Free Republic

Why Israel Must Not Attack Iran By Ari Bussel There are two ways to fight an enemy’s military superiority: brut force or ingenuity. Modern Israel, the infant country, had neither the means nor the power against her Arab neighbors that sought her destruction. Greatly outnumbered, she survived against all odds. What was the secret to her success? She was driven to survive, and that was stronger than her enemies’ will to destroy her. Her enemies heard they were winning, even before the fighting started: The Egyptian army walking onto Tel Aviv, and the Jews surrendering. The Jews, however, had no...

Why Worry? by Ari Bussel I was asked each day following the activation of the nuclear reactor in Iran why there is nothing about Iran in the Israeli media. There may have been a small news item somewhere, but the news is not really of much interest to anyone. I wonder how the threat seems so far away. Could it be Iran’s new launch and delivery capabilities or a renewed determination to eliminate the tiny nuisance along the shores of the Mediterranean is now paled by comparison to a focus on much bigger fish? Perhaps it is Iran’s desire to...

Most Iranian military threats are more propaganda than reality. Take, for example, their threat to shut the Straits of Hormuz (where ships exit the Persian Gulf and enter the Indian Ocean). Some 40 percent of the worlds oil shipments pass through the Straits of Hormuz, which comes to about 15-20 tankers a day (plus a dozen or more non-tankers). The Persian Gulf in general, is a busy waterway. It is 989 kilometers long, and the average depth is 50 meters (maximum depth is 90 meters). The Iranian problem is that they have a small navy, an obsolete air force and...

Here are the first pictures I am aware of of the damaghed IDF Naval vessel, the Saar 5. Fron these pictures, it is clear that the ship was hit at an angle that would have allowed the CIWS to engage if it was active. I am now leaning towards the systems not being engaged at the time of attack. IMHO, if true, as some reports have indicated today (buit that I did not want to believe), it would be a fatal and inexcusable mistake in the environment the vessel found itself in...defending other IDF gunboats against air attack during shore...

For quite some time I have been thinking of the resemblance lines between Iran President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other past bitter enemies of the State of Israel and the Jewish People. On the one hand, Ahmadinejad reminds Haman with his plot to obliterate the Jewish People, by sneaking a surprise attack. Thus, Ahmadinejad might try to launch a nuclear offensive on Israel. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad's aggressive rhetoric toward Israel has similar features to that of Egyptian President, Nasser, on the eve of the Six Day War. For instance, on May 27 1967, Nasser proclaimed: "Our basic objective will...

In recent weeks, prominent Iranian figures within the government and in newspapers close to the regime have threatened the United States and Europe. The threats include "use of all means of force" against "enemy" targets "within and outside Iran," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. In a speech to the residents of the city of Hamedan on July 5, Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei said: "We, the Iranian people, within the borders of our country, will cut off any hand that harms our scientific, natural, human, or technological interests. We will cut off the hand that is...