preparing for the expulsion of fellow Jews from their homes to be concerned about hezbollah or hamas enemies advanced developments. And who pays for their dereliction of duty ?

Sound familiar?

nm

Close in weapons systems off when engaged in a shooting war...10 miles off the beach. Faulty intelligence is a precept of warfare. IDF should engage CWIS and all other defensive systems. Friendly forces should take the iniative to avoid these systems. God bless the Holy and the brave and protect the innocent in this escalating conflict.

Not a chance. Olmert thinks that if he keeps making the same mistakes over & over eventually it will work.

To Israel - Send Iran a strong message - Take out 2 of their ships. - Trust me the American public will back you. The real source of instability in the Middle East is Iran, Syria and their extremist proxies poised on your borders. We know here that they point fingers at israel and America to cover up their own tyranny and repression. If they ever allowed a free press -their people would finally realize the source of their misery and overthrow them the next day. Trust me - Americans are not afraid of these small minded despots and would love a chance to wipe them off the face of the Earth for ever for the betterment of humanity.

I am quite familiar with naval weapons systems. This was a Saar-5 corvette, one of the most advanced combatants in the world. I cannot imagine that they did not have their air defense radar and missile warning systems on!!! The ship was lying in front of an enemy coastline during a WAR and they did not have their systems on??? This sounds VERY weird to me. It sounds to me like the commanding officer and the air defense officer made a very serious mistake. There should be a full investigation which might very well end in a court martial. Had the appropriate systems been turned on and manned, nothing would have happened. A C802 missile is nothing, it can definitely be destroyed by a Saar-5. A Saar-5 is supposed to be capable of handling 10 of those missiles at the same time - let alone just one!

C-802 Silkworm guided missile, probably launched by Iranian R.Guards. So, Iran have declared war on Israel.

Too bad Goliath didn't have the Israeli Air Force backing him up. You speak bravely but are too scared to even write your name. Israel will always be in jewish control, so if your people choose to test us again and again then prepare to pay the consequences. Let Iran and Syria join the battle so we can eliminate all our threats at once, but they seem just as cowardly as you do.

was there an intercepion system ,why they surrounded the boat with other craft so it may be hit

It seems that the three defence forces have let their guard slip and made mistakes which maty have contributed to the losses suffered recently which require attention to learn the lessons so as not to repeat them in future.

If it was a C-802 missile, as reported,it would not be 50kg of explosive, more like 600kg. If a corvete sized boat, like Saar5 was hit by C-802, it would sink. Now, as the missile was launched, nasrallah stated that the ship is sinking. He could be that sure only if it was something of the size of C-802. But Saar5 would _NEVER_ survive such a hit. No way in hell. C-802 would cut a destroyer in half and possibly sink a aircraft carier. Smaller missile would not have sunk a egyptian ship 60km off shore. Only conclusion is that missile defence worked, that missile warhead blew up before hitting the ship, and damage was caused by kinetic energy of the missile, and fire was caused by reminder of missile fuel. In falklands, burning fuel from missile dud did sink a ship. This is the only logical explanation, and army is preserving fog of war by giving partial information that unprofessional journalists interpreted wrong. C-802 is a serious toy, it is pride of iranian backward engeneering (originaly chinese), they would never give the missile to hezbollah. It must have been pasadran operating in lebanon. It is amazing to see a corvete sailing back to port on its own power after a hit by a monster like C-802. It, actually, inspires confidence in our navy. It is supposed to be unjammable and unbeatable. Well, it sunk the egyptian ship, but not israeli. There is another point, that missile required a naval radar to target, so hezbollah are either cooperating with lebanese navy, or occupied their radar base, and that must be the reason radar stations were knocked out.

Silkworm has nothing to do with C-802. Don't belive everything you read in papers. Journalists don't know shit... Silworms were the missiles that sunk INS Eilat 40 years ago. C-802 is a modern radar guided missile with 600kg warhead. Chinese missile, copyed by iran. Yes, we are at war with Iran. I guess that we should send them a greeting card from a dolphin sub. Sink something, launch a few popeye cruise missiles at their oil facilities...

