23 july 2015
After mortar shells claimed both soldiers and civilian casualties, new radar system will increase warning time from 3-5 seconds to 15 seconds.
The IDF is in the process of installing a new radar system that would significantly increase the warning time given to Israelis to take cover when a mortar shell is fired from the Gaza Strip, a senior Southern Command official said Thursday.
One year after Operation Protective Edge, the Southern Command is working to eliminate points of weakness discovered during the war last summer. One such point of weakness was the short warning time given to residents of communities adjacent to the border fence to run for cover - 3-5 seconds. Over the past few years, the IDF and defense companies have been working to find a technical solution to increase the warning time to the allowed minimum - 15 seconds.
The army source said there has been a significant breakthrough in the development of such a solution, and that the new system will likely be installed along the entire length of the Gaza border in the near future. However, the official stressed that the new system was still in its experimental stages and has yet to prove itself in real-time.
"At the moment, the system has been installed in several different locations on the Gaza border, but it's still in experimental stages and we believed we can solve the issue in the coming months. The system has been very much improved and we've made significant progress, we're not in the same situation we were before Protective Edge."
An official from the Home Front Command said that over the past year, the command has formulated a plan for an organized evacuation of the population during times of emergency. If this should become necessary, civilians will be evacuated under supervision and protection of the army.
After five soldiers were killed in a gathering area for troops outside the Gaza Strip from mortar fire, the army also decided to put mobile warning systems to alert the exposed soldiers of the incoming danger.
The IDF is in the process of installing a new radar system that would significantly increase the warning time given to Israelis to take cover when a mortar shell is fired from the Gaza Strip, a senior Southern Command official said Thursday.
One year after Operation Protective Edge, the Southern Command is working to eliminate points of weakness discovered during the war last summer. One such point of weakness was the short warning time given to residents of communities adjacent to the border fence to run for cover - 3-5 seconds. Over the past few years, the IDF and defense companies have been working to find a technical solution to increase the warning time to the allowed minimum - 15 seconds.
The army source said there has been a significant breakthrough in the development of such a solution, and that the new system will likely be installed along the entire length of the Gaza border in the near future. However, the official stressed that the new system was still in its experimental stages and has yet to prove itself in real-time.
"At the moment, the system has been installed in several different locations on the Gaza border, but it's still in experimental stages and we believed we can solve the issue in the coming months. The system has been very much improved and we've made significant progress, we're not in the same situation we were before Protective Edge."
An official from the Home Front Command said that over the past year, the command has formulated a plan for an organized evacuation of the population during times of emergency. If this should become necessary, civilians will be evacuated under supervision and protection of the army.
After five soldiers were killed in a gathering area for troops outside the Gaza Strip from mortar fire, the army also decided to put mobile warning systems to alert the exposed soldiers of the incoming danger.
22 july 2015
The home next to Fatima’s that was bombed.
During the 2012 Zionist massacre in Gaza, named by the occupation as Operation Pillar of Defense, many buildings near Mohamed’s home were bombed.
Less than a year after the aggression, while playing with him, Mohamed’s mother found a lump in his neck. At this time he was eight years old.
They went to Shifa hospital, where he was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. There he underwent the first surgery, but the operation was not successful.
After that he was allowed to travel to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, in order to be treated in the Hospital of Haifa. Where he underwent a second surgery and received radiotherapy, unavailable in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority pays the treatment to the Israeli hospital. For this reason, according to Mohamed’s family, the Palestinian Authority tries to prevent every journey of Mohamed from Gaza to Haifa’s hospital.
As Mohamed’s mother says, the Israeli doctors told them that this kind of cancer is due to the bombings near their home. They also told her that in 2016 the cancer rates in Gaza will rise 70% more, and that for the following 4 years it will keep growing.
Since the 2012 aggression Mohamed’s father has developed asthma as well.
In 2014 Mohamed’s home was attacked by Zionist warships. Luckily they weren’t at home in this moment. Mohamed’s family referred ISM to Fatimah, a 50 years old woman, mother of six children, who lives near them.
During the 2008 massacre, a mosque, a government building and a home were bombed next to her house. Four years ago she was diagnosed as well with thyroid cancer.
The two oncologists interviewed by ISM in Shifa Hospital and Rantisi Children Hospital, in Gaza, agreed that these kinds of cancer are due to the Zionist bombs, and explained that they were very rare before the massive aggressions against the Gaza Strip.
Note: The names have been changed, as Mohamed and Fatimah are afraid of losing the permission to leave the Strip to receive the treatment.
During the 2012 Zionist massacre in Gaza, named by the occupation as Operation Pillar of Defense, many buildings near Mohamed’s home were bombed.
Less than a year after the aggression, while playing with him, Mohamed’s mother found a lump in his neck. At this time he was eight years old.
They went to Shifa hospital, where he was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. There he underwent the first surgery, but the operation was not successful.
