25 x 4.5 or 333(1689.64) x?
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| Courtesy CIA Factbook www.cia.gov |
The Nation of Israel, on the other hand, is the land of giant Nephilim and other evil doers – according to the litany of anti-Semitic; anti-Zionist blog posts that show up constantly with hundreds, sometimes thousands of hits. However, the Security Consulting Investigations, LLC and the Riggs Ministry Minute (a ministry of True North Ministry), blogs on this issue will not only not go viral; it will be considered fortunate if two more young people even read it than read the last one. Still, it is here for those who want to learn.
Israel has a population in 2012 of 7,933,200 whereas the State of Pennsylvania in the United States has a population of 12,742,886. Israel is 8,000 square miles, or 263 miles north to south and between 9 and 71 miles wide at the narrowest and widest points. (Courtesy www.lookIsrael.com) Pennsylvania, for comparing and contrasting purposes is 46,058 square miles or nearly six times as large as Israel. New Hampshire and New Jersey are close to the 8,000 square miles of Israel. (Courtesy www.netstate.com)
Perhaps one of the most interesting facts that the western media, or
the world media for that matter, never seem to broach is that only 75.4%
of Israel’s population is Jewish. 20.6% of Israel’s population is Arab (Muslim/Druze). That equals 1,636,600 Arabs living and working peacefully in Israel as citizens of Israel. Remember that the Gaza Strip has just 1,657,155 million Arabs. Israel has as many Arab citizens as the Gaza Strip does. Although
100 percent of Gaza Strip’s population is Arab (mostly Sunni Muslim)
and according to Wikipedia, nearly all are born in Gaza, still many
claim to be Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. The Gaza Strip has
the 7th highest birth rate in the world according to the CIA
World Factbook. A side-note here regarding the inequality in population
demographics; one of the primary targets in past years for HAMAS rockets
out of the Gaza Strip is the Ashkelon power plant in Southern Israel,
just a few miles North of Gaza. The Gaza Strip receives 100% of their
electrical power from the Ashkelon site, which employs both Jews and
Arabs.That fairly well debunks the continual outcry of the Gaza Strip’s frailty of being just 25 x 4.5 miles in size against its overwhelming nemesis. Consider the second half of the question posed in the title. What is {333(1689.64) x ?} ? As Operation Pillar of Defense began, reports circulated that one of the key issues that brought the Israeli response was the firing toward Tel Aviv of at least two Fajr-5 rockets that had the range capability and that range includes Jerusalem. The following illustration better explains the issue involving the Fajr -5 rockets, products of Iran and China, also found in Russia’s arsenal.
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| Q1 Q2 Q3 GRAD WS-1E FADJR-5 |
The details outlined in the illustration are in metric figures. To provide a few simple points to drive home the critical issues: the 333 mm shells are four times larger than the 88mm guns made famous in WWII. “The Fajr-5 rocket is manufactured by Shahid Bagheri Industries of Tehran and marketed by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, the 6.5-meter-long (21-foot) Fajr-5 rockets are used by the Iranian army” and can be fired from the back of a 6x6 truck. The warhead alone weights 198 lbs. Its range is 46.5 miles.
Jerusalem is 48 miles from Gaza City which is approximately 6 miles south of the Northern border of the Gaza Strip. Tel Aviv is 44 miles from Gaza City, definitely within range of the Fajr-5. One more basic mathematical question to consider: the Fajr-5 rocket travels at a velocity of 1689.64 feet per second. That means that the Fajr-5 rocket carrying a 198lb warhead can go from being fired inside the Gaza Strip to exploding on its target at full range of 46.5 miles in 2.42 minutes. The almost 200 pounds of explosive detonate on impact and the rocket has no guidance system on it, so where it falls, it falls. How long, if you were walking in the bazaar of Old Jerusalem, along the crowded, chaotic streets of the marketplace, would it take you to find shelter if you knew a rocket was incoming? (Remember the noise of the market place.) Probably longer than 2.42 minutes. What if everyone started to panic? How long for school bus, or city bus, to pull over and off-load everyone and get to safety? How long for school children to get the alarm and exit to shelters outside on the playground? What if every Fajr-5 rocket can fire four rounds in 4 to 8 seconds each? They can, according to their specifications. Some reports extend their range to 50 miles, as well. (www.http://factualworld.com/article/Fajr-5)
Shiraz Maher of The Spectator, a UK blog claims that Israel has been weakened and HAMAS emboldened, the Muslim Brotherhood given credence and the IDF and Israeli citizens suffering psychological defeat by the encroachment on Tel Aviv by rocket-fire. He claimed: “Israel secured none of its strategic objectives. In fact, in many cases it actually strengthened Hamas and diminished Israel’s security.” (http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/shiraz-maher/2012/11/operation-pillar-of-defence-leads-israel-to-strategic-failure/) However, what Maher sees as more than failure, Haaretz News points out that the actual points made by Maher indicate strategic success. “Operation Pillar of Defense had two strategic goals - one, to reinstate the Gaza cease-fire with Hamas, which had unraveled in recent months amid increasing hostilities, and two, to stabilize the peace with Egypt after the Muslim Brotherhood came to power.”
(www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-pillar-of-defense-achieved-its-goals.premium-1.479674)
It is also important to recall that not only did the IDF (or other state sponsored groups) see to the directed killing of the HAMAS leader, Ahmed al-Jabarim, the IAF also took out a weapons facility in Sudan where the Fajr-5 rockets were at least housed after being smuggled through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula; (a point the Brotherhood would prefer not to have to explain on the world stage.)
Another issue that may count as a strategic success for the IDF is the weakening of the Palestinian Authority’s hold on governance in the settlements. “The Palestinian security services are having a difficult time handling the wave of disturbances that broke out over the last week during Operation Pillar of Defense, said a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces' Central Command Wednesday.” That does not come as a surprise to many on-lookers. It is believed that Iran and their puppet army, Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood kept a distance from HAMAS during Operation Pillar of Defense for several reasons. First is the perceived declining capability of HAMAS to control the security and population of the Gaza Strip. Iran failing to authorize Hezbollah to open a second front against the IDF in the north in case HAMAS did fall to the IDF. The Brotherhood initially stated they would keep the Philadelphia Road open from the south and not block it, as was done by Egypt in Operation Casting Lead. Within 24 hours, however, the regime in Cairo changed course and did block it for fear of the number of refugees streaming into the south from Gaza if hostilities erupted into a full ground war. Rather than strengthening the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, it also became clear that in part due to the large economic aid that Egypt receives from the United States, the Brotherhood was quick to come alongside the U.S. Secretary of State to broker a cease-fire.
Opinions will come and go as the cease-fire either holds for some time or collapses within the weeks ahead. The main point will remain, however, that as long as Israeli civilians are within 2.42 minutes of a direct hit from a 333mm warhead, the IDF and the people of Israel stand ready to defend their homeland. Freedom loving people across the world should stand in full support of them. The folks at Security Consulting Investigations, LLC and True North Ministry certainly do. (Genesis 12:3; Psalm 122:6)
Dr. Ross L. Riggs www.docriggs.com www.security-consulting.us
