Tonight, an anonymous poster, to whom I am most grateful, drew my attention to two very interesting pieces by Amal Saad-Ghorayeb:
- Why Islamic Jihad is the new Hizbullah
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad after the cease-fire: a new division of labour?
One of the articles also references this article:
This is all very interesting.
According to its Wikipedia entry, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) only has about 1000 members. I would have to assume that the military wing of PIJ, called the al-Quds Brigades (aQB) would be even smaller. One “terrorism study” website claims that the aQB receive about 2 million dollars from Iran annually but does not give any sources or fact in support of that figure. Either way, 2 million dollars annually for an organization of less than 1000 is really not very much. And yet, this is what representatives of the aQB have declared during a press conference today:
“The Brigades fired 620 rockets on the occupied territories including dozens of Grad missiles and Fajr 5 rockets in addition to Fajr 3 rockets during the operation “Blue Sky”. It added that its fighters used for the first time Kornet rockets, anti-warships missiles and advanced rockets launchers.
Meanwhile, the spokesman stressed that al-Quds Brigades’ military depot was fine, adding that the resistance didn’t use but a simple amount of its abilities. “The enemy had acknowledged that dozens of its occupation soldiers have been killed and injured as a result for the qualitative operation, in addition to destroying communication networks.” “The intelligence weapon was also engaged during this war. We were able to penetrate 5000 mobiles for Zionist officers and soldiers took part in the offensive on Gaza,” the spokesman said, adding that ten mujahedeen (fighters) were martyred during the offensive. “Today, one of the rounds of the conflict with the Israeli enemy has ended. In this round the resistance dictated its word, will and determination. In this round the resistance dictated a new style of confrontation and a qualitative weapon that has changed the deterrence equation,” the statement said.
If this is true – and I have seen no other source supporting these claims – this is quite amazing. The hacking into the Israeli phone network is a typical Hezbollah tactic, as is the use of the advanced Russian Kornet anti-tank missile (which can defeat even the most advanced versions of the Israeli Merkava tank). I did not see any reports of anti-ship missiles fired from Gaza, but that does not mean that this is not true.
Of course, at this point, the firstpriority is to check how much truth there is to these claims, or whether this is again an example of the type of empty grandstanding we have so often seen from various Palestinian groups. My gut feeling is that these claims will prove to be true and, if that is the case, then indeed something very interesting might be happening: the appearance of a sophisticated and mature Palestinian resistance movement, something which the Palestinian people desperately need.
A request to all of you now:
PLEASE, IF YOU FIND ANY INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD, THE AL-QUDS BRIGADES, OR ANY GOOD ANALYTICAL MATERIALS ABOUT THIS TOPIC, PLEASE FORWARD IT TO ME
Many thanks in advance and kind regards,
The Saker
PS: I found some recent footage of today’s declaration by the aQB along with some footage of aQB rocket launches:
ASG is one of the leading scholars of Hezbollah, and seems to be well positioned in Beirut to garner this information and to theorize the direction and balance of the conflict.
@Anonymous: ASG is one of the leading scholars of Hezbollah
I know, I read her book and I have been following her interviews ever since, and I agree that she is very good. I even emailed her twice (once while she still was in the USA, and once since she left) but, alas, she never replied. I was rather disappointed by that, but that is her right, of course.
Off topic looks like there could be huge progress on the issue of UK tax havens
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2012/11/23/the-days-of-the-uks-tax-havens-are-numbered-the-treasury-is-taking-steps-to-shatter-their-secrecy-forever/
This subject is very dear to my heart. I stated on the thread about the riots last year
“the nexus between the City of London and and its network of offshore tax havens has enabled the world’s plutocratic scum not only to evade their taxes but also to finance off balance sheet every fascist and terrorist scum the whole world over”
I suspect the main reason this has happened is because of pressure from Washington whose FACTA act was very significant. But also in terms of British domestic politics there has been pressure on the issue. The effect of the austerity means that the middle class are suffering and there is increasing anger at the idea that the rich are not paying their fair share even among quite conservative people. The arch Tory paper Daily Mail has been banging the drum on tax avoidance. This reform has come from a Tory government which I never expected to happen.