After that he was allowed to travel to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, in order to be treated in the Hospital of Haifa. Where he underwent a second surgery and received radiotherapy, unavailable in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority pays the treatment to the Israeli hospital. For this reason, according to Mohamed’s family, the Palestinian Authority tries to prevent every journey of Mohamed from Gaza to Haifa’s hospital.
As Mohamed’s mother says, the Israeli doctors told them that this kind of cancer is due to the bombings near their home. They also told her that in 2016 the cancer rates in Gaza will rise 70% more, and that for the following 4 years it will keep growing.
Since the 2012 aggression Mohamed’s father has developed asthma as well.
In 2014 Mohamed’s home was attacked by Zionist warships. Luckily they weren’t at home in this moment. Mohamed’s family referred ISM to Fatimah, a 50 years old woman, mother of six children, who lives near them.
During the 2008 massacre, a mosque, a government building and a home were bombed next to her house. Four years ago she was diagnosed as well with thyroid cancer.
The two oncologists interviewed by ISM in Shifa Hospital and Rantisi Children Hospital, in Gaza, agreed that these kinds of cancer are due to the Zionist bombs, and explained that they were very rare before the massive aggressions against the Gaza Strip.
Note: The names have been changed, as Mohamed and Fatimah are afraid of losing the permission to leave the Strip to receive the treatment.
21 july 2015
Israeli Military Industries (IMI), the state-owned weapons designer and manufacturer, has been put up for privatisation. If there is one company that encapsulates Israel's hypocritical approach to the arms trade, crime and human rights, it is IMI; and if there is one weapon, it is IMI's "Uzi", the iconic sub-machine gun which for many decades was the company's darkest jewel. The Uzi factory is the latest component of IMI to hit the market, with investors already gobbling up other parts of the IMI estate greedily.
It is ironic that IMI was founded in circumstances very similar to those in which Hamas currently operates. In 1933, the Jewish paramilitary Haganah organisation opened a mortar factory hidden inside a leather tannery in Tel Aviv. The Haganah hoped that the smell of chemicals being used to process the leather would keep British Mandate troops and the Palestine Police Force away. Later factories were equally inventive; the paramilitary group's largest bullet factory was built underneath a kibbutz, which according to some accounts was built entirely for the purpose of concealing Jewish underground activity. These weapons were used by Haganah and its partners to attack British troops and police officers, and some attacks which targeted civilian administrators and facilities. Haganah also provided weapons to Irgun and the Stern Gang terrorists for the Deir Yassin and other massacres of Palestinian civilians.
This initial mortar workshop was situated almost directly on Tel Aviv beach, where Haganah, amongst other units within the Jewish Resistance Movement, was busy helping illegal Jewish immigrants enter British-run Palestine by sea. This was no straightforward task; the British had a naval blockade in place, much as the Israeli Navy now maintains one off the coast of Gaza, and early Jewish resistance groups spent a great deal of time working out ingenious ways to smuggle in people, supplies and weapons.
Making copies of Sten guns and inventing their own models, the operation was professional but limited by the British. Haganah leader Eliyahu Sacharov later converted the illegal weapons workshop into a full manufacturing plant, developing and testing hundreds of its early weapons, but not before he was thrown into prison by the British authorities for four years. Just as the military wing of Hamas will one day form the core of a Palestinian army, in 1948, the former militants of Haganah formed the backbone of the Israel Defence Forces.
IMI emerged from the concrete underbellies of the new Israel into above-board public sector life. Israeli fighters had used ingenious tactics to fight off an initial onslaught from Arab armies indignant at the new Jewish settlers, using a comically varied array of sub-standard weapons. It thus became clear that a first responsibility for the nascent Israeli state would be to get serious about arming its troops, rather than relying on ad hoc underground factories, copied weapons and an informal procurement process.
The Uzi was the first big success story of IMI, the result of a design competition won by a refugee from Nazi Germany, Uziel Gal. A capable engineer with an eye for ergonomic design, he realised that the fastest way for a soldier to re-load his weapon would be to have the magazine inside the grip.
From 1951, the weapon was tested by the IDF. It was adopted by the Special Forces before the regular army. The Dutch were the first foreign army to use Uzis, followed shortly thereafter by the newly-formed German defence forces; the US Secret Service began using them in the 1960s and 70s.
The Israeli government, which fully owns IMI, has also given the go-ahead over the years for arms exports to a wide range of human rights-abusing countries. These include pre-revolution Iran, Syria and Indonesia, as well as African states including Algeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and Zimbabwe. The regime in the then Rhodesia was also an early buyer; it was at the time a mono-racial democracy that excluded black Africans from the political process. The Uzi was manufactured in Rhodesia under licence, using parts imported from Israel. The Uzi sub-machine gun was for two decades by far the most ubiquitous weapon of its kind; some estimates put sales at over two million to conventional security forces around the world.