There used to be this superstition that Israeli military intelligence is the best military intelligence in the world. Then, of course, there was the Yom Kippur War. Supposedly, the military establishment learned something from that. But what it was, nobody can tell. The last few weeks have just been a less catastrophic but equally unsettling rerun of that failure - the failure to take the Arab military threat seriously, to underestimate and disparage the capabilities of the enemy. Perhaps, as in 1973, racism is again playing a part. We want to look down on the Arabs, not take them seriously. Well, they're smart and they're capable, and we'd better get on the ball and do something about it before we lose more people. The US is discovering the same thing in Iraq. Time to wake up.

"...defence systems turned off?" Didn`t expect the missile threat? Are these people being serious? The capt. isn`t fit for command if that`s his excuse, and the Chief of Staff and defence minister need to resign or better yet switch sides. 2 consecutive ambush/kidnappings, a totalled $$$$$warship, shelling empty fields in Gaza, making speeches while rockets piled up in the North for years. WAKE UP, Israel, the biggest threat to your lives is YOUR GOV`T!!!

All modern misiles don't have to impact target. They have radar proximity fusing, together with imparct fusing. Then missile close enough to target radar can triugger explosion without impact. Depending on the missile programming.

Excellent comments, my friend. Keep your analysis coming. God bless Israel.

It is my understanding that some (or most) of the missiles hitting northern Israel are stored at several strategic areas in the Bekaa Valley. This area has long been an arsenal and a death factory, possibly forever. I'm not certain of the size or shape of the valley, but it would seen that a deep-penetration nuclear bunker buster or two would 1) excise the cancer and 2) sober a few of these twits a bit. Comments?

"Better to find refuge in ha-Sheim than to trust in man. Better to find refuge in ha-Sheim than to trust in leaders." (Tehilim 118.8-9) Advocating Logic as Halakhic Authority Welcoming non-Jews www.netzarim.co.il Ra'anana, Israel

"It, actually, inspires confidence in our navy. It is supposed to be unjammable and unbeatable. Well, it sunk the egyptian ship, but not israeli." It's not really that great of a compliment to the israeli navy to contrast a Northrop-Grumman WARship with the Egyptian merchant ship.

Is it possible that we could have played it safer than rely on our assumed poker-game assessment? Meanwhile kick a_ _ ! America would do the same. Russia wouldnt settle for less with the Chechnians! Ignore the French (hypocrites)

The ship's command officer had the missle defense system turned off because he or your military intelligence service did not think Hizbullah could have a missle that could strike the ship! Or, the missle defense system didn't work they way it was supposed to. Either way the Israeli military is looking very bad. And the armchair generals that infest this site want to fight a war with Iran! Get real.

Frustrating... #12: you probably can have a job at the CIA: they too jump to conclusions. BTW: why not bomb China, they invented this missile? #16: makes more sense then all the official news stuff. #22: Good idea, escalate the situation with nuclear devices. This is reality, no sand box game. That such an idea comes from someone in the US is no surprise. Sorry. Just some thoughts: - Don't jump to conclusions - Don't trust *any* government during war - Information is a weapon too - most news media are stupid as hell - so why trust them? - Think about way to stop the bombing of civilians - this is never justifiable (all sides please!) and never a good way to make you look good It's really frustrating and sad what's happening right now.

seen it....neither side will back down. and the war will continue until there are no more bullets. Problem is that there are alot of bullets.

thanks for the info, I have been wondering about this. It didn't make sense that the navy had their defense system "turned off."

The C802 has of 165 kg HE, it would do serious damage to a corvette and wouldnt dent an aircraft carrier (of course and CVN would not be operating withing 10 miles of land and has a large protecting screen of warships much larger than a corvette). I do agree it may not have been a direct hit. It could have been a near miss, still capable of doing serious damage. I think he SAARs are better armored than the underarmored British ships sunk during the Falklands.