As promised, given recent developments and the threat of the Gaza situation spiraling into a regional war its probably best to concentrate news and discussion of them into a single thread.
Those hiya ‘degrees’- Grad Cert/Grad Dip/Masters are for sale imo. Pay your money and you’ll get your cert/dip/degree.
“These are the crème de la crème of the intelligensia”. Crème de la crème. Hardly. Going to University these days…
I am familiar with them from past times. They are not scholars these days. That all ended earlier in this…
Oh Lord O’Neil was a ‘manager’ at McKinsey’s.
So what use are their advisors when they don’t provide any useful input? Even if the MP is too busy…
Israel has known for years there are thousands of rockets. That’s never been a secret. About a decade or so ago I first read of sewerage problems in Gaza because pipes were used for rockets. Some of the main smuggling tunnels are under the southern border into Sinai. A few years ago Egyptian border troops and Sinai Bedouin had series of battles over access to the tunnel entrances. Paragliders were probably unexpected.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/10/israels-last-leftist-government-issued-17000-work-permits-to-gazans-that-helped-hamas-enter-israel
Hamas seen blocking evacuation routes in Gaza
Don’t know how accurate that is but hard to explain some of those pictures otherwise.
From 2014 but it seems doubtful they have changed their methods.
Gaza: Hamas says 18 suspected informants executed
pour l’encouragement des autres
Source: Bloomberg
Found a NYTimes article but it’s a pay site and I don’t have a subscription thus can only see part of the article. Perhaps someone who does could fill us in?
How Hamas Attacked Israel’s Communications Towers
Here Zat
I subscribe to it because of the cooking section. 🙂
Dover
I’d assume armament stockpiles would be a secret.Why would Bloomberg be a reliable source and who in turn are they quoting as a reliable source?
Thanks JC
That confirms what I had heard/read elsewhere. Obviously Hamas would have watched all that stuff being installed and studied what they knew to find a weakness.
The intelligent fence – I read that Hamas destroyed the equipment that relays the sensitive fence detectors to the bases where it’s monitored. Sorry, can’t give a citation – been reading too many analyses and suppositions.
.
Never underestimate the intelligence of your enemies, said Sun Tzu. These are the same people who figured how to fire bomb Israeli field and forests with cheap toy balloons. They’re a foul disgusting mob but they’re not stupid.
Gaza could fish in the Atlantic and Med; yet they had 45% unemployment in early 2023. Their resource base is far better than the West Bank has in many ways.
Gaza (and the West Bank) has (have) gas and oil too.
The potential for cheap electricity, gas and petroleum.
Access to cheap food (high-quality protein).
The possibility of cheap, virtually unlimited desalinated water (which they could even sell on).
They haven’t gone anywhere but backwards since 2006.
Why assume that? Are armament stockpiles secret? Is the strategic oil reserve secret? You would need to ask Bloomberg.
Thanks Zatara., JC and Katzenjammer, that makes sense. Much, much observation and some inside knowledge either through workers going in or sympathisers inside or both.
It’s a very important national security issue. Obviously, you don’t think so.
Yes they are.
No it isn’t but neither is the underwear stockpile for the military.
No, yiu ask Bloomberg. You quoted them. Off you go or perhaps get another one of your silly Twitter comments to back your assertion.
More.
It’s not a secret if the US government releases the information and in this case it appears the US does. Because it chooses to!
In other words Bloomberg has no idea.
Apologies for recovering old ground but I was thinking about this one overnight:
Given the religion and organization involved I guess I just accepted what I was seeing without it really hitting me.
They.executed.suspects. Not convicts, suspects. They are even sub-human to their own people.
Zat
I wonder if Israeli intel cleaned house 🙂
Mis-posted this on the main thread.
Iran backs down. Throws Hamas under the bus.
Iran warns Israel: Don’t attack us, we won’t engage you
Dsicussion: Israel Complies With The Law Of Armed Conflict When Defending Against Terrorists Hiding Among Civilians
Clears up many of the false “violation of international law” claims the left loves to pull out of their rectum.
What it misses about this particular war is that it is in fact a a war and thus subject to the laws of war vice the humanitarian rules of conflicts less than war. Israel is in fact applying a classic siege as defined in the rules of war and in accordance with them. For instance:
JC
I’d assume it’s all hands on deck until the mission is accomplished, but an ugly wash-up in the de-briefs after.
The ‘resistance front’ is not Hamas, it is Hezbollah and other parts of the ‘Axis of Resistance’.
Perhaps Dover. Hamas is also an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamia or ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’.
Neither of our interpretations use their word ‘front’. Both use the word ‘resistance’.
A literal meaning of ‘resistance front’ in the Iranian context might also be the ‘Resistance Front of Islamic Iran’, an Iranian political party. But we can probably rule that out.
Leftie Bill Maher makes a good point:
“On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that if we were going to do a land acknowledgment in Israel like people do for Native American land in the U.S., they would acknowledge the land belongs to Israel and wondered, “why does this work for Indians but not Jews?” He also wondered why Israel is the only country that is expected to cede land it won in a war.”
RTWL
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/10/13/maher-land-acknowledgments-seem-to-exist-for-native-americans-but-not-jews-in-israel/
Iran, Hezbollah, etc. don’t trust Hamas because the latter fought against them in Syria. Whatever cooperation there is between them is purely pragmatic.
I’m late, but it was a busy weekend.
