Britannia Radio

IDF spokesman Yoav Mordechai said.
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"The first aim of this operation is to bring back quiet to southern
Israel, and the second target is to strike at terror organizations," 
Shortly afterwards, the IDF struck over 20 underground rocket launchers
belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in an airstrike.

The airstrikes targeted long-range rockets in the possession of terror
organizations, such as the Fajr-5 and other rockets that are capable of
striking Tel Aviv from Gaza. The IDF believes it has eliminated the
majority of the long-range threat.

The partiality of the BBC in this continues to disgust me.

Twice in twelve hours, on Newsnight and this morning on the Today
programme, I have heard aggressive questioning of Israeli spokesmen
about how they 'refuse' to 'make peace' with Hamas in Gaza.

It is, and always has been nonsense. 

There is absolutely no doubt that Hamas has caused hundreds of deaths, both 
Israeli and Arab, and its aggression has destroyed the Gaza economy.

In decades past, before the intefada, Gaza residents freely entered
Israel, with livelihoods dependent on Israeli agriculture in the
Ashkelon and Beersheba regions, as well as receiving medical care at
those cities medical centres. I have old friends who spent their teenage
holidays on Kibbutzim in southern Israel, often working for Gaza-based
Palestinian supervisors.

Both sides were prosperous as a result, and the interaction, whilst not
totally peaceful, meant the communities relied on each other, and that,
to an extent, helped the peace process.

Seven years ago Israel finally pulled out entirely from the Gaza strip,
of its own volition, relocating 70,000 people, and leaving behind
buildings, infrastructure and agriculture. With local exceptions (the
displaced settlers weren't exactly happy), they didn't operate a
scorched earth policy, although they well might have. If you look at the
Google images you can clearly see how these facilities have been largely
abandoned. Particularly noticeable is the once-farmland near the
southern border. Hamas aren't interested in the economic success of
Gaza, obviously.

In fact, Hamas has been wholly determined to escalate the violence as
much as possible. The Fajr 5 rockets, ironically 'liberated' from Libya
with British and American help, have a range of more than 50 miles.

So what is a Fajr 5 rocket? It's 6.5m long (20ft), and weighs close to a
metric tonne at launch. The warhead is around 200kg, of which 90kg is
high explosive. It was originally designed in China, but redesigned in
Iran using a German (Mercedes) launch platform. Yes, that's the luxury
car / Formula One Mercedes.

Fajr 5 rockets (or closely related ones) have been used in Libya and
Syria, and have previously been fired into Israel from southern Lebanon
by Hezbollah. From there they can reach Haifa, Nazareth and most of the
plain of Megido, including even Afula. From Gaza they can reach Tel
Aviv. The range is the rough equivalent of firing on central London from
Oxford.

What does that much explosive do? These demolitions used around 200lb of
HE each: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2SbPqE0cFw>. Fajr 5 rockets
aren't for entertainment. They kill people. Israelis within range have
approximately thirty seconds between the sound of the sirens and the
missile hitting.

So there is the context for the IDF action. I fail to understand how
this can be described as Israeli aggression. What do you do when your
sworn enemy is stockpiling such weapons, and has every intent to use
them? Those who've seen the tracking video of the killing of Jabari (the
BBC describes this as an 'assassination', incidentally) know that the
IDF is endeavouring to minimise civilian casualties. It's hard to tell,
but independent photographs taken at the scene look as though the
missile didn't even break windows across the street.

Nobody, least of all the Israelis, is suggesting these military strikes
are desirable, nor that there have been no civilian casualties, but I
haven't heard the BBC asking Hamas why it continued to build up its
stockpile, and to fire its rockets into Israel. Other questions I
haven't heard put to Hamas include why Jabari *wasn't* a legitimate
target, nor why it continues to site its missile launchers in the most
densely populated areas of Gaza, effectively making its own people into
human shields - a disgusting practice banned by international law.

I've no doubt that the icing on this particular, poisonous cake will be
revealed shortly, in the form of a statement from Obamaville, calling on
Israel to cease its "aggression" and act reasonably. It'll probably be
at the morning press conference (later today, our time).

The trouble is, Israel seems to be the only player in all this with
reasonable intentions. Morsi in Egypt is drooling at the thought of an
opportunity to flex his new military muscles, and the Iranians and the
Syrian fanatics evidently can't wait to get stuck in too. Obama will be
left with only Israel to hector, since nobody else is listening.

Hamas and its fellow travellers show no sign whatsoever of wanting peace
at any point, now or in the future. It seems the BBC isn't terribly
interested in truth, either.

--------------------

S.
-- 
Historians will look back and say, "They did it to themselves!"