A notable and disconcerting side-effect of Israeli arms exports to unstable African states was that the Uzi became a weapon of choice for large-scale criminal activity in both Latin America and China, where it was bought on the black market. Though Hollywood has perhaps exaggerated the extent of the gun's use – particularly in recent years — many reports from the seventies suggest that cocaine-selling drug cartels used crates of Uzis as currency, alongside the Russian-made Kalashnikov AK47. This was compounded by the Uzi coming out of national service in Israel during the eighties, with many weapons eventually making their way onto the black market.
Support for Uzi sales to human rights-abusing countries is no exception in the sordid world of the Israeli arms trade. Customers for a wide array of Israeli-produced weapons have included Guatemala, El Salvador, South Sudan and Ethiopia during their respective civil wars. Israel was also exporting arms to South Africa during the Apartheid era. With good reason, Itai Mack, a lawyer with Rabbis for Human Rights, has noted that alongside China (though perhaps he should have included Russia, too), Israel is "the last one selling" to the regimes with the world's worst human rights records.
Iran makes for an interesting case study in this regard. Although Israel frequently criticises revolutionary Iran's human rights record, this is clearly only done because Iran is now openly hostile to Zionist politics and the Israeli state. From 1953-1979, when Iran was a client state of the Americans and British – and the second Middle Eastern state to recognise Israel — the Israeli government was happy to ignore the equally repugnant human rights abuses of the Shah and export Uzis, amongst other weapons, to shore up his autocratic regime.
For interested buyers, it will cost over a million and half dollars just to take a look at IMI's books. Though the Uzi is no longer the jewel it once was, the profits from its sales have been enormous, allowing IMI to invest in many more diverse projects. Like all arms companies, those books won't be covered in blood, but should be, perhaps more than most. Israel's record on sales of the Uzi shows that human rights are for Israelis, not for foreigners killed by Israeli weapons.
It is ironic that IMI was founded in circumstances very similar to those in which Hamas currently operates. In 1933, the Jewish paramilitary Haganah organisation opened a mortar factory hidden inside a leather tannery in Tel Aviv. The Haganah hoped that the smell of chemicals being used to process the leather would keep British Mandate troops and the Palestine Police Force away. Later factories were equally inventive; the paramilitary group's largest bullet factory was built underneath a kibbutz, which according to some accounts was built entirely for the purpose of concealing Jewish underground activity. These weapons were used by Haganah and its partners to attack British troops and police officers, and some attacks which targeted civilian administrators and facilities. Haganah also provided weapons to Irgun and the Stern Gang terrorists for the Deir Yassin and other massacres of Palestinian civilians.
This initial mortar workshop was situated almost directly on Tel Aviv beach, where Haganah, amongst other units within the Jewish Resistance Movement, was busy helping illegal Jewish immigrants enter British-run Palestine by sea. This was no straightforward task; the British had a naval blockade in place, much as the Israeli Navy now maintains one off the coast of Gaza, and early Jewish resistance groups spent a great deal of time working out ingenious ways to smuggle in people, supplies and weapons.
Making copies of Sten guns and inventing their own models, the operation was professional but limited by the British. Haganah leader Eliyahu Sacharov later converted the illegal weapons workshop into a full manufacturing plant, developing and testing hundreds of its early weapons, but not before he was thrown into prison by the British authorities for four years. Just as the military wing of Hamas will one day form the core of a Palestinian army, in 1948, the former militants of Haganah formed the backbone of the Israel Defence Forces.
IMI emerged from the concrete underbellies of the new Israel into above-board public sector life. Israeli fighters had used ingenious tactics to fight off an initial onslaught from Arab armies indignant at the new Jewish settlers, using a comically varied array of sub-standard weapons. It thus became clear that a first responsibility for the nascent Israeli state would be to get serious about arming its troops, rather than relying on ad hoc underground factories, copied weapons and an informal procurement process.
The Uzi was the first big success story of IMI, the result of a design competition won by a refugee from Nazi Germany, Uziel Gal. A capable engineer with an eye for ergonomic design, he realised that the fastest way for a soldier to re-load his weapon would be to have the magazine inside the grip.
From 1951, the weapon was tested by the IDF. It was adopted by the Special Forces before the regular army. The Dutch were the first foreign army to use Uzis, followed shortly thereafter by the newly-formed German defence forces; the US Secret Service began using them in the 1960s and 70s.
The Israeli government, which fully owns IMI, has also given the go-ahead over the years for arms exports to a wide range of human rights-abusing countries. These include pre-revolution Iran, Syria and Indonesia, as well as African states including Algeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and Zimbabwe. The regime in the then Rhodesia was also an early buyer; it was at the time a mono-racial democracy that excluded black Africans from the political process. The Uzi was manufactured in Rhodesia under licence, using parts imported from Israel. The Uzi sub-machine gun was for two decades by far the most ubiquitous weapon of its kind; some estimates put sales at over two million to conventional security forces around the world.
A notable and disconcerting side-effect of Israeli arms exports to unstable African states was that the Uzi became a weapon of choice for large-scale criminal activity in both Latin America and China, where it was bought on the black market. Though Hollywood has perhaps exaggerated the extent of the gun's use – particularly in recent years — many reports from the seventies suggest that cocaine-selling drug cartels used crates of Uzis as currency, alongside the Russian-made Kalashnikov AK47. This was compounded by the Uzi coming out of national service in Israel during the eighties, with many weapons eventually making their way onto the black market.
