Defending Israel – Israel is Vulnerable to Attack

Defending Israel is a Necessity
Israel’s Arab Enemies want to Eliminate Her

Since the birth of modern Israel in 1948, successive Middle East wars have tried to ‘eliminate’ Israel. This fundamental objective is stated in the original Hamas Charter:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it [Hamas Charter, 1988]

 

Defending Israel against Radical Islam

To date, no Hamas representative has ever renounced the charter and their objective remains to replace the Jewish state with an Islamic caliphate, link. The Revised Hamas Charter (2017) appears to soften the Hamas approach to Israel, hinting at a two-state solution and addressing the antisemitic language contained in the 1988 charter. But the underlying objective remains the same, link, link. To quote the revised charter:

There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. (Hamas) rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and by international norms and laws. (Hamas) reaffirms Hamas’s approval of armed conflict with Israel

So what’s new? As Israel says:

This is a war between jihadist Islam and Western civilization; a war between radical Islam and all those who refuse to surrender to its values and political demands [Ron Ben Ishai, Israeli military analyst, 2015]

So the struggle intensifies, and when Israel is attacked the whole world risks instability due to the threat of nuclear war as she defends herself. Even informed secular observers are forced to admit that Israel is now the vortex of the Middle East, as she is threatened on all sides by aggressive neighbours. The video graphically illustrates how vulnerable Israel is to attack, and underscores her need for hi-tech defense.

Defending Israel from Hamas in Gaza

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since 2001 more than 15,200 rockets and mortars (an average of over 3 rocket attacks every single day) have targeted Israel, link. Hamas in Gaza has been responsible for most of these attacks. Even exchanging ‘land for peace’ does not work. Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists have fired more than 11,000 rockets into Israel, and over 5 million Israelis are currently living under threat of rocket attacks. Some say Hamas leaders must be tried for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, claiming that Hamas permits indiscriminate fire at Israel’s civilian population; firing from within their own civilians, schools and hospitals. Hamas forces its civilians including children to stand on rooftops and other spots of great danger, using them as human shields, link. Yet the UN has done little to stop this!

Defending Israel from Hezbollah in Lebanon

In 2017, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that his rockets can reach Israel’s nuclear reactor in the southern city of Dimona in the Negev desert. He said he would turn Israel’s reported nuclear arsenal against it, link. Should this ever happen, Israel has threatened to retaliate against Lebanon. Nasrallah has previously threatened to target an ammonia tank in Haifa. Hamas fired rockets at Dimona in 2014, link.

According to Israel’s High Level Military Group (HLMG), a war between Israel and the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon is inevitable and will likely be “more violent and destructive” than the previous conflicts. The Iranian-backed terrorist organization currently has a stockpile of over 130,000 rockets. These are embedded among the civilian population of Lebanon, a deliberate strategy which the defense experts say is a “war crime”. The HLMG report concludes; “There is no plausible legitimate explanation for Hezbollah’s efforts to arm itself and threaten Israel other than the explicit religiously motivated Iranian drive to destroy Israel.”

Defending Israel from ISIS in Sinai

defending Israel

Fig.1: The Levant. Image: CC-BY-SA-3.0, Wikimedia Commons

In 2017 a branch of ISIS in Egypt’s Sinai claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel, link. Several Grad rockets were fired at Israel’s southern resort city of Eilat [Um al-Rashrash]. Most were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

The Wider ISIS Threat: When politicians refer to the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (‘IS’ or ‘Daesh’ in Arabic) they may be referring to ISIS, meaning “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Syria)”. But when they refer to ‘ISIL’, they effectively rewrite the map of the Eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Egypt. ISIL means “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”, where Levant embraces all of Israel, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and areas of southern Turkey, link. See Fig.1 and also Levant. Clearly, this ISIL objective embraces the latest Hamas end game – elimination of the Jewish state.

