When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the U.S. Capitol last week, he described this conflict as a clash between civilization and barbarity. He was right, and nothing illustrates that more clearly than the account of Zach Sage Fox's foray into the West Bank.

The IDF preparing a “significant response” to Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children.

CSPAN @cspan
·
Rashida Tlaib holds 'War Criminal' sign as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress.

2:41 PM · Jul 24, 2024 //

The Left only destroys
7 hours ago
Actually, that sign is accurate. Rashida Taliban is a genocidal war criminal - or at least wants to be one.

RedinOR The Left only destroys
7 hours ago
Precisely. It wasn't a protest thing, she was self-identifying.

In a classified letter, US Central Command commander General Michael Kurilla warned Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that US military operations to keep the Red Sea open to commercial traffic are "failing." General Kurilla's warning to Austin and his cronies predicted that “U.S. service members will die if we continue going this way.” According to reports, there was a sudden demand for brown trousers in the upper reaches of the Pentagon. //

There is no doubt we are getting our asses kicked in the Red Sea. That is happening for one reason. Our foreign policy and defense strategy establishments are running on empty. The Israel Air Force has done more to establish dominance over the Houthis in one airstrike than we have in a year of half-hearted and hamstrung efforts to keep a vital international maritime route open. //

Houthi attacks are responsible for a significant drop in container shipping through the Red Sea, with a 90% decrease since December 2023, affecting 10-15% of global maritime trade. //

According to the report, alternate shipping routes around Africa, despite adding about 11,000 nautical miles, approximately $1 million in fuel costs per voyage, and 1-2 weeks of transit time, can be less expensive than the combined costs of crew bonuses, war risk insurance, and Suez transit fees.

Insurance premiums for Red Sea transits have increased to 0.7-1.0% of a ship’s total value as of mid-February, up from less than 0.1% before December 2023. //

Not only have our efforts to protect shipping not worked, but they have resulted in our allies forming a counter-coalition to avoid being under US command. US leadership in an area of immense national security interest, both the Red Sea route and the freedom of navigation, has been lost and will require much hard work to regain.

Once American hard power is used, it must emerge victorious. The failure to do so leads to instability and more warfare.

Much of Iran's resurgence and instability in the Middle East is directly attributable to Biden's horrendous leadership in closing out our Afghan misadventure. Now, he's about to end his misrule of America with another catastrophe that will echo for generations as a bookend to his Afghanistan failure. All in all, this is a fitting legacy for Joe Biden's life and political career.

Israeli parliament mulls a ban on Hamas-linked UN agency, may brand its a terrorist organization.

The entire proceeding is a farce. South Africa, through a highly distorted set of accusations, doesn’t seek to prevent genocide, it seeks to enable genocide against Jews by preventing Israel from defending itself. //

Here is Israel’s entire presentation today:

https://youtu.be/imn9daDE2dQ

The substance of the ruling is not specific, but generally demands Israel live up to its obligations under the genocide convention. It did not “order” an immediate ceasefire. It’s a toothless order, but will be used against Israel despite it not being a finding that Israel committed genocide. //

If anyone thought the “International Court of Justice” a function of the U.N. General Assembly would give Israel a fair hearing on South Africa’s fraudulent charge of genocide, you don’t understant the U.N. at all. //

The only bright spot was the statement at the end that the ICJ expresses concerns for the hostages and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. //

Anna Ahronheim @AAhronheim
·
Right after ICJ released its ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, Hamas fires a barrage of rockets towards communities in southern Israel-including those struck by the terror group on Oct.7. Coincidence?
8:08 AM · Jan 26, 2024

We can no more count on Biden to defend our border than to assist Israel. That means states and local communities must take their fates into their own hands. //

“Such is the nature of Evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads. A Shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was, so it always will be.”

These words from the movie adaptation of The Hobbit were quoted by my colleague Dr. David Wurmser, who is presently in Israel reporting as he can between rocket attacks and shelter-in-place orders.

Only Tolkien’s stories of the changeless sweeping malevolence of evil across the ages seem appropriate to encapsulate the tremendous paradigm shift represented by the horrific massacre perpetrated by Hamas over the weekend.

700 dead in a country of 9.3 million people is the equivalent of a terror attack on America in which over 25,000 people were brutally murdered. //

Israel unilaterally withdrew from every last inch of Gaza in 2005, after dismantling the 21 Israeli settlements that had existed in the territory and handing them over to the Palestinian Authority.

The rationale behind Israel’s withdrawal, carried out by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was the notion of land for peace—that Israel would hand over control of certain territories in exchange for security. The land was handed over. The peace never came.