Support for Uzi sales to human rights-abusing countries is no exception in the sordid world of the Israeli arms trade. Customers for a wide array of Israeli-produced weapons have included Guatemala, El Salvador, South Sudan and Ethiopia during their respective civil wars. Israel was also exporting arms to South Africa during the Apartheid era. With good reason, Itai Mack, a lawyer with Rabbis for Human Rights, has noted that alongside China (though perhaps he should have included Russia, too), Israel is "the last one selling" to the regimes with the world's worst human rights records.
Iran makes for an interesting case study in this regard. Although Israel frequently criticises revolutionary Iran's human rights record, this is clearly only done because Iran is now openly hostile to Zionist politics and the Israeli state. From 1953-1979, when Iran was a client state of the Americans and British – and the second Middle Eastern state to recognise Israel — the Israeli government was happy to ignore the equally repugnant human rights abuses of the Shah and export Uzis, amongst other weapons, to shore up his autocratic regime.
For interested buyers, it will cost over a million and half dollars just to take a look at IMI's books. Though the Uzi is no longer the jewel it once was, the profits from its sales have been enormous, allowing IMI to invest in many more diverse projects. Like all arms companies, those books won't be covered in blood, but should be, perhaps more than most. Israel's record on sales of the Uzi shows that human rights are for Israelis, not for foreigners killed by Israeli weapons.
20 july 2015
LIVE: Ash Carter meets with Defense Minister Ya'alon upon arrival in Israel, says visit meant to emphasize US has no limits on ability to increase Israel's security.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter was warmly welcomed by his Israeli counterpart Monday on the first Cabinet-level US visit to the Jewish state since the Iran nuclear deal was announced.
The Pentagon chief met at Israel's defense headquarters with Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and on Tuesday is to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has strongly criticized the Iran deal.
In a joint press conference held by the two defense chiefs, Carter said the US would do all it could to help Israel defend itself including continued funding for missile defense, joint training, and advanced equipment like the F-35, which Israel will receive before all other international partners next year.
Ya'alon said Israel "greatly disagrees" with the agreement reached with Iran on its nuclear program. But, he said, "The scope and depth of the relationship between the defense establishments of the United States and Israel is unprecedented – between the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defense, between our armed forces, intelligence corps and defense industries."
The Israeli defense forces held a standard welcoming ceremony for Carter upon his arrival in Israel. He then went into a closed meeting with Ya'alon. On his flight to Tel Aviv, Carter said he has no expectation of persuading Israeli leaders to drop their opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. But he said he'll emphasize that the accord imposes no limits on what Washington can do to ensure the security of Israel and US Arab allies.
Netanyahu has argued that the deal clears the way for Iran to build nuclear weapons that would threaten Israel's existence and ultimately diminish US and global security. Even as tensions between the US and Israel have grown over how to contain Iran's nuclear program has grown, the US-Israel defense relationship has deepened in recent years.
The US has invested hundreds of millions in an Israeli air defense system known as Iron Dome, designed to shoot down short-range rockets, mortars and artillery shells fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon and into Israel's south from the Gaza Strip. The US has worked with Israel on anti-missile systems and a wide range of other defenses.
Two years ago the Pentagon committed to providing advanced radars for Israel's fleet of fighter jets and KC-135 refueling aircraft, and making Israel the first country to buy the V-22 Osprey hybrid airplane-helicopter.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter was warmly welcomed by his Israeli counterpart Monday on the first Cabinet-level US visit to the Jewish state since the Iran nuclear deal was announced.
The Pentagon chief met at Israel's defense headquarters with Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and on Tuesday is to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has strongly criticized the Iran deal.
In a joint press conference held by the two defense chiefs, Carter said the US would do all it could to help Israel defend itself including continued funding for missile defense, joint training, and advanced equipment like the F-35, which Israel will receive before all other international partners next year.
Ya'alon said Israel "greatly disagrees" with the agreement reached with Iran on its nuclear program. But, he said, "The scope and depth of the relationship between the defense establishments of the United States and Israel is unprecedented – between the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defense, between our armed forces, intelligence corps and defense industries."
The Israeli defense forces held a standard welcoming ceremony for Carter upon his arrival in Israel. He then went into a closed meeting with Ya'alon. On his flight to Tel Aviv, Carter said he has no expectation of persuading Israeli leaders to drop their opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. But he said he'll emphasize that the accord imposes no limits on what Washington can do to ensure the security of Israel and US Arab allies.
Netanyahu has argued that the deal clears the way for Iran to build nuclear weapons that would threaten Israel's existence and ultimately diminish US and global security. Even as tensions between the US and Israel have grown over how to contain Iran's nuclear program has grown, the US-Israel defense relationship has deepened in recent years.
