Shabazan

Well at long last, after technical delays, reported diplomatic pressure and bureaucratic holdups, the Lebanese flotilla has left port! Ostensibly the three- boat armada set a course for Cyprus, but as everyone knows its real destination is Gaza. A lot of publicity was devoted to the passengers on one of the vessels. They are all women! I wonder if Herzbollah spiritual head Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has ascertained that the girly boat is properly chaperoned. The Iranians too have sent a two-ship flotilla to Gaza.

According to the Jerusalem Post the Lebanese flotilla consists of just two ships which are still in port and the Iranians have sent only one vessel.

How well will we handle the blockade busters this time? Ya'akov Katz Jane's Defence Weekly correspondent in Israel summed up the debate over the way the Turkish flotilla flagship Mavi Marmara was boarded. His analysis dealt with the military aspect of the operation, a topic that won't be examined by the Israeli appointed investigating committee. "Even within the military community there is a sense that the navy commandos were misused in the operation.” claims Katz. The navy commandos have a well earned reputation as one of the best IDF elite units. However their expertise has been tested mainly in covert operations behind enemy lines and not in crowd dispersion situations. Katz argues that the police SWAT (special weapons and tactics) unit which specialises in counter-terror operations, hostage rescues in urban environments and counter attacks, would have been better suited for taking over the Mavi Marmara.

Katz quoted a senior Israeli Navy source who said, “Apart from the navy commandos no other military or police force was capable of boarding a moving vessel at sea and commandeering it. The Israeli Navy looks at the bottom line and that is nine dead attackers and six ships prevented from breaking the blockade with no serious casualties on our side. For us, that is a success.”

Another success like that and we will be truly all out at sea.

Referring precisely to this myopic type of thinking Professor Zaki Shalom of the INSS (the Institute for National Security Studies) says, “An operational mishap, even if confined to a narrow tactical level, can sometimes have far reaching strategic implications. While presumably this is understood by the decision making echelon in Israel, it is less clear to what extent this has been internalised within the operational echelon.” Notwithstanding the grave consequences of the action Zaki Shalom believes there is a positive aspect of the affair. “First, the international community, led by the American administration, has granted almost full recognition to Israel's fundamental right to prevent the supply of weapons to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The implication might be that Israel is entitled to impose a naval blockade on Gaza in order to prevent the smuggling of arms – although this understanding was accompanied by calls to significantly ease the land blockade and allow entry of more goods and commodities, barring specific materials that could strengthen Hamas's military strength and its ability to attack Israel. Furthermore, Israel was asked to agree to a move whereby the authority to inspect goods entering the Gaza Strip would be given to a third party, almost certainly a European country.

From Israel's viewpoint, this is a political achievement that should not be underestimated. True, inspection by a foreign entity, even a credible, respectable country would not be as tight and secure as Israeli inspection, and there would likely be quite a few instances of smuggling of arms into Gaza. This is a reality Israel will have to learn to live with. Yet even tight Israeli inspection cannot guarantee entirely against dangerous weapons infiltrating into Gaza, and thus the arrangement that is taking shape appears to be one that Israel can be satisfied with. “

The same navy commando unit (Shayetet 13) is due to engage all vessels en route to the Gaza Strip coast. I’ll hazard a guess and say that the commandeering of vessels in the two flotillas due here soon will be uneventful.

There has been some speculation concerning two key figures involved in the Mavi Marmara incident, namely the commander of the Israeli navy Vice Admiral Merom and the head of the Mossad Meir Dagan. Some people say Merom will retire and Dagan will not be asked to continue after his tenure ends.

The Israeli cabinet's decision to ease the restrictions on goods entering the Gaza Strip was praised by the US administration, the Quartet and a number of governments. Nevertheless it didn't take the wind out of the sails of the various vessels bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. What do the “Free Gaza” activists want? They will accept nothing less than open borders with no surveillance on goods and persons entering and leaving Gaza via land, sea or air.

We have never been able to understand why God’s chosen people was given a country without oil. Admittedly, we were promised a land flowing with milk and honey, however a gusher or two would have improved our morale. While Saudi Arabia is blessed with an ocean of oil below its sands Israel has managed to pump only a few barrels of oil from the Heletz fields before they dried up. What did our enemies do to deserve so much oil?

