Israel turned down, a year ago, the C-RAM (Counter - Rocket, Artillery & Mortar) weapons systems which the US offered to sell them.
These systems are sitting on shelves, they could be deployed NOW... and could have been deployed for the last year.
They have a >85% success rate against mortar shells and other indirect fire. We use them to defend our bases all over Iraq.
Video of the C-RAM.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=85d_1193754405
Why is it that Israel is turning down something which could significantly reduce successful rocket attacks? Perhaps it's not in their best interest to just "stop the rockets."
Something like a dozen C-RAMs could cover all of Gaza strip. ~85% of rockets would be intercepted in Palestinian airspace and never even make it into Israel. Have C-RAMs in the towns being targeted and now you have 85% coverage on that end as well.
At $15M a pop, $90M would cover all of Gaza strip. $90M would cover the six major cities under rocket fire. It's also worth mentioning that these systems are trailer mounted: They can be moved as needed to reinforce vulnerable areas.
Some 50 rockets have been launched from Gaza in recent days, after the killing of three Hamas members by Israel.
A six-month ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas ended last week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7799593.stm
Israel killed several Hamas members, Hamas responded with rockets, Israel responded with airstrikes and an invasion. This seems to be the same tactic Israel has been using for thirty years:
General Moshe Dayan, who commanded the Israeli forces in 1967 and gave the order to occupy the Golan, gave an interview to an Israeli journalist, Rami Tal, in 1976. The interview was kept secret until April 1997, when it was published in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. It has been authenticated by Israeli historians, and General Dayan's daughter, Yael, a member of the Knesset, insisted that it be published.
In the interview, Tal interjected, "But they were sitting on the Golan Heights...."
"Never mind that," said Dayan. "I know how at least 80 percent of the clashes there started.... It went this way: We would send a tractor to plow some area where it wasn't possible to do anything - (it was) in the demilitarized zone - and [we] would know in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until, in the end, the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force.... And that's how it was."
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-akins.html
There have also been talks of the US selling the Israelis our C-RAM (Counter - Rocket, Artillery and Mortar) systems (based on the naval Phalanx CIWS). It would take one to two dozen of them (Depending on if you wanted redundant backups) to completely cover the Gaza strip, from the outside. This would allow Israeli to intercept rockets, artillery and mortars before they ever leave Palestinian airspace.
I find it a tad interesting that a few months before Israel gets near immunity to rocket attacks, they get 'fed up' and invade.
Israel launches a wave of air and missile attacks on targets across Gaza. Some 225 people are killed, according to local medics. Most are policemen within the Hamas militant movement; police chief Tawfik Jaber is among the dead. Women and children also died, according to officials in Gaza.
Several people killed at a mosque - including five sisters - in air attack at the refugee camp.
Interior Ministry and Islamic University at Tel al-Hawa badly damaged in air strike.
Office of former Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and other Hamas buildings attacked.
The Justice Ministry, Legislative Assembly, Civil Defense Building, Education ministry were hit, as well as at least two money changers' offices and a workshop.
At least 10 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli strike on a mosque, local medical sources said. Earlier, a caretaker was killed in a raid which destroyed large parts of the town's American school.
Many civilians killed when shells fall near a school and a market, Palestinian sources say.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7805808.stm
Compare the above with the results of the rocket attacks:
One man killed, several injured in Palestinian rocket attack.
One man killed and several other people injured in rocket attack.
Woman killed in rocket attack
Hit by Hamas rockets for a second day, but no casualties reported.
More than 30 rockets fired, including at least one landing in Ashdod and two in Beersheba.
Hamas fired more than 20 rockets into Israel, with some landing in the port town of Ashkelon. No casualties were reported.
At least 20 Palestinian rockets landed, including in Ashkelon, Ashdod and Sderot. No casualties were reported but a house in Ashkelon was hit.
The rockets Hamas is firing are just that, unguided rockets. The total death/injured toll for the last week of fighting is under ten dead and under twenty wounded. The death toll from airstrikes is last I heard over 500.
When the UN says Israel is using too much force, this is what they mean.
General Moshe Dayan, who commanded the Israeli forces in 1967 and gave the order to occupy the Golan, gave an interview to an Israeli journalist, Rami Tal, in 1976. The interview was kept secret until April 1997, when it was published in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. It has been authenticated by Israeli historians, and General Dayan's daughter, Yael, a member of the Knesset, insisted that it be published.
In the interview, Tal interjected, "But they were sitting on the Golan Heights...."
"Never mind that," said Dayan. "I know how at least 80 percent of the clashes there started.... It went this way: We would send a tractor to plow some area where it wasn't possible to do anything - (it was) in the demilitarized zone - and [we] would know in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until, in the end, the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force.... And that's how it was."
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-akins.html
That was the 1960s. Fast forward to two weeks ago.
Some 50 rockets have been launched from Gaza in recent days, after the killing of three Hamas members by Israel. A six-month ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas ended last week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7799593.stm
If you'll notice, the rocket attacks resumed after an Israeli attack. Israel broke the ceasefire. Don't get me wrong, both sides are to blame, but Israel has a history of being the bully.
I really hope this isn't modded as flamebait or trolling... Israel is responsible for, if not a gross majority, a majority of the fighting between Palestine and Israel.
Nothing is ever deleted from the internet... that's more true than false.
Between Google Cache, Archive.org and local temp files, I would expect a gross majority of the information is recoverable if the people know what they are doing.
I had a professor who had accidentally corrupted both his website and the backups. It took all of five minutes to recover good copies.
0.177806631% of a Fort Knox.
Sorry, you aren't THAT rich.
Am I the only person who was curious exactly how much water vapor he wanted to make...
1/2inch extra water for the surface of the earth comes out to 6,477,833,150,000 METRIC TONS of water. To put this in perspective, that is almost 15 million times the capacity of the largest crude oil tankers in the world. This is also (if you assume HowStuffWorks is within an order of magnitude of the correct value for the total water on the planet) 1/100,000th of all the water on the planet.
Exactly how does he intend to spray this much water?
The moon is made of green cheese. -- John Heywood