A lot of celebrities would have tried to give credence to the heckler when the proper response is ridicule and humor. Seinfeld delivered that in spades. //

heckling a professional comedian is rarely a good idea. You will get leveled. //

emptypockets
2 hours ago
Willfully ignorant but arrogantly self-important lackwits trying to get their own virtue signaling in while it's "the thing to do". Like the BLM was the "thing to do" a couple of years ago. They are not serious people or they would bother with facts. They don't so it's all just performance. //

Magnus
2 hours ago
Their purpose is not to solve the 80 years issue with Trans Jordanians and Jews, but to FEEL righteous in their vapid indignations. It's all about FEELINGS, you know.

DDopson Ars Tribunus Militum
22y
1,933
Subscriptor
Doc12 said:
If someone has access to industrial centrifuges then HALEU seems like a convenience rather than a necessity. Could use un-enriched uranium in your centrifuges and would just take longer to get to the end point?
Yes, quite a bit longer. If you are a nation-state that can build an industrial scale centrifuge operation, then any reactor fuel is a proliferation risk. It takes several times more effort to concentrate to 5% than from 5% to 90%.

There's a concept called Separation Work Units (SWUs) that can be used to quantify how much centrifuge time is needed to separate x kg of uranium at y% enrichment into an enriched stream at z% enrichment and a tailings stream with <<y% enrichment. And there's a calculator here. https://www.urenco.com/swu-calculator

Let's say you want to produce 1 kg of 90% enriched U235.

Starting from 176 kg of natural uranium, it takes 227 SWUs of effort if you are exhausting tailings at 0.2%. Or if you exhaust tailings at 0.5% it only takes 154 SWU, but then you need a whopping 424 kg of natural Uranium feedstock. Either way, it's a lot of work.

Starting with 20 kg of 5% enriched reactor fuel, drained down to 0.5% tailings, is 48 SWU. Or if you can afford be wasteful of 5% enriched reactor fuel, 30 kg + 30 SWU gets you to the same place with 2% tailings, something that only makes sense if you've stolen the reactor fuel rather than enriching it from natural uranium.

Starting with 5 kg of 20% enriched HALEU drops the separation effort to 12 SWU, assuming 2% tailings. Or if you stole a lot of it, and only need to extract half the U235 content, 10% tailings is 7.4 SWU per kg of weapons-grade HEU.

The key point is that the greatest investment of separation work comes in the early enrichment stages where vast quantities of natural uranium are concentrated into relatively smaller quantities of moderately enriched uranium. It takes several times more effort to concentrate to 5% than from 5% to 90%.

So this risk isn't unique to HALEU. Regular reactor fuel is almost as problematic. //

DDopson Ars Tribunus Militum
22y
1,933
Subscriptor

clewis said:
Timed to the µs? I'll just use a Raspberry π and a real time operating system. If we need ns, I might have to buy some speciality expansion boards.

While modern technology has rendered trivial some aspects of the problem that were much harder in the pre-transistor era, it's still not quite as simple as that. You need high quality explosive initiators that will trigger detonation with a predictable lag, versus all of the default solutions have unacceptably high variability such that one side goes before the other, creating an asymmetric implosion. The solution is often found by driving enormous currents through wires or foil embedded in relatively sensitive explosives, and in 1945, achieving such a rapid current rise was a major challenge. Today, someone developing similar high-precision initiators would benefit tremendously from the plethora of off-the-shelf power electronics (much more important even than the Raspberry pi), but it's still something that a real engineer needs to spend some time testing very carefully or your weapon will dramatically underperform it's designed yield. //

DDopson Ars Tribunus Militum
22y
1,933
Subscriptor

Wickwick said:
Sandia National Labs has (at least) one group which specializes in analyzing the risk of improvised industrial goods for explosive yield. Many years ago I helped adapt some lab equipment so it could be used in a cloud of muriatic acid as if someone had detonated a railcar full of the stuff. Just last year at a conference I was speaking to one of their researchers about the threats posed by things like diesel tankers, LNG ships, etc. None of those things are viewed particularly highly on the threat matrix compared to something like ANFO (Beirut port explosion). Fuels have a lot of stored chemical energy, but you can't couple that to the environment in a manner that creates a large explosion without having an oxidizer intimately mixed in. Achieving the near-nuclear-level blast of a massive fuel-air burst bomb is a non-trivial engineering feat. //

+1, and note that weaponized fuel-air bombs don't just use any old fuel laying about. They have a specifically engineered mix of a highly volatile liquid with a wide detonation range (better tolerance for uneven dispersion), such as ethylene oxide, with a powder like aluminum, which boosts the energy release per unit of oxygen consumed.

