Showing posts with label drone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drone. Show all posts

Thursday, September 21, 2023



MPower Change, the Muslim advocacy group co-founded by Linda Sarsour, just sent out an action alert to its email list with the title "Take Action: No autonomous drones from Israel:"

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just approved a request by Airobotics, an Israeli government-funded company,¹ to fly “autonomous” drones over U.S. neighborhoods.²

We don’t want unaccountable, autonomous “crime-fighting” drones snooping on us, filling our skies, and making life-or-death decisions.

Tell the FAA: We need safety where we live, not spy drones funded by apartheid Israel.
Airobotics is not funded by the Israeli government. It received a specific grant at the end of August of $540,000 from the Israel Innovation Authority, which is funded by but independent of the Israeli government. The grant has nothing to do with the drone that the FAA approved. The Muslim group is stretching to find any connection, no matter how tenuous, to associate Israel with a myth of drones meant to spy on Muslims and people of color in cities. 

But what does Airobotics' Israel connections have to do with what the drone does? The email pretends that it is trying to protect civil rights of people of color who they imagine will be surveilled disproportionately by these autonomous drones - but if that was really MPower Change's concern, what difference does it make whether they were manufactured or even funded by Israel?  It is up to the people who actually purchase and deploy the drones to determine how they will be used, whether for good or evil purposes. The source has nothing to do with it. 

This is hatemongering, not a concern for human rights. And the implication that a drone company is especially pernicious because it is Israeli is simple bigotry.  

Notably, while the email mentions Israel eight times to whip up their subscribers into a frenzy, their auto-email to the FAA doesn't mention Israel once. Telling the FAA not to approve a drone because it is Israeli would be obvious bigotry. The advocacy group only tells that to fellow Muslims. MPower Change knows that Israel has nothing to do with the issue, but they also know that their email list is filled with people who hate Israel and Jews - and they want to leverage that hate to get them to take action (and raise their own profile.)

This email shows that the word "Israel" is now a dog-whistle for modern antisemites. They use "Israel" the way "Jew" used to be used, as a means to make people angry. 



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Thursday, July 13, 2023




When you cross the long market street in Balata camp, east of Nablus, you can hardly see the sky, after the resistance fighters, with the help and initiative of the youth of the camp, covered the main streets and alleys with plastic sheets and fabrics. This is done in order to protect the resistance fighters, facilitate their movement, and reduce the possibility of them being monitored by the occupation reconnaissance planes.

The same idea was done by the resistance fighters in the Jenin camp, and it achieved great success, which prompted the "Balata Battalion" to repeat it, due to its success in protecting the resistance fighters and neutralizing the threat of the occupation, its planes and snipers.

Regarding the importance of the step, a fighter from the Balata Brigade told Palestine Today that the introduction of drones by the occupation in its pursuit of the resistance fighters, and later their use in bombing sites, homes and moving vehicles, as happened in Jenin, prompted them to expedite the installation of these barriers.
Who cares that thousands of residents in crowded camps won't see the sky? Terrorists' lives are at stake! And, as always with Palestinians, what the majority wants is not nearly as important as what the self-appointed leaders decide. 





Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

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Friday, July 07, 2023



YNet reports that the IDF, for the first time, used tiny suicide drones in Jenin to neutralize some of the terrorists and destroy command centers.

For the first time ever, the IDF has dispatched the cutting-edge SPIKE FireFly suicide drone in an operational capacity during this week’s large-scale counterterrorism offensive in the West Bank city and refugee camp of Jenin.

The elite Duvdevan and Maglan units deployed six of these loitering munitions, manufactured by Defense giant Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., which carry a small amount of explosives to target terrorist targets around the Jenin refugee camp, including command centers that housed dozens of explosive charges.

The mini-kamikaze drones managed to destroy the targets from afar, thus minimizing risk to troops. The IDF considers the weapon system’s first baptism of fire a remarkable success and examines its future use for targeted assassinations of terrorists.

According to the arms manufacturer, the weapon, which is known in the IDF as MAOZ, “was designed for the dismounted soldier fighting within the urban arena where situation awareness is limited, the enemy is behind cover, and precision is critical.”

FireFly drones hover silently around alleys or inside buildings. They can be operated autonomously and explode precisely and lethally on the target without endangering soldiers.
The video by Rafael explains it better:



Israel haters love to say that Israel field tests weapons against Palestinians. But when the weapon is designed to minimize collateral damage, and also to minimize the danger to troops, what exactly is wrong with that? If the alternative is a massive bombing from the air, isn't this better?