Egyptian sources reportedly warned Israel of “something big” before Hamas attack. So, either Israeli intelligence sources are amongst the best in the world, and the Israelis let unspecified “something big” happen, or said sources are incompetent, as in 1973.
Scott Ritter has posted an article called Why I no longer stand with Israel, and never will again in his Substack. it makes for interesting reading. Some excerpts follow.
‘By the time I left UNSCOM, in August 1998, I counted myself as a genuine friend of Israel (there was a downside to this relationship—the FBI was investigating me for alleged violations of the espionage act, an investigation that did not end until after September 11, 2001, when, after an interview between myself and three FBI agents, the investigation was closed.)’
‘Another quote by Ben Gurion drove this point home. “Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors, and they defend themselves,” he said. “The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view, we want to take away from them their country.”’
‘Netanyahu’s statements directly contradicted the findings that my Israeli colleagues and I had reached—findings that were shared by the International Atomic Energy Agency, responsible for overseeing the dismantling of Iraq’s nuclear program—that the Iraqi nuclear program had been eliminated, and that there was no evidence of its reconstitution.’
‘To say I was furious at Israel for interfering with US foreign and national security policy is an understatement. Despite this, I continued to stand with Israel.’
‘And now I was being told that Israel had a hand in the creation of Hamas. The intent, my host told me, was to create a political divide within the Palestinian political leadership, and to dilute the power and influence of Yassar Arafat’s Fatah organization. In this, they had apparently succeeded.’
‘It later came out that this internecine conflict between Palestinians had been orchestrated by Israel to split the Palestinian political body, weakening it while providing Israel with the opportunity to improve relations with Fatah under the grounds that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’
‘I have never stood with Hamas, and I never will.
I once stood with Israel, but I will never do so again.’
I saw that too – drones were reportedly used.
According to wiki (I know, not the most reliable source), HMS is the acronym, but h@m@s (I refuse to express the word itself) is Arabic for zeal, strength, or bravery.
To use their chosen title is to compliment them.
“The intelligent fence …”
Also, I think they became too dependent upon other electronics as well, such as monitoring social media etc, and stopped relying on actual boots on the ground to gather intelligence. If true, all Hamas had to do was “pass each other notes” to organise and no-one would have noticed…
Interesting that Israeli intelligence fell into the trap that set the CIA up for 9/11.
The bright young things from the ‘Langley MBA’ agressively destroyed country expert organisations, booted people with on the ground knowlege, denigrated humint as expensive rumours.
‘Overheads’ and electronic surveillance were all that was needed.
When information regarding 9/11 planning trickled in the CIA had no means, and no interest, in dealing with it. “If you ain’t got a picture, it ain’t there”.
Mossad’s total awsome capability was based upon humint. A terrible price has been paid for ‘modernising’ that successful formula.
Security is far to important to be left to Government.
OT. I notice that the entire FAUDA cast and crew are either with their units or in support functions. It’s just like Australia really, the Four Corners and Q & A crews launching assaults on Dutton’s kids schools.
Israel-Hamas War: Europe Warns Elon Musk Over Fake News on X | Vantage with Palki Sharma
Update from around the traps:
– water back on in Gaza (conflicting though as other reports say infrastructure damaged or destroyed);
– humanitarian aid being allowed into Gaza soon;
– temporary unilateral cease fire in Gaza for 5 hrs while that aid is delivered and distributed;
– Iran emerges as leading regional power as other Arab and Gulf states fall into line (KSA blindsided); and
– US position in ME at the crossroads;
Israel saying that Iran gave Hezbollah the instructions for the incursion (and therefore slaughter) from Gaza.
I think this is a nod towards Iran’s best friend China, back there in the shadows,
What about the Armenian situation. The Israel situation is bad but I can’t get enough of what’s happened to the Armenians. Armenia and Georgia are in the cradle of Christianity and their survival to my mind is vital for the Christian world. The movt of 100k people l the loss of territory I can’t let it go.
Doesn’t make sense, Makka. Do you mean Hamas?
Times of Israel editorial worth a read.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-does-not-yet-understand-the-depth-of-israeli-resolve/
dover;
WSJ- 8 Oct.
This article speaks to Hezbollah involvement and support.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/13/iran-began-collaborating-with-hezbollah-and-hamas-on-israel-attack-plan-over-a-year-ago/
Reports not from Israel , that was an error. But reports Hezbollah were all all over it from prep stage.
Hamas alone are not disciplined or sophisticated enough to pull this off and evade Israeli surveillance/intel systems. If that’s so and Hezbollah are so deeply engaged, did Iran’s friend China have a role in support? The US response has been to shift around a lot of assets.
Makka, possible, but seems too convenient to rope Hezbollah and Iran into the operation directly and so soon when days earlier these agencies were none the wiser. Further, I’ve seen a report claiming Hamas had established a Joint Operation Room that united other factions in Gaza first, and then later in the West Bank, over the last few years so the idea that coordinating this is beyond them doesn’t fly.
Makka
Oct 16, 2023 11:57 PM
Don’t underestimate your enemies.
Sure. I also don’t underestimate Israel’s surveillance capabilities. Which are supported by the US.
In due course we’ll have explanations. For me, Iran’s involvement isn’t in question. They are deeply involved.
If you believe that, I have a bridge…..
To overcome/elude Israeli/US surveillance requires substantial resources. As well as discipline. Over a long period. I can’t see Hamas mustering all of that on it’s lonesome.