The US has invested hundreds of millions in an Israeli air defense system known as Iron Dome, designed to shoot down short-range rockets, mortars and artillery shells fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon and into Israel's south from the Gaza Strip. The US has worked with Israel on anti-missile systems and a wide range of other defenses.
Two years ago the Pentagon committed to providing advanced radars for Israel's fleet of fighter jets and KC-135 refueling aircraft, and making Israel the first country to buy the V-22 Osprey hybrid airplane-helicopter.
19 july 2015
US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter
US Defense Secretary Carter headed to Jerusalem for talks on ways the US can further improve Israel's security, but US officials say new weaponry won't be offered as compensation for the Iran deal.
In the face of Israeli outrage over the Iran nuclear accord, the US Secretary of Defense was scheduled to visit Israel on Sunday to reinforce arguably the strongest part of the US-Israeli relationship: Military cooperation.
Israel has expressed concern that US sales of advanced weaponry to Gulf Arab states has the potential of offsetting, to some degree, Israel's qualitative military edge. But officials say Washington has no plans to offer new weaponry as compensation for the Iran deal.
Aides said in advance of the trip that although Carter strongly supports the Iran deal, he had no intention of trying to reverse Israeli opposition to it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the deal as a mistake of historic proportion.
Carter is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, as well as with IDF generals, and visit troops in northern Israel. He also planned to stop in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, US allies, whose leaders also are worried about implications of the nuclear deal.
On the day the Iran accord was announced, Carter issued a statement saying the US is "prepared and postured" to help Israel improve its security, although he offered no specifics. He added that the US would "use the military option if necessary" to protect its allies, to "check Iranian malign influence" and to ensure freedom of navigation in the Gulf.
The US-Israel defense relationship has deepened in recent years, even as tensions between the two over how to contain Iran's nuclear program has grown.
The US has invested hundreds of millions in the Iron Dome air defense system, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets, mortars and artillery shells fired from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Just two months ago Washington announced a $1.9 billion arms sale to Israel for a range of missiles and bombs, including bunker busters that can penetrate reinforced defenses to reach underground targets. Not included is the Pentagon's biggest bunker buster bomb.
Israeli officials insist they are not prepared to discuss American "compensation" for the Iran deal, saying that would imply acceptance of the accord.
"Everybody talks about compensating Israel," Netanyahu said Sunday. "I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, if this deal is supposed to make Israel and our Arab neighbors safer, why should we be compensated with anything," he told ABC's "This Week."
"How can you compensate a country, my country, against a terrorist regime that is sworn to our destruction and is going to get a path to nuclear bombs and billions of dollars to boot for its terror activities," he said.
The US and Israel have been holding talks on renewing a 10-year defense pact set to expire in 2018. Under the current deal, Israel receives about $3 billion in military aid from the US each year. That number is likely to increase when the deal is renewed, and possibly before then.
Obama has indicated he is open to new ways of improving Israeli security, but he has played down the idea that ending economic penalties on Iran will drastically alter the balance of power in the region.
"Do we think that with the sanctions coming down, that Iran will have some additional resources for its military and for some of the activities in the region that are a threat to us and a threat to our allies? I think that is likelihood," Obama told a White House news conference on Wednesday. "Do I think it's a game-changer for them? No."
Obama's principal military adviser, Gen. Martin Dempsey, met with Netanyahu and Israeli military officials just last month. The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman told reporters with him in Israel that once an Iran nuclear deal was struck, Israeli and US officials needed to "quickly and comprehensively" discuss the way ahead.
"It will be incumbent on both of us to make sure that we provide the kind of reassurances that the state of Israel has always counted on us to provide. But we are going to have to do the same thing with the Gulf allies," Dempsey said, alluding to deep concerns in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that removing sanctions on Iran would make it a greater regional danger.
Dempsey said he understands why Israelis believe a nuclear deal will give Iran room to accelerate its funding of surrogate Shiite groups like Hezbollah.
"I share their concern," Dempsey said.
US Defense Secretary Carter headed to Jerusalem for talks on ways the US can further improve Israel's security, but US officials say new weaponry won't be offered as compensation for the Iran deal.
In the face of Israeli outrage over the Iran nuclear accord, the US Secretary of Defense was scheduled to visit Israel on Sunday to reinforce arguably the strongest part of the US-Israeli relationship: Military cooperation.
Israel has expressed concern that US sales of advanced weaponry to Gulf Arab states has the potential of offsetting, to some degree, Israel's qualitative military edge. But officials say Washington has no plans to offer new weaponry as compensation for the Iran deal.
Aides said in advance of the trip that although Carter strongly supports the Iran deal, he had no intention of trying to reverse Israeli opposition to it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the deal as a mistake of historic proportion.
Carter is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, as well as with IDF generals, and visit troops in northern Israel. He also planned to stop in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, US allies, whose leaders also are worried about implications of the nuclear deal.