The objection is simply to invoke an antisemitic trope of greedy Jews stopping at nothing to sell their deadly wares. Any army would do its own extensive testing of any new weapon and not buy them simply because Israel had already used it (and indeed, the US Army tested the Firefly last year, and the British army is also interested.) 

Israeli defense contractors build weapons with the primary purpose of minimizing damage to civilian objects while being just as deadly to the terrorists. Anyone who cares about human rights should be applauding weapons like this. 

But Israel's critics don't care about human rights.



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 



Tuesday, October 25, 2022

From Ian:

Herzog to present Biden with evidence Iranian drones being used in Ukraine
President Isaac Herzog is expected to present US President Joe Biden with evidence indicating that Iranian UAVs are being used against Ukrainian civilians as part of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Herzog arrived in Washington Tuesday morning, ahead of the meeting with Biden.

According to Herzog’s office, through a visual analysis, the Israeli defense establishment “has established that there are UAV fragments in Ukraine that are identical to those developed in Iran.”

“President Herzog will present US Government officials with images of Shahed-136 exploding UAVs prepared for a launch in a military exercise in Iran in December 2021. Another photo shows the same type of drone downed during the fighting in Ukraine,” Herzog’s office said.

“Despite Iranian denials and attempts to obscure their Iranian origins by adding Russian stamps, the photos show that the drone stabilizers are identical in their structure, dimensions, and numbering,” the statement reads.

“Yet again, Iran has proven that it cannot be trusted and wherever there is killing, destruction, and hatred—it’s there,” President Herzog said. “Iranian weapons play a key role in destabilizing our world, and the international community must learn its lessons, now and in the future.”

He went on to say that the world must speak with Iran in the same language: “a tough, united, and uncompromising language. As we are repeatedly discovering, for every hesitation about Iran—there is a price. In recent months, the Iranian regime has shown the world its true colors, which Israel has known for years. Nobody can ignore that the Iranian regime uses violence against its own citizens and is brutally suppressing the hijab protests with blatant human rights violations.”


UN's Pillay Commission is "objective, impartial and credible like the Spanish Inquisition
UN Watch's Hillel Neuer interviewed on ILTV, October 23, 2022.

The UN's Commission of Inquiry that was supposed to examine Israel and the Palestinians issued its first report to the General Assembly, and it only condemns Israel.

"This UN's Pillay Commission of Inquiry is objective, impartial, and credible like the Spanish Inquisition," said Neuer.

"The entire report only targets Israel. There is no mention of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Lion's Den, pick your Palestinian terrorist group, or pick the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is funding and financing and arming these groups, no mention whatsoever."


Friday, October 21, 2022

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Yair Lapid, Authoritarian and Unafraid
Under Israel’s constitutional law Basic Law – Referendums, to come into force all international agreements that involve the concession of sovereign territory require the approval of two-thirds of the Knesset or must pass in a public referendum. Since Lapid’s deal involves the concession of Israel’s territorial waters, under both the spirit and letter of the law, Lapid is supposed to submit the deal to the Knesset for two-thirds approval. In the event, Lapid tried to avoid even presenting the agreement to the Knesset for review. Although Attorney General Gali Miara Baharav issued an opinion that the agreement doesn’t need to be considered under the Basic Law – Referendums (for reasons that aren’t clear), she still insisted that the Knesset must approve the deal by a simple majority.

Lapid, for his part, doesn’t care what his attorney general thinks or what the law says. In response to a reporter’s question at the press conference, Lapid explained how he justifies his decision to act in clear contempt of the law and his attorney general and suffice with government approval of his radical deal with Hezbollah’s stand-in government in Beirut.

As he put it, “In light of the opposition’s unrestrained behavior, we have decided not to bring the agreement before the Knesset for a vote.”

That is, given that his political opponents oppose a gas deal that cedes Israeli territory and natural resources to its sworn enemy, under the gun, and just weeks before a national election, Lapid has decided that the Knesset is unworthy of the honor of approving his deal.

Several commentators have noted that Lapid’s statement demonstrated a contempt for his opposition. But the real problem with his statement, and the sentiment it expressed, is that it demonstrated an utter contempt for the most basic institution in Israel’s parliamentary democracy—the parliament, and for democratic norms.

Probably the worst thing about Lapid’s anti-democratic behavior is that his supportive press is letting him get away with it. While the CEC made Yesh Atid pay Channel 14’s legal costs, it didn’t require Lapid’s party to reimburse the television station for the fortune it paid to run a public campaign against Lapid’s efforts to shutter it. Channel 14 felt compelled to launch its campaign because for the most part, it received no support from its counterparts in the progressive, Lapid-supporting media. Israel Hayom, which changed its editorial line to support the Bennett-Lapid government was the only newspaper to express opposition to Lapid’s campaign against Channel 14. And it did it in a house ad, on page 20 of the paper. With the exception of two or three journalists on the right that broadcast for the other stations, Channel 14’s competitors either said nothing, or expressed support for Lapid’s effort to shut it down.

