Israel responds to mortar fire from Syria

[LongBlade]

Id recommend not trying to piss me off in every post longdan.

I thought he was just flirting.

[Windigo]

Id recommend not trying to piss me off in every post longdan.

Everything pisses you off Star.... you need to date a massage chick!

[GDS_Starfury]

no, just Mondays and geriatric Canadistanians.   ;)

[LongBlade]

no, just Mondays and geriatric Canadistanians.   ;)

Whatever turns you on - but that really is TMI.

[Boggit]

I took issue with the armor as well but whatever...  not everyone is a historically aware grog.

Some argue Jews did serve as legionaries. I'm not altogether surprised as the Empire was around for a pretty long time. Aside from the obvious issues with Jewish-Roman relations, it's not as odd as it might seem.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v024/24.3schoenfeld.pdf

[Martok]

Huh, that was an interesting read.  Thanks for the link Boggit. 

[besilarius]

When Aurelian fought with Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, it turned out that the troops who best handled her catphracts were Palestinians.  They weilded a large club and apparently got in among the heavily armed catphracts (who were engaged or recovering from beating up on the Roman cavalry) and using the club to smash the enemy.  (Much like the Swiss used hammers on the heavily armored knights.)
It was difficult to penetrate the armor of the catphracts, but their lack of light infantry support, allowed the Palestinians to rout the elite unit.

[GDS_Starfury]

an interesting twist as I hadnt heard of anything blowing up in Sudan.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12...#ixzz2EP0Gt5lF


How close did Israel just come to its own Cuban missile crisis?

By Paul Alster
Published December 07, 2012
FoxNews.com
Hundreds of Iranian-made, long-range missiles already smuggled into Gaza provided a secret sense of urgency behind Israel's recent campaign against Hamas, and the the Jewish state acted with the Obama administration's full knowledge, intelligence experts told FoxNews.com.

Jonathan Schantzer, a former counter-terrorism analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, said the real agenda behind Israel's assault last month on Hamas' munitions stockpiles and smuggling tunnels was not simply to end the daily barrage of relatively primitive rockets that have become part of daily life in Israel. The real mission was to eliminate as many as 100 Iranian-built Fajr5 missiles - with the power to reach Tel Aviv - that had been sneaked into Gaza through Egypt. The Obama administration knew in advance of the operation and agreed that the missiles, built in a Sudanese factory, had to be neutralized to protect millions of Israeli citizens who were now within range of the deadly Iranian weapons, according to Schantzer.

"The U.S. was fully aware of what was going to come in Gaza," Schantzer, now vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told FoxNews.com. "They said nothing for the first few days of the operation; there was dead silence from [Obama]."

Israel essentially achieved its main aims within the first few days, said Schantzer, noting that Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., said as much when he remarked on Day Three of the campaign: "We have run out of good targets."

Rocket attacks from Gaza were commonplace in Israel prior to the campaign, dubbed "Operation Pillar of Defense," with at least 750 projectiles falling on the area close to the border since January. The attacks were ratcheted up in early November, which seemed to prompt Israel's move and the deployment of its vaunted "Iron Dome" defense system. But behind the scenes, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) had a more pressing need to launch their intense bombardment on Hamas' weapons stores.

Israel's elimination of senior Hamas figure Ahmad Jabari as he drove in broad daylight in Gaza also fits into Schantzer's narrative.
"Ahmad Jabari, along with another major Hamas figure, Mahmoud al Mabhouhk, [who was assassinated in Dubai in 2010], was a key part of the procurement network for the Fajr missiles and there is little doubt that Israel was keen to take out the man responsible," Schantzer explained.
Schantzer contends that the operation actually began three weeks earlier, when, on Oct. 23, the Iranian-owned Yarmouk armaments factory in Sudan - believed to be the assembly plant for the Fajr5 missiles that have a range of up to 45 miles - was devastated by air strikes for which the Sudanese government holds Israel responsible. Israel, and for that matter the U.S., both deny any knowledge of the attack.

Sudanese Information Minister Ahmad Bilal Osman, told Al Jazeera the day after the attack, "Israel has accused Sudan of sending arms to Hamas. These allegations are not correct. The factory manufactures ordinary, legal weapons."
When asked how Sudan would respond to the incident, Osman answered, "We definitely won't attack Israel itself...but we have a right to tackle the interests of Israel wherever they are from now on."

It may not have been coincidental that the destruction of the Sudanese factory occurred at exactly the same time that a joint Israeli/U.S. military exercise, 'Austere Challenge', involving some 3,500 U.S. troops, was taking place in Israel. Some military analysts have suggested that the exercises and the Gaza operation were part of a dry run for a potential future incursion into Iran.

The suggestion of American knowledge and approval of the alleged Israeli attack in Sudan and the subsequent offensive in Gaza, undermines the theory that Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were not on speaking terms after the elections, in which Netanyahu expressed support for Mitt Romney. The grave threat posed by the Fajr5 rockets may have been enough for both leaders to agree that something had to be done – and fast.

"The fact of the matter is that there was a significant upsurge in rocket fire from Gaza in the weeks leading up to the operation," an Israeli administration source told FoxNews.com. "Once the need to respond was there, it made sense to take the opportunity to act against the most dangerous weapons. Those (the Fajr rockets) were the first targets. There was a need to minimize their ability to target major population centers in Israel."

The apparent coordination between Israel and the U.S. raises questions about the role of Egypt, which was credited with helping broker a cease fire between Israel and Hamas. The missiles were almost certainly smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, with the likely knowledge of President Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization of Hamas.

"There's little doubt that Iranian-built rockets came from Sudan through Egypt, and that Egypt's security forces weren't interested in intercepting the missiles," Eric Trager, of the Washington Institute, an expert on Egyptian affairs, told FoxNews.com. "Morsi was more interested in furthering his own internal agenda than worrying about foreign policy issues at that time."

Had Israel not acted when it did to destroy Hamas' new and more lethal stockpile of weapons, the situation could have escalated, drawing other parties into a wider Middle East war.

"I think that Washington and the international media have been so lazy in their coverage of this conflict in terms of identifying what actually happened," Schantzer said. "Both the Israeli intelligence community and Israeli officials referred to the presence of Fajr5 missiles in the hands of Hamas as 'game changing rockets,' a change that very nearly produced Israel's own Cuban missile crisis."

[Gusington]

^Whoa. Just saw that more Iranian ships are docking in Sudan right now too.

[TheCommandTent]

I had not heard about the airstrike on the weapons factory in Sudan.  Very interesting stuff.  Thanks for posting that.

[LongBlade]

In a show of sincerity in support of peace a guy in Gaza is now marketing a perfume named after the rockets launched at Israel.

...residents of Gaza can now buy a fragrance inspired by the rockets used in Hamas' recent conflict with Israel.

Gaza company Stay Stylish is behind the perfume, called M75.

"We have a marketing slogan which is 'Whoever loves victory, happiness and dignity, loves the M75 perfume,'" the company's marketing director, who wished to be identified only as Shadi, told CNN at the Stay Stylish store in Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/12/world/meast/gaza-rocket-perfume-m75/index.html

[Longdan]

That's one catchy slogan I tells ya.  Has a ring to it.
Sure to catch on.  Sales will skyrocket.

[Gusington]

Stay Stylish Gaza.

[JasonPratt]

Sure to catch on.  Sales will skyrocket.

A perfume destined to be used by beautiful bombshells.