an escalation in MidEast warfare.

[tribal]

this is not looking good, the palst are escalating the conflict, and it may be pushed into unlimited warfare.

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15 February: An Israeli tank was blown up for the first time Thursday night, killing three soldiers. A huge explosion ripped off its turret and split the 65-ton Merkava (Chariot) 3 in two as it charged up the Karni-Netzarim route in the Gaza Strip to reach a civilian bus under Palestinian gunfire.

DEBKAfile ’s military sources advance the theory that a hollow, multi-stage - probably magnetic - charge was used, possibly in combination with a powerful magnetic mine or mines. This form of sabotage has never been seen before in the Middle East. The charge may have fixed under the turret along the seams of its joins to the tank body and activated by remote control or radio signal. This would explain how the turret was ripped off.

As the tank approached the distressed bus, the smaller charge would have been detonated, releasing a shower of magnetic explosive particles, which adhered to the body of the tank and produced a blast more damaging than an anti-tank missile, especially in combination with a mine exploding underneath the tank. The Israeli Merkava was designed primarily for crew survivability under fire. The charges must have been expertly planted at the best points for penetrating its special “spaced armor”

This was the precisely the method employed by Osama bin Laden’s mujaheddin in the 1980s to sabotage Soviet T-72 tanks in Afghanistan, a technique taught them by their American instructors. Over the years, the method was passed on to al Qaeda terrorists in bin Laden’s training camps, for turning against American tanks when the time came. However, in the Afghan War of 2001, the Americans did not send tanks against al Qaeda but warplanes for which bin Laden had no response.

The aggravated Palestinian terror offensive in the week starting Sunday, February 10, betrays a distinct pattern. In the view of DEBKAfile’s military analysts, the Palestinians are drawing on the tactical expertise of three new elements which are conjoined by a common purpose: al Qaeda escapees from Afghanistan transferred to Lebanon; Iranian Revolutionary Guards who have joined them and Hizballah sabotage experts.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly (Issue No. 48, Feb. 8, 2002) was the first publication in the world to report that bin Laden’s operations officer, Abu Zubeidah, and a large band of al Qaeda fighters, had been smuggled into Lebanon with Iranian help and provided with a well-protected haven in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein Hilweh.

It would be naïve to assume that Abu Zubeidah and his following were visiting Lebanon to bask on its beaches - rather that Yasser Arafat, from his place of confinement in Ramallah, has devised a new cycle of terror with their help.

That cycle is a cocktail of terror hits, shooting attacks, rocket warfare and routine assaults directed against the Israeli military. Sunday, Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli servicewomen outside IDF Southern Command HQ in Beersheba. Monday, a Palestinian rocket crew tried and failed to deliver a Qasem-2 against the IDF’s Samariya Command base on the West Bank. All of Israel’s military installations must now be deemed targets of a Palestinian offensive boosted by new allies that may be only beginning.

All Qaeda’s first handprints showed up on Palestinian strikes against the IDF this week.

According to DEBKAfile’s military analysts, they caught Israeli military planners unprepared. In time, they will find an answer, but until they do, a rising toll of Israeli casualties cannot be ruled out.

The Palestinian leader is forging ahead to exploit every second of the grace period granted him in the runup to the American offensive against Iraq and Iran. During that period, Washington is holding Israel back from a full-scale assault on the Palestinian machine of war and terror. However, Arafat is activating that machine to its full extent in the hope of prematurely provoking a full-scale counter-assault and railroading Israel into incurring the blame for plunging the Middle East into a wholesale conflagration.

[ender84]

haha... yaser arafat plotting against israel? didnt israel souround his house with tanks and soldiers?

new rising toll of israeli deaths? israel kills 5 times more than palestinians do, including the bombing of many refugee camps.

oh, and bout time palestinians stopped throwing rocks when israel was shooting them with machine guns.

oh yeah, one more thing... gaza strip is not supposed to be israeli territory in teh first place.

is this even supposed to be on this board in the first place?

dont u daremake fun of my sp ;p its too late and Im too high.

[phuturephunk]

. . christ , we're not gonna start this argument up again are we? . . .

[breaksny]

Nah I'll save that till tonite after I've seen the news and read the papers. What exactly is "unlimited warfare" though? That's sort've a vague concept given that there's effectively been a low scale war 4 nearly a year and a half now.

But now that I reread ender's post, maybe I'll let him/her fight this argument for me. LOL @ least for the rest of the day.

And of course this belongs on the board since it's one of our favorite debate topics and many board members (for religious, cultural, or other reasons) have vested interests in one side or another in the issues involved in the conflict. It's just a single thread on a big message board, and if it bothers you, you shouldn't read it, like you wouldn't any other thread you don't like. There's no harm in arguments since I don't c anyone going over the line in their posts, meaning making threats, spouting racial slurs, or such. Name calling (which it does sometimes come to) doesn't usually come to the point racial, ethnic, or religious slurs (though anti-semitism which often comes up can be borderline I guess), not directed @ other posters themselves anyway. Bottom line, read or participate if you have something to say, and past threads on the subject show alot of us do, and just don't read the thread if you aren't interested in or are turned off by political discussions/arguments.