As for the deal with Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, most of the media coverage has played down Lapid’s apparent breach of a Basic Law to ram his deal through on the eve of elections. Opposition to the deal has been painted in partisan colors, effecting the sense that the controversy over an agreement which requires Israel to make massive concessions in response to Hezbollah threats is nothing but electioneering.

It is impossible to know how the elections will pan out. There are always last-minute surprises. Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc is consistently polling between 59-62 seats, which makes it far from certain that Netanyahu will be able to form a coalition without making a deal with members of Lapid’s left-Arab bloc. But Lapid’s behavior since taking over the caretaker government makes one thing clear. If he forms the next government, the foundations of Israel’s democratic system and the basic freedoms that citizens of a free society expect, including freedom of the press and representative government, will be imperiled.
David Singer: Roth confounds UN, USA & Australia: Two-State solution “is gone” Kenneth Roth – recently retired Executive Director of Human Rights Watch – has undermined the continuation of the policy espoused by the UN, USA and Australia for the last 20 years supporting the the creation of a new Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan for the first time in recorded history (two-state solution).

Addressing a recent discussion hosted by the Washington-based think-tank - Arab Center - Roth declared:
“The two-state solution is great but it's gone”

Roth’s bombshell admission was followed by this statement made by Hady Amr - US deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian affairs:

"We remain committed to rebuilding our bilateral relationship with the Palestinian people, with the US president's goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,"

In reversing Australia’s decision to recognise western Jerusalem, later revoked, as the capital of Israel – Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said:
“Australia is committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders. We will not support an approach that undermines this prospect.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been repeating a similar mantra since 2017:

“A two-state solution that will end the occupation and, with the creation of conditions, also the suffering even to the Palestinian people, is in my opinion the only way to guarantee that peace is established and, at the same time, that two states can live together in security and in mutual recognition,”

This blinkered approach by the UN, USA and Australia has seen each of them refusing to acknowledge – let alone discuss – the merits of a new alternative solution emanating from Saudi Arabia in June : Shredding the failed two-state solution and calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the 'West Bank' into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine whose capital will be Amman – not Jerusalem (Saudi Solution).

Tuesday, July 12, 2022


From Naharnet:
Israel was mulling the possibility of filing a U.N. complaint against Lebanon over the drones that Hezbollah sent towards the Karish gas field, but it later shelved the idea at Washington’s request, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Israel refrained from filing the complaint “after the pressures of U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea on the Lebanese premier managed to secure a stance shirking responsibility in an official (Lebanese) statement,” al-Akhbar added, noting that the U.S. pressures were also aimed at avoiding any impact on U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to the region.

Not sure how reliable Al Akhbar is, since Israel did  write a letter of complaint today. So the question is - was there US pressure?

“The Americans are exerting pressures on a group of Lebanese politicians to avoid any negative development that might affect the U.S. mediator’s tour, and they are also requesting the announcement of positive news about an imminent solution for the demarcation file in order to make use of that in the pacification efforts,” informed sources told the daily.
If true, does Israel get anything in return for acquiescing to US demands?  It doesn't seem so.

The article goes on to say that there may be a horse trade in the works to help the negotiations over the maritime demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon:

Al-Akhbar added, citing deliberately “leaked” media reports, that “the demarcation file has entered an advanced new stage.”

“Reports are saying that the Israel enemy does not mind granting Lebanon the entire Qana field without financial compensations, following a U.S. endeavor in this regard,” the newspaper said.

“Discussions are now revolving around a compensative maritime area that would be granted in return for giving up the entire field,” al-Akhbar added.

“This area is related to the demarcation of lines, which requires a zigzag line granting Israel a maritime area after adding the field to (Lebanon’s) exclusive economic zone,” the newspaper quoted the sources as saying.



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Friday, May 20, 2022

Times of Israel reports:

The Iron Dome missile defense system shot down a “suspicious” aircraft flying over the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

According to the IDF, the device “was monitored throughout the entire incident” by the air force’s ground control. The military said the UAV did not enter Israeli airspace, adding that the interceptor missiles were fired at the device while it was over Gaza.
A few hours later, Islamic Jihad published photos of the areas around Gaza that they claim were taken by one of their drones.





The timing does not seem coincidental. When Israel announced downing the drone, Islamic Jihad wanted to show Gazans that it had accomplished a mission. 





Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

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