Well maybe the Almighty held back on oil but now recently discovered off shore gas reserves in the Mediterranean off Israel’s coast are beginning to restore our faith in divine intervention. The latest discovery, the Leviathan field has huge reserves and promises to make Israel an exporter of natural gas. After Israel surveyed, invested and drilled the off shore fields Lebanon complains that we are “occupiers” and claims that Israel will be drawing off gas from a field that might possibly extend to an area inside Lebanon’s economic maritime zone. The Lebanese complaints are not new. They arose last year as well when two smaller fields were discovered. A Hezbollah delegate in the Lebanese parliament warned Israel not to touch what he called “Lebanon's resources.” Instead of ignoring the Lebanese threats

Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau couldn’t resist the temptation to warn Hezbollah that Israel will fight for its gas fields.

The latest clashes between the PKK and the Turkish army hardly raised a ripple of interest in the international news media. Turkey is overly concerned about Gaza while its troops hop across the border into Iraq to hunt Kurds.

According to Turkey’s twisted logic killing PKK militants is okay because they are terrorists, however Hamas and Hezbollah are freedom fighters BBC reporter Jonathan Head says Prime Minister Erdogan is trying to ward off accusations that his “soft policy” with the Kurdish minority is not paying off.

“In a country where every soldier's funeral whips up a frenzy of nationalist sentiment, Mr Erdogan's party is vulnerable to charges of selling out to terrorists, because of its efforts last year to promote a softer approach to the conflict.

The increasingly bold attacks by the PKK this year have effectively killed off that initiative, although it was already running out of steam.

But after 26 years and 40,000 deaths, few officials can be under any illusion that just throwing more military forces at the PKK along the Iraqi border can finish the movement off. “ Ironically the Turkish news media boasted that the Turkish forces fighting the PKK were aided by Israeli made UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Weapons sales nearly always include an end-user clause but no declaration of intent is required. Israel is concerned that weapons sold to Turkey over the years could be resold to Hezbollah and Hamas.

The latest Israeli spy satellite Ofeq 9 was launched on Tuesday from the Palmachim Air Force Base on Israel's Mediterranean coast. The new satellite is the sixth satellite in the Ofeq series, which began with the launching of the Ofeq 3 in 1995.

Ofeq 9 carries a new high-resolution camera payload developed by Elbit Systems EL-OP. The payload is believed to be the latest version of the 'Neptune' camera, developed by ELOP. Positioned at an altitude of 600 kilometres, Neptune's sensors record images monochromatic resolution of 0.5 metre. This new eye in the sky combined with the other five spy satellites gives Israel a round-the-clock surveillance capability of selective sites.

Eurosatory defence industry trade show held every two years in Paris. France is an event defence industries look forward to. As usual Israel was well represented at this year’s show, and so it should be. With export sales for 2010 expected to top $8 billion Israel is ranked the fourth largest weapons exporter in the world. The United States, Russia and France are the only countries who have sold more weapons and systems to foreign customers.

The star performer in the Israeli pavilion was the Merkava Mk4 main battle tank.

A few years ago MBTs were dubbed obsolete, cumbersome and relatively easy to disable. The Merkava’s improved armour and the innovative hard-kill active protection system renders it unstoppable and extremely formidable.

Today more and more battles are fought in urban environments once considered unsuitable for MBTs. The Merkava has performed well in such situations.

A number of other innovative weapons systems and accessories on display in the Israeli pavilion attracted many visitors.

I couldn’t find our neighbours listed in the exhibitors list at the Eurosatory Show.

I must admit that the Iranians are innovative, but many of their innovations like Syria’s indigenous missiles and rockets are offshoots of North Korean technology.

Someone at our breakfast table parliament reminded me of an unverified Syrian army innovation – the “Shabazan.” I don’t know if it exists or not. It might be just another urban legend. The name itself was coined decades ago by an anonymous Israeli reserve army soldier serving in a border outpost in the Golan Heights. The observant soldier noticed a strange caravan vehicle parked near a Syrian outpost across the border. When he saw women leaving and entering the caravan followed by Syrian soldiers he came to an overwhelming conclusion. He had witnessed a service provided by the Syrian army for its front line troops, namely, a Shabazan the Hebrew acronym for a mobile bordello. I have never seen a Shabazan and all the people I know who claim it exists confess that they have never seen one but know people who have.

Next week I will be in Norway. The next letter will be posted after the 12^th of July.

Have a good weekend

Beni 24^th of June, 2010.

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