hizzbullah fired rockets into Israel prior to Israel's incursion of Southern Lebanon. Can someone point me in the right direction on this one?

US Defends IDF Actions, Europe and Russia Criticize Thursday, July 13, 2006 / 17 Tammuz 5766 European countries and Russia denounced Israel’s retaliation in Lebanon as disproportionate Thursday. The US, meanwhile, is defending Israel’s right to combat terrorism. The European Union, Russia, France and Italy all had criticism of the extent of Israel’s operations. France’s foreign minister came out clearly against Israel’s actions. “The Israeli invasion is a disproportional act of war with negative consequences," Philippe Douste-Blazy told France's Europe-1 radio. "The unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be preserved," he added. Spain condemned the kidnappings while calling on Israel to show...

Rockets in Bloom Posted by Aharon | Tue, Apr 04, 2006, 3:17pm Now that Olmert is going to tie the knot with Labor, maybe he'll get started dealing with the major issues that have stacked up on the PM's desk since Sharon's exit stage left. Like a little ole' place called Gaza. It's one big mess and according to some commentators it could threaten the very idea of unilateral withdrawal. While supposed to have created more security for Israel, it is pretty clear that Israel's counterattacks from afar have done very little to slow down the Kassam fire (and the...

Residents of southern Israel, prepare for the coming of the Katyushas. The fate that has, until now bee a plague limited to the northern Galilee, will soon be yours. On Sunday, if Prime Minister Sharon’s efforts are successful, we will begin the countdown for their launch, which will begin when the last settlers are expelled from Gush Katif. In the calm after the last heart-rending struggles, prepare for bombardment. Until the evacuation, the evacuees will continue to be the rockets’ main target. As I write these lines, 4,059 mortar shells and rockets of various kinds have already hit them. Most...

Palestinian terrorists planned to fire rockets from Jordan at hotels in Eilat. The Jordanian army reportedly captured four Palestinian terrorists two weeks ago, armed with two Katyusha rockets and six mortars. According to the Jordanians, the terrorists planned to fire the rockets at hotels and fuel storage tanks in Eilat, Israel's southern port city. According to the report, published today in Yediot Aharonot, Jordan trackers discovered the terror cell close to Jordan's border with Israel, some 30 kilometers north of Akaba. The chief of staff of Jordan's army gave orders to send an elite paratrooper unit to the border area,...