Israel’s Navy ready to attack Hezbollah from the sea like never before

Author: Published: April 26, 2021

SECURITY and DEFENSE: The navy’s missile ships have changed goals, reorganized, and now prepare for war on all fronts.

By UDI SHAHAM

APRIL 22, 2021 21:37
SOLDIERS ABOARD the ‘INS Romah’ during a drill this week. (photo credit: IDF)
SOLDIERS ABOARD the ‘INS Romah’ during a drill this week.
(photo credit: IDF)
 Operations carried out by the Israel Navy in what is dubbed the “war between wars” have been kept in the shadows, until recently.

But a series of leaks to the media, and reports on Iranian attacks against Israeli-owned civilian cargo ships, revealed the intensity of the ongoing shadow war between Jerusalem and Tehran in the areas of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, as well as the role of the Israeli Navy in that war.
The Navy is comprised of three main active units:  the 3rd Flotilla (Shayetet 3), the missile ship unit; the 7th Flotilla (Shayetet 7), the submarine unit; and the 13th Flotilla (Shayetet 13), the Navy commando unit.
While the last two enjoy the fame of prestigious, secret elite units that carry out missions beyond enemy lines, the 3rd Flotilla is an integral part of the Navy’s activities during routine times, during emergencies, and also during war.
“We are working in synergy,” Cmdr. Guy Barak, OC deputy commander of the 3rd Flotilla, told the Jerusalem Post in an interview on the deck of INS Romah. “Each unit holds abilities and capabilities that the other one lacks. What allows the Navy to be successful in its missions is the connectivity between the units.
“Each flotilla knows how to bring its advantages to the battlefield, and to compensate the disadvantage of the others. Shayetet 13 knows how to secretly operate in the sea and onshore; Shayetet 7 knows how to operate very close to enemy shores, what our flotilla won’t do; and Shayetet 3 knows how to gain control over a large sea area, and to deal with a variety of threats. Each unit is essential – the submarines with their fabulous intelligence-collecting ability, the commando with their covert activities in enemy territory,  and us, with our ability to dominate the sea.”
The 3rd Flotilla is based on six fighting troops that use the different kinds of battleships: the Sa’ar 4.5, Sa’ar 5, and the new Sa’ar 6. All ships, including the older ones that are constantly updated and re-outfitted, use cutting-edge technologies in all naval fields.
The ships are equipped with missile defense systems, sea-to-sea, sea-to-air, and sea-to-surface missiles, cannons, light weapons, and advanced intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities. Some have unique capabilities, such as submarine exposure and attack weapons.
“I’ve worked with other navies around the world,” Barak said. “Our small ships are considered to be the densest ones, but they have the same capabilities, if not more, of the big ones that are used by foreign navies.”
Among the tasks of the flotilla are maintaining maritime superiority, protecting Israel’s economic sea, defending essential infrastructures such as the gas and oil platforms, and keeping the country’s trade routes open.
IN RECENT YEARS, the Navy has been undergoing major changes. It started by redefining its goals, which led to a change in its formation and in the way it operates, prepares for war, and works with the rest of the army.
Barak said that the attack on the INS Hanit in the Second Lebanon War was a turning point in the way the Navy sees modern warfare.
“The rocket that hit the ship was launched from the coast, not from another corvette,” he said. “We understood that gaining maritime superiority also includes eliminating threats onshore. We made maritime superiority the core issue. That affected the formation of the navy and the way we apply force.”
As part of the change, he said, “we developed new systems and combat doctrines that help us apply our new perception. We also created new operational plans that combine our new perception with the new technologies and weapons, and they are being exercised.”
Another aspect added to the equation is the multi-domain abilities and the connectivity that the entire army is undergoing, as part of the Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi’s “Tnufa” multi-year plan.
The plan aims to strengthen the ability of different units of different branches to be interoperable, to use their different capabilities in day-to-day activities and in times of war.
“We bring with us two main qualities,” Barak said. “We have cutting-edge intelligence abilities that enable us to create a live, thorough intelligence image that includes discovering enemy forces in the sea, under the sea, in the air and on the shore.
“The other quality is our firepower. In this context, I would like to address the way the next war with Hezbollah will look like, the way I see it.”
A recent IDF Intelligence Directorate assessment held that the Israeli front most likely to erupt and develop into a campaign is the northern front. It is believed that Hezbollah is still seeking to avenge the death of its operatives last summer in Syria, in an airstrike that is attributed to the IAF.
“In the next war in the North, there will be such an amount of fire coming from the sea that was never seen before,” said Barak. “It will be a severe blow to the enemy, not only because the IDF focuses on this front, and not only because of the IDF’s munitions, but because of the intelligence abilities and the lethality that it brings with it.
“Within this frame,” Barak continued, “the Navy in general and the 3rd Flotilla in specific hold a big role, first and foremost in maintaining the maritime superiority, and also in its commitment to making sure that the army’s tasks are carried out.
“I am not sure that the enemy understands how severe the fire strike in the next war will be. It would be disproportional in comparison to what it saw in the past. We are ready for this. We are not happy to go to war, but we are ready for the war that could break out even tonight.”
THE BATTLESHIP flotilla carries out routine drills on a daily basis.
Earlier this week, Barak’s 32 Troop carried out a drill that involved almost all of its battleships.
Among them were INS Yaffo, INS Kidon, and INS Romah, which has special anti-submarine capabilities.
The exercise included dealing with a fire that broke in the corvette, a ship that needs to be dragged by another one, and eliminating a threat of small vessels attacking the ship.
The routine that is used onboard while engaging a threat is called “the terror-attack melody,” in which the ship’s weapon’s officer and his soldiers who operate the weapon systems are using the radio to constantly provide details regarding the threat, such as the distance from it and the weapons that are needed to be used.
“We call it a melody because the details that are constantly updated are said so fast, it creates kind of a melody,” said an officer in INS Romah. “There are so many elements that need to be taken in account in such a short time, and it is up the corvette’s commander to make the decision.”
Barak said that what makes the Navy so powerful is not only the advanced technology and munitions, but the people.
“There are over 20 different professions here on the ship,” he said. “From operation different weapon and intelligence systems, through maintaining advanced electronic systems, to technical engine and mechanic systems… We have soldiers here, in regular service, who are doing the job of three soldiers in a standing army in other navies.
“I am very proud of this place. I believe the people of this unit. I know that if there will be a war, the combat soldiers here will be a significant factor in the IDF’s ability to win it.”