On the day the Iran accord was announced, Carter issued a statement saying the US is "prepared and postured" to help Israel improve its security, although he offered no specifics. He added that the US would "use the military option if necessary" to protect its allies, to "check Iranian malign influence" and to ensure freedom of navigation in the Gulf.
The US-Israel defense relationship has deepened in recent years, even as tensions between the two over how to contain Iran's nuclear program has grown.
The US has invested hundreds of millions in the Iron Dome air defense system, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets, mortars and artillery shells fired from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Just two months ago Washington announced a $1.9 billion arms sale to Israel for a range of missiles and bombs, including bunker busters that can penetrate reinforced defenses to reach underground targets. Not included is the Pentagon's biggest bunker buster bomb.
Israeli officials insist they are not prepared to discuss American "compensation" for the Iran deal, saying that would imply acceptance of the accord.
"Everybody talks about compensating Israel," Netanyahu said Sunday. "I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, if this deal is supposed to make Israel and our Arab neighbors safer, why should we be compensated with anything," he told ABC's "This Week."
"How can you compensate a country, my country, against a terrorist regime that is sworn to our destruction and is going to get a path to nuclear bombs and billions of dollars to boot for its terror activities," he said.
The US and Israel have been holding talks on renewing a 10-year defense pact set to expire in 2018. Under the current deal, Israel receives about $3 billion in military aid from the US each year. That number is likely to increase when the deal is renewed, and possibly before then.
Obama has indicated he is open to new ways of improving Israeli security, but he has played down the idea that ending economic penalties on Iran will drastically alter the balance of power in the region.
"Do we think that with the sanctions coming down, that Iran will have some additional resources for its military and for some of the activities in the region that are a threat to us and a threat to our allies? I think that is likelihood," Obama told a White House news conference on Wednesday. "Do I think it's a game-changer for them? No."
Obama's principal military adviser, Gen. Martin Dempsey, met with Netanyahu and Israeli military officials just last month. The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman told reporters with him in Israel that once an Iran nuclear deal was struck, Israeli and US officials needed to "quickly and comprehensively" discuss the way ahead.
"It will be incumbent on both of us to make sure that we provide the kind of reassurances that the state of Israel has always counted on us to provide. But we are going to have to do the same thing with the Gulf allies," Dempsey said, alluding to deep concerns in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that removing sanctions on Iran would make it a greater regional danger.
Dempsey said he understands why Israelis believe a nuclear deal will give Iran room to accelerate its funding of surrogate Shiite groups like Hezbollah.
"I share their concern," Dempsey said.
30 june 2015
VIDEO: Unobservable, invulnerable' K1 suicide UAV shows potential for surgical strikes on terrorists and light vehicles.
The coming months will see the completion of one of the most efficient and deadly weapons developed in Israel in the last few years – the K1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The UAV, whose simulation video was first seen on Ynet, is about the size and weight of a bird of prey, and is named for its lethal nature – Kamikaze-Killer.
It was developed and produced by Israeli workers and engineers at one of the most advanced and largest assembly lines for small and medium UAVs in the world, at the Aeronautics Defense Systems company in Yavne. It is unclear whether the IDF will purchase it.
The K1 was unveiled at the Paris Air Show this month, and a prototype has already had a successful operational test in recent weeks at the military experimental field in the south.
It contains a 2.5 kilogram warhead with 4,000 tungsten fragments that can powerfully scatters over a radius of 25 meters.
The UAV is designed less for collecting intelligence than for homing in on a target and damage control when a UAV fails to strike a target.
The K1 is designed for surgical strikes on targets like light vehicles or terrorist cells. The UAV can also explode in the air slightly above the target.
It has the capability to remain airborne for two to two-and-a-half hours, relatively silently. Unlike other UAVs in the world, the K1 can return to its handlers and land nearby unscathed in the event that the mission is cancelled at the last moment.
Aeronautics explained that "another advantage has to do with the ground stations that control it, in the form of a small and rigid computer display, keyboard or joysticks beside an antenna, allowing easy maneuverability in the field without trailers or heavy systems."
The company added that the UAV is "unobservable and invulnerable, much cheaper than missiles designed for identical missions, and its cost could reach up a few tens of thousands of dollars per unit."
Over the past few weeks, the Israeli company – which sells most of the weapons it produces abroad (to 50 foreign militaries worldwide, on each continent) – has been in talks with customers abroad, who have expressed interest.
The coming months will see the completion of one of the most efficient and deadly weapons developed in Israel in the last few years – the K1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The UAV, whose simulation video was first seen on Ynet, is about the size and weight of a bird of prey, and is named for its lethal nature – Kamikaze-Killer.
It was developed and produced by Israeli workers and engineers at one of the most advanced and largest assembly lines for small and medium UAVs in the world, at the Aeronautics Defense Systems company in Yavne. It is unclear whether the IDF will purchase it.
The K1 was unveiled at the Paris Air Show this month, and a prototype has already had a successful operational test in recent weeks at the military experimental field in the south.
It contains a 2.5 kilogram warhead with 4,000 tungsten fragments that can powerfully scatters over a radius of 25 meters.