Poorly dispersed commercial fuels badly underachieve their on-paper energetic value.

anon-pweq
an hour ago
[Repeating my comment from a sister-site:]
Just a note about the bemoaning of the supposed dis-proportionality between the number of dead Arabs versus rescued Israelis. It's not as if the calculus was "Should we kill X people in order to reach the hostages?". According to all reports, the vast majority of Arab casualties occurred after the initial Israeli rescue. After Israeli forces were "in possession" of the hostages and were trying to retreat, they all came under heavy fire and were forced to respond. Israel was initially carrying out a precise in-and-out rescue operation with minimal casualties; it was Hamas and its supporters who elected to unnecessarily turn it into an all-out battle.

In the wake of the Israel Defense Forces' successful operation to rescue four hostages from captivity in Gaza we're learning more about the conditions in which the hostages lived and who housed them, and once again we're seeing that the native "journalists" covering the conflict are anything but neutral observers.

As we noted in numerous stories about Israel's rescue mission, the four hostages rescued were not held in tunnels or prisons; they were held in the homes of alleged civilians in residential areas in Nuseirat. I say "alleged civilians" because if these people were holding Israeli hostages for eight months they're absolutely part of Hamas and are combatants, not civilians.

One of those alleged civilians, it's now confirmed, was Abdullah Al Jamal, who bills himself as a journalist and who most recently wrote for a United States-based 501(c)(3) NGO, The Palestine Chronicle. He also wrote at least one piece for Al Jazeera. The Israeli government confirmed Sunday that Al Jamal, who was neutralized by IDF rescuers, held three hostages captive in his family home: //

Laocoön of Troy
18 hours ago edited
Actually the "hostages" are slaves taken in "battle". It's an ancient Muslim practice when waging Jihad. It wouldn't surprise me if the families paid Hamas for their slaves.

The issue here probably isn't just optics-related. There's likely a legal component as well given there are laws against American organizations aiding and abetting terrorism. Not only was Al Jamal a "correspondent in Gaza" (which dictates he held an official position for the Palestinian Chronicle), but he was also a spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Labor. The ties don't get any clearer than that.

Now ask yourself, if Al Jamal was just an innocent bystander gunned down by ruthless Israeli forces, why would the Palestinian Chronicle try to cover up his connection to their organization? That's a question CNN and other American mainstream news outlets won't be asking as they rush to push the Palestinian line about the hostage rescue.

Although Almog’s father, Yossi Meir, was ill before his death, his family believes he died of grief. //

Yossi Meir’s heart reportedly stopped the night before the rescue. //

Noa Argamani, one of the other three hostages rescued in Operation Arnon, named after the IDF soldier who lost his life in the mission, returned home to a mother, Liora, who is battling brain cancer. Her mother's dying wish was to be able to see her daughter again. //

Chris Co
2 hours ago
One day before the rescue. If Biden/Blinken stopped interfering, he would not have died as his son would have been rescued earlier.

Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 @MarinaMedvin
·
“How dare those Jews rescue their hostages!” — WaPo, outraged.
8:22 PM · Jun 8, 2024

Everything about that headline is carefully crafted to mislead. For one, the claim that "more than 200 Palestinians killed" is completely unverified. Those numbers come directly from the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Ministry of Health." Also absent in them is any admission of how many of the dead were combatants, either because they were members of Hamas or chose to fire on the Israeli forces.

Then there's the labeling of the operation as an "Israeli hostage raid." This was not a "raid," a word that typically produces impressions of aggression (i.e., a bombing raid). It was a rescue in which self-defense was used while securing the safety of the four hostages.

That's nothing, though, compared to what one BBC reporter did while interviewing Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman.

Brian BJ @iamBrianBJ
·
The prize for most stupid question of the day goes to.... the bbc for asking the following question:

Should the @idf have warned Palestinians before launching the rescue operation ?

Listen to how @jconricus handled that one Show more

4:31 AM · Jun 9, 2024

After allowing Conricus to share his reaction to the rescue, the reporter's first question wasn't about why these hostages were being held by civilians. It wasn't about how the families felt when their loved ones returned after such a daring mission. It was to immediately pivot to "the death toll among Palestinians." //

Long story short: The mainstream press is awful. There is no low its members won't stoop to, and that includes becoming propagandists for terrorists. ///

In one sense, the BBC reporter actually gives an opportunity to defuse and debunk some of the criticism that IDF is going to get.

Amid world outcry against an Israeli airstrike that took out two Hamas terrorist leaders but also reportedly killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that the “small munitions” used in the attack simply could not have caused the fire that caused such devastation. They think a Hamas ammunition storage facility may be to blame:. //

If IDF turns out to be right, and they had an ammunition warehouse right next to a civilian compound, then that would show yet again that they care nothing for the Palestinian civilians. Certainly, the loss of life in this tragedy—and in this war—is heartbreaking, but the blame belongs on Hamas’ shoulders, not Israel’s.