Anyway just goes to show that the Plutocracy doesn’t always win.
Saker,
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Navy-to-briefly-reduce-carriers-in-Persian-Gulf-180435291.html
Best,
Joe
I’d have some serious doubts about the Kornets – the claim about their use was from the Israeli’s attempting to excuse their defeat/stalemate with Hezbollah.
However, there were extensive studies done of the weapons used in the conflict, & Hezbollah was using Metis-M wire-guided missiles & RPGs for anti-tank work, just using them intelligently.
The Metis-M would be readily available from many places in the middle-east, & Syria had extensive stocks of them. In Hezbollah’s case, they refurbished them & trained up with the right tactics, & they’d be equally effective in the Gaza strip if their operators were of similar quality.
Alistair Crooke(?) & a few others did a series on it, & there were also israeli internal studies which reached the same conclusion.
NOTE; the anti-ship missile was an old chinese silkworm clone that was also refurbished & used intelligently, taking out of the battle a highly advanced, very expensive Israeli corvette.
You don’t need the latest toys, just the right tool for the job…
If the aQB are for real, they’re just turning the Israeli propaganda back against them, & sowing some doubts.
@KenM:I’d have some serious doubts about the Kornets
Why? I am not saying that you are incorrect, just curious for your reasons. As far as I know, the use of Kornets by Hezbollah has been confirmed (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1526407/Israel-humbled-by-arms-from-Iran.html), and I don’t see why Hezbollah or Iran or Syria could not have passed a few Kornets to aQB. Or are you saying that there was no need for Kornets and that Metis-M was good enough to defeat the Merkava armor (which I think is true, by the way).
The Metis-M would be readily available from many places in the middle-east, & Syria had extensive stocks of them. In Hezbollah’s case, they refurbished them & trained up with the right tactics, & they’d be equally effective in the Gaza strip if their operators were of similar quality.
All very true.
the anti-ship missile was an old chinese silkworm clone that was also refurbished & used intelligently, taking out of the battle a highly advanced, very expensive Israeli corvette.
So there actually was a missile launch from Gaza during this week?
You don’t need the latest toys, just the right tool for the job…
Oh absolutely! Here I totally agree. The current obsession with the latest high tech gadgetry is infantile and misguided. You do indeed just need the right tool for the job and I would even add, you need the simplest and cheapest tool possible which can still do the job well.
Cheers!
The Telegraph report seems to be just a recycling of Israeli claims – I wouldn’t call that confirmed.
The Israeli’s did however show a Kornet to the media, untouched & complete in the box with supposed ‘official documention’ –
Personally regard the chance of Hezbollah keeping a complete Kornet with the original documentation sitting at an outpost at somewhere around zero.
Hezbollah are a pretty professional bunch, & any advanced weaponry they’d get, they would immediately strip any possible identifiers to protect their sources.
The study of damage profiles of destroyed & damaged Israeli tanks that I read also didn’t show Kornet damage, which apparently have an obviously different profile from the Metis/RPG’s..
Also, Syria only purchased 50 of them to start with, & I just don’t see them giving any of them away at that point – they just couldn’t spare them. However, firm Israeli ally Jordan bought 200 of them, & would have no problem selling a few of them to the Israeli’s for whatever purpose.
—
Overall, Israel put out a whole stream of of claims about advanced weaponry to explain their defeat/stalemate, & another lot to justify their attacks on mosques/civilian targets. Anything that got followed up on by independant investigators turned out to be false or extremely dubious – the mosques were regular mosques with no secret underground weapons factories, etc. etc.
RE: the silkworm attack, sorry, but was talking about the Lebanon war, not Gaza – the Israeli’s initially made a bunch of claims about that as well (highly advanced Russian or Chinese missile) – just meant it was the right tool for the job.
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