Thursday, January 01, 2009

Times-Onlines: Israel Nuclear Plant in Battle Zone, Really?!

I found it first on gateway-pundit, who referred to drudge. Now I see it at foxnews - so it is by now a wide spread news item, here: Hamas Missiles Put Israel Nuclear Plant in Battle Zone

They are basically saying that this is what the Times of London are claiming, here. Considering that people usually read headlines and not content, they might be led to believe that it is anything but speculation and making up the news by the Times of London.

Well - who was it that whispered that to "Times Of London", of all media outlets?! The same media outlet which published this piece of poop:
We must adjust our distorted image of Hamas

I attach the following picture, and I'll explain my further skepticism of this report below:
(map from google-maps)
Allow me to discuss a few points:
  • Dimona is almost twice as far from Gaza as is Be'er Sheva, to claim that because the rockets hit Be'er Sheva they can reach Dimona is ignorance and stupidity at once. Peek at the map and see for yourself.
  • Hammas are under a world of pain. If they had the ability to hit Dimona - they would have as revenge already. (I'm not saying they didn't though - if they did Israel would not let it be known, from another perspective, Hammas would have bragged if they did)
  • Saddam tried to bomb the Nuclear facility with his Skud missiles. There were anti-aircraft patriot missiles to defend Dimona's plant back then. If Hammas does have such long range missiles, launching them up to this distance could give the anti missile systems enough time to defend.
  • Dimona's plant is not Dimona the city - I can't point it out to you on the map though I'm sure the terrorists know where it's at. The missiles would have to reach beyond Dimona the city.
  • Long range missiles are usually not very portable and Gaza is an open theatre to the Israeli inteligence. Draw your own conclusions here.
  • The immediate ramification of an Iranian missile hitting Dimona would be all out war in the middle east. The USA would not be able to sit on the sideline.
  • Let's review the alarmist paragraphs from the source:
    Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

    Israel’s worst nightmare is that soon all its cities will be within range either of the Hezbollah Katyushas arrayed on the Lebanese border to the north or the increasingly sophisticated missiles stockpiled by Hamas to the south. Both groups have links to Israel’s archenemy Iran.
  • Under a feeling of deja-vu I'll say: Why would sources tell it to that particular paper/website? Which Israeli sources? Which Israeli officials? Is the times-of-London anything more than a trashy tabloid paper much like most other London based papers? London papers have long had an agenda against Israel's nuclear capabilities. Would Israeli sources discuss such sensitive issues with such hostile media outlets?!
  • Could it be that some retired ex-military people were interviewed and were speculating, yet the times -looking for glory - reported it as a fact? That Dimona is within range?
  • The quote is assured that Hammas has in fact obtained the missiles. Israel has never officially said so, and they have officially said many other things which did turn out to be true. Who is lying/speculating here and makes it sound like a fact?
  • Right wing politicians ARE saying that not going in and eliminating Hammas would lead eventually to Dimona and Tel-Aviv being within range. That is a well reported and documented fact - was this fact taken out of context and distorted to make bombastic headlines?
I'm not saying that Hammas doesn't have the capability, simply that this report is dubious and the source is even more dubious. I have no anonymous knowledgeable sources, just reading the news and drawing my own conclusions.
Update:
I believe that when I started writing this post, the fox-news article was referring to the times-of-London one, and now it was updated and there is no reference or credit (there is some credit to AP), simply restatement of the same report. Odd. (Plagiarism? On fox-news website? I should have saved some pages to hard-drive)

I will not fight windmills here. It is currently reported as a fact that Israeli sources claim that Dimona is within missiles range.

3 comments:

  1. This is going to be included in the coming update about Gaza.

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  2. Wow, wouldn't that be great. A few missiles raining own on Dimona. One can only hope. Amybe the Jews will move to New York where they belong and leave the desert to Palestinians. Of course, that's what will happen. The technology always improves. Israel is becoming more vulnerable to an existential threat from technology, the very thing that allows them to bomb with impunity. What a glorious day that will be! We need all those Jews in Hollywood, running the banking system in New York,running the universities in Boston. We need Jews, not Israelis!

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  3. 0043 - you're a sick hateful asswipe. I let you're message be shown only to be reminded that Nazis like you still exist. Are you by the way from the UN or just an employee of AP?

    ReplyDelete