The UAV is designed less for collecting intelligence than for homing in on a target and damage control when a UAV fails to strike a target.
The K1 is designed for surgical strikes on targets like light vehicles or terrorist cells. The UAV can also explode in the air slightly above the target.
It has the capability to remain airborne for two to two-and-a-half hours, relatively silently. Unlike other UAVs in the world, the K1 can return to its handlers and land nearby unscathed in the event that the mission is cancelled at the last moment.
Aeronautics explained that "another advantage has to do with the ground stations that control it, in the form of a small and rigid computer display, keyboard or joysticks beside an antenna, allowing easy maneuverability in the field without trailers or heavy systems."
The company added that the UAV is "unobservable and invulnerable, much cheaper than missiles designed for identical missions, and its cost could reach up a few tens of thousands of dollars per unit."
Over the past few weeks, the Israeli company – which sells most of the weapons it produces abroad (to 50 foreign militaries worldwide, on each continent) – has been in talks with customers abroad, who have expressed interest.
29 june 2015
Activists in Britain are planning to block an Israel-linked arms factory to mark one year since Israel's devastating assault on the Gaza Strip. In what organisers are billing as "the biggest, most beautiful action" ever seen at a UK arms factory, buses of activists from around the country will descend on Shenstone in the West Midlands on July 6 for "a day of creative action in solidarity with Palestine."
Last August, during Israel's attack on Gaza, activists occupied the roof of the UAV Engines Ltd factory in Shenstone, which is owned by the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems. The drone engine factory was shut for two days as a result, which activists claim cost the company more than £180,000.
Elbit-produced drones are used by the Israeli military, and were used to conduct attacks during 'Operation Protective Edge'.
A year on, and activists plan to 'Block the factory' on July 6, "transforming the space around the arms factory...into a fun, creative and child-friendly environment." The focus is on "an inclusive and family friendly affair", activists say.
The planned action is "part of the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) and the Stop Arming Israel Campaign", with the latter urging "the UK to end its extensive collaboration with the Israeli weapons industry and to institute a two-way arms embargo."
Organisers note how "anger and disbelief over last year's massacre led to widaespread and creative forms of resistance", including "mass demonstrations, occupations of government buildings and complicit businesses, and growing public pressure on governments and arms companies to stop arming Israel." The intention is for July 6 to be a continuation of such efforts.
Last August, during Israel's attack on Gaza, activists occupied the roof of the UAV Engines Ltd factory in Shenstone, which is owned by the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems. The drone engine factory was shut for two days as a result, which activists claim cost the company more than £180,000.
Elbit-produced drones are used by the Israeli military, and were used to conduct attacks during 'Operation Protective Edge'.
A year on, and activists plan to 'Block the factory' on July 6, "transforming the space around the arms factory...into a fun, creative and child-friendly environment." The focus is on "an inclusive and family friendly affair", activists say.
The planned action is "part of the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) and the Stop Arming Israel Campaign", with the latter urging "the UK to end its extensive collaboration with the Israeli weapons industry and to institute a two-way arms embargo."
Organisers note how "anger and disbelief over last year's massacre led to widaespread and creative forms of resistance", including "mass demonstrations, occupations of government buildings and complicit businesses, and growing public pressure on governments and arms companies to stop arming Israel." The intention is for July 6 to be a continuation of such efforts.
17 june 2015
Still from IAI simulation video
Development of the advanced, portable ULTRA-C1 has been completed, and may be used by the IDF in coming years.
Development of Israel's largest radar system (and one of the world's largest) was recently completed by Israel Aerospace Industries, and details of its design and capabilities have been released.
The radar system, called ULTRA-C1, is not expected to enter the IDF arsenal anytime soon – but like other radar systems developed by IAI, will possibly be used by Israel in the coming years.
The ULTRA-C1 system, which permits high-frequency scanning operations, including in surroundings with high electromagnetic density, comes in three configurations – regular, large, and very large, to meet every mission requirement.
The standard version can locate drones and enemy planes up to 500 kilometers away, while the more extensive models allow rapid and accurate identification of ballistic missiles launched thousands of kilometers away, as well as enemy satellites.
The radar system allows electronic scanning of the area it's "watching" in a way that increases accuracy and identification of targets.
The ULTRA-C1 is portable and relatively light for a system of its size.
The system is designed to function independently, unlike those of Iron Dome or David's Sling, which were developed as part of an air defense system.
At the same time, a senior source at IAI told Ynet that it is possible to synchronize the system with other radars, from the identification phase to the interception stage.
The size of the system, similar to a small office building with four or five stories, provides the advantage of a wide coverage range, making it possible to hone in on and track multiple enemy targets before other radar systems identify them.
Development of the advanced, portable ULTRA-C1 has been completed, and may be used by the IDF in coming years.
Development of Israel's largest radar system (and one of the world's largest) was recently completed by Israel Aerospace Industries, and details of its design and capabilities have been released.