Defending Israel from the North – Iran

Israel’s worst threat is from the north. The threat of war from Israel’s northern border is “many times greater” than the threat from Gaza [Major General Yair Golan, 2015]. The threat comes from Hezbollah (‘the party of Allah’) which has built an arsenal of more than 65,000 missiles to use against Israel. Some of these missiles may have sophisticated guidance systems designed to thwart Israel’s Iron Dome.

The video explains the reason for Israel’s stance against such aggression and encourages the media to give the facts!

Bible prophecy in Ezekiel 38 suggests an invasion of Israel prior to the last battle – Armageddon, and that this invasion involves mainly those Arab-Islamic nations surrounding Israel – including Iran, see Gog-Magog War. Why is Iran so important here? In 2011 the IAEA released a comprehensive and damning report on Iran’s nuclear program, stating that Iran is engaged in “activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device”, link. And in 2015 the IAEA concluded that it was “not in a position to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities”, link. As Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed, a nuclear Iran would pose a severe threat to Israel. In a speech to the UN, he warned that “a nuclear Iran is a bigger threat to the world than Islamic State (IS) militants.”

So today this prophecy looks like becoming reality as Iran repeatedly threatens Israel, link. For example:

The Army of Iran can by itself destroy Israel
[Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi, Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, 2013]

Defending Israel: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

defending Israel

The Jewish community’s primary defense force – the Haganah – became a full-scale defense force following the 1936-1939 Arab revolt. The Haganah (and other Jewish fighting forces) helped fight for Israel’s independence leading up to the British withdrawal on May 13, 1948.

On May 31, 1948, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officially began operations to protect the new State of Israel. By the end of the 1949 War of Independence the IDF had defeated five invading Arab armies. By July 1949, the IDF had beaten back every invading Arab army and armistice agreements were signed between Israel and its major opponents – effectively ending the fighting and securing the existence of the State of Israel.

Humanitarian Missions

In 2015, the IDF opened a 60-bed field hospital in Nepal following the devastating earthquake. This involved some 120 IDF medical personnel (doctors, nurses and paramedics) and approximately 95 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies from Israel, link. See video.

During the Gaza war of 2014 large swaths of Gaza were put in darkness after Hamas rockets hit high voltage power lines feeding Gaza from Israel. Under instructions from Israel’s politicians, and under the authorization and protection of the IDF, the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) worked near the border of Gaza to repair the power grids. Power was restored to those firing rockets into Israel!

In 2010, the IDF sent a humanitarian mission to Haiti. This comprised a medical and rescue team following a major earthquake. The delegation was made up of 236 members who ran a field hospital and rescued people from the rubble. During its stay in Haiti, the delegation treated more than 1,110 patients, conducted 319 successful surgeries, delivered 16 babies, including three caesarian sections, and rescued survivors from the collapsed buildings. They left 30 tons of medical equipment for use in the ongoing aid effort.

2014 Operation Protective Edge

Following incessant rocket fire from Gaza at Israel, the IDF initiated Operation Protective Edge. During the conflict some 4,700 missiles, rockets and mortars (some supplied by Iran) were fired by Hamas and affiliated terrorist organizations from Gaza into Israel’s cities and towns, link. But during this war it is claimed that Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 80-90% of rockets fired at population centers in Israel, and marked 1,000 missile hits since it was first implemented in 2011 [Ynetnews], link. Another objective of the operation was to destroy Hamas attack tunnels, and over the 50 day conflict the IDF uncovered and destroyed 32 tunnels.

In 2015, an international high-level military assessment of the 2014 Gaza conflict found that Israel not only abided by the laws of armed conflict, but far surpassed their requirements, despite damning and premature reports by the UN, link, link.

2012 Operation Pillar of Defense

On November 14, in response to incessant rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, the IDF launched a widespread campaign against terror targets in Gaza. The operation had two main goals: cripple terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and defend Israelis living under fire. During the next eight days, the IDF targeted more than 1,500 terror sites across the Gaza Strip. The sites that were targeted were positively identified by precise intelligence over the course of several months. These included 980 underground rocket launchers, 66 tunnels and 26 weapons manufacturing and storage facilities.

For military details see IDF


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