This generation operates on the currency of virtue. The only way to get anything in life these days is to convince others of your noble heart. In reality, it doesn’t really matter if it’s true as long as you adequately satisfy the conscience of the audience. They are cheap dates and easy to please.

The situation with Rafah, as well as the entire Gaza conflict, should be common sense and nothing new. This isn’t the Western world’s first round of fighting terrorism. But then again, it’s always different with the Jews.

The conscience of the people is being perverted by biased news, outright lies, and careful manipulation. Hamas designed this strategy, and it’s working.

We are tired of this malice masquerading as humanity. Anyone who does not immediately call for the surrender of Hamas and the release of the hostages does not care about Palestinians or any civilians, Israeli or otherwise. Anyone who has spent time in the area of Gaza, even pre-war, should know how Hamas treats its own people. Where are the calls for freedom from the oppression of Hamas for Palestinians? Where are the calls for their leaders to value their safety above all else in their war campaign? Can anyone imagine if any Western country had put their people in harm's way the way that Hamas has? //

The only chance for this war to end is for Netanyahu and the IDF to apply strong military pressure. Israel has tried all of the things that the world has suggested — hard hand, soft hand, diplomacy, war, turning the other cheek, or standing their ground. They are tired of being everyone’s favorite guinea pig. The world has shown that the only thing Israelis can do that they like is die.

The culpability for Rafah falls on Hamas. The only way to fix an injustice is to hold the correct person accountable. Israel should do everything it can to protect civilian life. However, anyone who thinks that there is another way to end this conflict is either delusional or has malicious intent. //

Dieter Schultz > Ed in North Texas
4 hours ago edited

I don't understand why Israel held the IDF back from Rafah for so long, it gains Israel nothing on the so-called world stage and the drastically increased antisemitism around the US and Europe is proof (never mind the clowns at the East River Debating Society- aka the United Nations).
Nixon once said "We'll get into as much trouble if we send 3 planes or 100 planes to resupply the Israelis so send every plane we have!" When it comes to dealing with uncomfortable situations like opposition from your enemies, you have to loose your concerns about the amount of trouble you'll get into, doing too little or just enough, your enemies won't care about your restraint.

If your cause is just, and you believe that, then you, and Israel, need to stop caring so much that it stops you from doing what you need to do.

The indictments of the Hamas thugs are just window-dressing. The real target is Netanyahu and his government. Delaying the indictment of the Hamas "leadership" until now shows how deeply unserious Khan is about pursuing Hamas's crimes. Rolling the indictments together is a clever way of claiming there is no difference between Hamas and Israel. And accusing Netanyahu and Gallant of "crimes against humanity" is a not very subtle way of drawing a Nazi inference.

How this plays out in the long run is anyone's guess. If the ICC goes along with issuing arrest warrants, the countries harboring Hamas will ignore them, and Israeli government officials could be arrested when they travel.

The UN just made an embarrassing adjustment to their estimated number of deaths in Gaza. They just halved the number of women and children previously estimated to have been killed. //

Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer
·
Replying to @HillelNeuer @UNOCHA and 2 others
In Ukraine, the UN has a defined methodology using individual records of civilian harm, requiring a reasonable grounds standard of proof. As a result, the UN states that the actual death toll is likely higher, because their count is careful & cautious. /4 https://ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/two-year-update-protection-civilians-impact-hostilities-civilians-24.pdf

Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer
·
Yet when Israel can be blamed, it’s the complete opposite. For Gaza there is no method or standard of proof. The UN simply parrots Hamas numbers, the source laundered by the UN as “Gaza Ministry of Health” or “Government Media Office.” In fact, both are run by terrorist Hamas. /5
6:34 PM · May 12, 2024 //

Joe Scarborough @JoeNBC
·
UN halves estimates of women and children killed in Gaza. Apparently, the Hamas figures repeatedly cited are false.

jpost.com
UN halves estimates of women and children killed in Gaza
1:52 PM · May 12, 2024 //

You would think they would be happy that the number of women and children estimated to have been killed had fallen. But instead, they were mad that people who pointed out the numbers were being questioned. It doesn't help their narrative. //

anon-ubkk
5 hours ago edited
The number may well be half again and
closer to 5000 noncombatants killed according to Mark Levin and his sources. Trouble is, the UN has helped stoke anger around the world and in the US with non suspecting college students (not the paid agitators) and the naive population who keep calling the necessary IDF military operation "genocide". The UN for the most part has been useless, but they have turned out to be the propaganda arm of dangerous Islamists, Marxists, anti Israeli and anti American interests. The UN should be dismantled. //

JimboCA
3 hours ago
It's not the Fog of War that has lead to wildly inflated numbers. It's the Fog of Propaganda.