The facts simply don't add up. And fraud by the Israeli and US governments in matters related to anti-missile systems is nothing new either...
Israeli media continue their panicky round-the-clock reports "Israel under Fire", with emphasis on missile attacks on the greater Tel Aviv area.
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Through the recent reported missile attacks from Gaza on Tel Aviv, I have continued to go to the beach every morning at dawn, take my intensive hour-long swim. Twice during the past week, missile attack alarms were heard while I was far out at sea. I did not care. I was not alone either. Even Israeli media noted that the people of Tel Aviv continue their summer leisure at the beach uninterrupted, perhaps with a good reason....
The claimed missile attacks from Gaza on Tel Aviv would represent doubling or tripling of the range of the Gazan makeshift rockets. That, after Israel kidnapped in 2011 the Gazan engineer, who was the mastermind of the development and production of these rockets. [1]
In unofficial Internet sites in Hebrew, people report on the minute the sounding of missile attack alarms in various cities of the greater Tel Aviv area (Gush Dan). Dozens of alarms were sounded since the current violence started. In the center of Tel Aviv, where I live, such alarms are heard several time a day.
With it, Israeli media routinely report that the incoming missiles were successfully intercepted by the Israeli-developed Iron Dome anti-ballistic missile system.
In the past, IDF claimed the ridiculously accurate success rate of 84% for the Iron Dome system. In contract, world-renowned, MIT expert, Prof Ted Postol published reports, based on actual data from the previous round of violence - Pillar of Defence -, that the actual success rate is more likely 5-10%. Postol used similar criteria to those used by IDF for calculating success - intercepts only of rockets that would hit inhabited areas. [2]
Over the past week, IDF upped its claimed success rate of the Iron Dome system to 90%.
However, even with such fabulous success rate, if all or most missile attack alarms were real, one would have expected some hits in the greater Tel Aviv area. But there were none.
Moreover, even if the intercepts were real, one would have expected some official or unofficial reports of debris that fell in the greater Tel Aviv area. Such reports are hard to find, if any exist.
In constrast, Israeli papers report that in the areas closer to Gaza, 400 claims for property damages have been filed since the beginning of the current cycle of violence. And pictures, which document the hits are easy to find. Such data seems to contradict the 90% intercept success rate of the Iron Dome system. [4]
Likewise, one is hard pressed to find any video clips of the successful Iron Dome intercepts over the greater Tel Aviv area, or elsewhere in Israel. One should recall that such video clips of claimed intercepts were the raw data, which was used by Prof Postol to refute the claims of astounding success of the US-made Patriot anti-missile defense system during the First Gulf War. [3]
In the meanwhile, Israeli media continue its round-the-clock panicky broadcasts by Israeli military analysts under the title "Israel under Fire". And in parallel, Israel uses the claims of missile attacks on Israel's population center as the justification for the IDF heavy bombardment of civilians in Gaza.
In Gaza, the dead, the wounded, and the ruins are fully documented..
In short: The claimed missile attacks on the greater Tel Aviv area, successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome system, are likely to be largely or entirely an Orwellian beating of the drums of war. Likewise, the IDF data of 90% intercept success rate of the Iron Dome system are lilely to be vastly exaggerated. The false claims of ongoing missile attacks on Tel Aviv serve to justify war crimes against the people of Gaza in the eyes of the public both in Israel and abroad, while the false claims of 90% intercept success rate of the Iron Dome serves for numbing the public and greasing the Israeli military-industrial complex.
=LINKS=
[1] 2011-03-10 UN official: Israel kidnapped Palestinian engineer from Ukraine_Haaretz
[2] 2013-03-20 Weapons Experts Raise Doubts About Israel's Antimissile System_NYTimes
[3] 1992-09-08 Postol/Lewis Review of Army's Study on Patriot Effectiveness_fas.org
[4] 2014-07-13 Since the beginning of the operation, more than 400 damages claims have been filed_Calcalist
[5] 2013-08-06 Biographical Sketch -- Joseph Zernik, PhD
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Joseph Zernik, PhD [5]
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
OccupyTLV
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* The Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations was incorporated into the 2010 Periodic Review Report regarding Human Rights in the United States, with the note: "corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California".
* The Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations was incorporated into the 2013 Periodic Review Report regarding Human Rights in Israel, with the note: "lack of integrity of the electronic records of the Supreme Court, the district courts and the detainees courts in Israel."
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