The radar system, called ULTRA-C1, is not expected to enter the IDF arsenal anytime soon – but like other radar systems developed by IAI, will possibly be used by Israel in the coming years.
The ULTRA-C1 system, which permits high-frequency scanning operations, including in surroundings with high electromagnetic density, comes in three configurations – regular, large, and very large, to meet every mission requirement.
The standard version can locate drones and enemy planes up to 500 kilometers away, while the more extensive models allow rapid and accurate identification of ballistic missiles launched thousands of kilometers away, as well as enemy satellites.
The radar system allows electronic scanning of the area it's "watching" in a way that increases accuracy and identification of targets.
The ULTRA-C1 is portable and relatively light for a system of its size.
The system is designed to function independently, unlike those of Iron Dome or David's Sling, which were developed as part of an air defense system.
At the same time, a senior source at IAI told Ynet that it is possible to synchronize the system with other radars, from the identification phase to the interception stage.
The size of the system, similar to a small office building with four or five stories, provides the advantage of a wide coverage range, making it possible to hone in on and track multiple enemy targets before other radar systems identify them.
28 may 2015
US-made F-22 fighter plane
Israeli and American officials say they expect assistance to increase to more than $3.5 billion annually after 2017, possibly to assuage fears over nuclear deal.
US defense aid to Israel is likely to increase after 2017, sources on both sides said on Thursday, seeing a possible link to Washington's efforts to assuage its ally's fears over nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
A current package worth $3 billion a year expires in 2017. A US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said negotiators were close to a new deal that would bring annual payouts to $3.6-$3.7 billion on average.
An Israeli official, who also declined to be named, put the expected aid at between $3.5 billion and $4 billion.
"They (the United States) are trying to douse the fires after our flare-up about the Iran deal," the official added, referring to curbs being negotiated on Tehran's disputed nuclear program which Israel has condemned as insufficient.
In Washington, the Pentagon had no immediate comment. A spokesman for Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, asked about the US aid figures, said: "This is not a matter that has been discussed recently." He did not elaborate.
The previous US administration signed a 10-year deal with Israel in 2007 giving it $30 billion, most of which must be spent on American military products. Washington has earmarked hundreds of millions more dollars for Israeli missile defenses.
A year ago, with talks about the new aid package under way, a US official said Israel was seeking a significant increase but that the Obama administration, beset by domestic cost-cutting, was unlikely to agree beyond adjusting for inflation.
Since then, the United States and five other world powers have pressed ahead with the Iran negotiations, setting a June 30 deadline for a final accord. Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons. The talks have been dogged by disputes about the degree to which projects with bomb-making potential should be capped.
Israel's worries about the diplomacy have been echoed by Gulf Arab leaders, whom US President Barack Obama hosted on May 14 and sought to reassure with offers of boosted defense.
Such aid to Gulf Arabs has often ushered in increases in aid to Israel, whose military "qualitative edge" in the region
successive US administrations have pledged to preserve.
Asked if the expected hike in defense grants to Israel was linked to Washington's recent dealings with Iran and the Gulf Arab states, the US official said: "Could be."
Israeli and American officials say they expect assistance to increase to more than $3.5 billion annually after 2017, possibly to assuage fears over nuclear deal.
US defense aid to Israel is likely to increase after 2017, sources on both sides said on Thursday, seeing a possible link to Washington's efforts to assuage its ally's fears over nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
A current package worth $3 billion a year expires in 2017. A US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said negotiators were close to a new deal that would bring annual payouts to $3.6-$3.7 billion on average.
An Israeli official, who also declined to be named, put the expected aid at between $3.5 billion and $4 billion.
"They (the United States) are trying to douse the fires after our flare-up about the Iran deal," the official added, referring to curbs being negotiated on Tehran's disputed nuclear program which Israel has condemned as insufficient.
In Washington, the Pentagon had no immediate comment. A spokesman for Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, asked about the US aid figures, said: "This is not a matter that has been discussed recently." He did not elaborate.
The previous US administration signed a 10-year deal with Israel in 2007 giving it $30 billion, most of which must be spent on American military products. Washington has earmarked hundreds of millions more dollars for Israeli missile defenses.
A year ago, with talks about the new aid package under way, a US official said Israel was seeking a significant increase but that the Obama administration, beset by domestic cost-cutting, was unlikely to agree beyond adjusting for inflation.
Since then, the United States and five other world powers have pressed ahead with the Iran negotiations, setting a June 30 deadline for a final accord. Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons. The talks have been dogged by disputes about the degree to which projects with bomb-making potential should be capped.
Israel's worries about the diplomacy have been echoed by Gulf Arab leaders, whom US President Barack Obama hosted on May 14 and sought to reassure with offers of boosted defense.
Such aid to Gulf Arabs has often ushered in increases in aid to Israel, whose military "qualitative edge" in the region
successive US administrations have pledged to preserve.
Asked if the expected hike in defense grants to Israel was linked to Washington's recent dealings with Iran and the Gulf Arab states, the US official said: "Could be."