Hamas Missile Strikes Israeli ICBM Base

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The NY Times reports that a Hamas missile struck Israel’s Sdot Micha airbase, which houses its Jericho ICBM missiles. They are equipped to carry nuclear warheads. Israel has somewhere between 200-400 such weapons in total and 40-50 missile bunkers at Sdot Micha.  The missiles are located in underground silos, which protects them in the event of just such an attack.  But the fire the missile caused crept to within 1,000 feet of the them.  There are also fuel and munitions depots which could have caused a major explosion.

This strike shows that Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome missile defense has serious weaknesses.  Sdot Micha, along with the Dimona nuclear reactor and the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv are among the most strategically critical to the nation’s defense (and offense). For Hamas to penetrate multiple layers of defense is astonishing.  In light of the egregious intelligence failure of 10/7, this attack has to be right up there.

Nor is this the first time the Axis of Resistance has struck the air base.  In 2011, Hezbollah flew an armed drone which crashed at the base as well.  The IDF released a cover story saying it was an Israeli experimental drone which fell.  This was to cover up the embarrassment of a $100 drone crashing into the most important strategic asset Israel has.

US-Israel Collusion on Ethnic Cleansing Plan

Tucked away in the Biden administration $100-billion budget request for military aid to Ukraine and Israel was a little $3-billion item, which Rashid Khalidi describes in an op-ed as:

“Migration and Refugee Assistance” funding for “potential needs of Gazans fleeing to neighboring countries,” for “displacement across border[s],” and for “programming requirements outside of Gaza.”

It is no coincidence that the NY Times reported in the same period that Israel was shopping a plan–to expel “hundreds of thousands” of Gazans–to six countries. It named the US and UK in particular, as well as Jordan and Egypt.  The article declares all those consulted opposed the idea.

However, the proposed US funding for precisely this sort of plan indicates the Biden administration was likely floating the same one as Israeli for ethnic cleansing. We all know how deeply implicated the US in the Israeli war machine.  The massive ordnance we are supply to commit genocide in Gaza.  But until now we didn’t know clearly that being an accessory to such crimes against humanity included our willingness to expel millions of Gazans.

In a Foreign Policy interview, Khalidi goes even farther, saying Secretary of State Blinken directly pitched the ethnic cleansing plan to Egypt and Jordan.  They were apoplectic and the US immediately dropped it. Now, we claim we’re against ethnic cleansing, Israeli encroachment on Gaza territory, and support renewal of humanitarian aid.  On the side of the angels.

Israel appears to be ignoring Biden, which is one reason for a new campaign brewing among American-Muslism to Abandon Biden.  I urge Senate Democrats to call Blinken to testify about this mad plan.  What did he know and when did he know it?  How did the plan arise?  Who prepared it?  Was it an Israeli plan or American? Who was pitched and by whom?  Did Blinken directly pitch it to Arab states?

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DONATE: We are all horrified by events in Gaza and are moved to bear witness to it.  To do so, we crave the best information we can find.  Tikun Olam provides inside information about Israeli intelligence and security plans. Its reporting offers evidence from inside the Israeli military-intelligence apparatus documenting Israel’s intentions of genocide. Many are reporting on Gaza. Few can provide the point of view offered here.  Please support this work with a donation.

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Intelligence failure

Anti-government protests have resumed in Israel, but with different goals than before the war.  One protest called for the return of the 100 hostages Hamas still holds.  Those demonstrating had to acknowledge that the resumption of Israeli attacks meant this would not happen any time soon.  If Netanyahu isn’t careful, the sense of betrayal among the hostage families and their supporters could become a groundswell of opposition. There was another smaller protest outside the IDF Kirya calling for an end to the war.  Unfortunately, this is a very small niche within the Israeli public.

Israel is just beginning to resume some sort of normal life after the traumatic events of 10/7.  Part of that process will be an official assessment of how this disaster happened and who was responsible for the unprecedented intelligence failure.  Blame will surely fall on both the Shin Bet, which is responsible for combating “terrorism” in the West Bank and Gaza; and on the IDF. The former’s chief responsibility is to know everything that happens there even before the Palestinians themselves know it.

An IDF intelligence analyst in Unit 8200 secured the actual Hamas training handbook a year before the attack. She urged the army’s Southern Command to take it very seriously.  Unfortunately, the commander dismissed her concerns, claiming that the manual was one of many Israel had seen over the years. This one was nothing new.  Six months before the attack, another IDF surveillance officer watched Hamas training exercises which she too brought to her superiors.  Her warnings were also ignored.

There will be a reckoning.  In the past heads would roll and officials would accept responsibility and resign.  That doesn’t happen any more.  No one takes responsibility. The fault was the other guy’s.  I did everything I was supposed to do, etc.

Tikun Olam is the first to report that an Israeli security source says Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar will likely resign to take responsibility.  Officials are also targeting a notorious Shin Bet officer with the code name, Captain Oscar, who commanded the agency’s southern Israel and Gaza operation. He too will be sacked.  Oscar was known for his torture interrogation techniques.  Among those he abused was Dirar Abu Sisi, whose extraordinary and fraudulent case I covered extensively.  Oscar was the officer who tried to torture Abu Sisi into confessing to his purported role as Hamas’ “rocket chief.” He was, in fact, a civil engineer who ran the power plant.  He is now serving a 20 year sentence for a crime he not only didn’t commit, but whose prosecution was a crime in itself.

If Israel were different, both the prime minister and IDF chief of staff would resign as well.  They are just as culpable as Bar and Oscar.  Bibi is far too cunning to go anywhere near the subject of personal responsibility, despite his protestations to the contrary.