Iran’s Top General Warns of Measures to ‘Bring Israel to Its Senses’

Author: Published: April 25, 2021
By

IFP Editorial Staff

 –

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri has warned that measures have been, and will be, taken by the Resistance Front to bring Israelis to their senses and not let their attacks go unanswered.

“The Zionists think they can constantly target the Syrian soil, and make mischievous moves in various places and the seas, and not receive any response,” General Baqeri said on Sunday.

He pointed to the “moves made in the past few days” and “future moves that will endanger their interests”, and said these will bring Israelis to their senses.

General Baqeri said Iran does not know who was behind the recent incidents (attacks on Israeli-owned ships and an area near Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility), and is not going to declare anything about them.

“However, the Resistance Front gives a serious response to the Zionists,” he added.

He also warned that should the Zionist regime does not stop its acts of mischief, it is not clear how Iran will respond, but Israel will not remain calm.

Why it’s time to face the grim facts on rising antisemitism in the US

Author: Published: April 25, 2021

Though Jews barely account for 2% of the US population, they are the target of 6 out of 10 of all religiously motivated hate-crimes.

By MICHAEL FREUND

APRIL 22, 2021 11:45
TOPPLED JEWISH headstones – 170 in total – vandalized in Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, back in 2017 (photo credit: REUTERS/TOM GANNAM)
TOPPLED JEWISH headstones – 170 in total – vandalized in Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, back in 2017
(photo credit: REUTERS/TOM GANNAM)
If you look ever so carefully, after taking a step or two back to gain some distance and perspective, you will see it. It might appear blurry at first, somewhat amorphous and not readily identifiable, like a dot on a screen that hardly seems to warrant much attention.

But instead of going away, it grows ever larger and more threatening, as more blips join the fray, suddenly transforming that tiny speck into a mass that cannot be ignored and must surely be reckoned with.

That, my friends, in a nutshell, is an apt description of rising antisemitism in the United States. If you put aside the wishful thinking and denial that so often colors our perspective, and take a cold, hard look at the facts, then the conclusion that something is wrong – terribly, awfully wrong – is simply inescapable.
Antagonism and loathing towards Jews, a hatred seemingly as old as the Jewish people itself, is sadly spreading like wildfire across the civic and social horizons of America, seeping into everything from politics to popular culture. It is time to be worried. Very, very worried.
If you don’t believe me, just look at the data. Simply put, the numbers speak for themselves.
On November 16, 2020, the FBI released its annual report on hate crimes across the United States, compiling statistics from 15,588 law-enforcement agencies across the country. The document makes for sobering reading. It found that whereas 20.1% of hate-crimes in America in 2019 were religiously motivated, over 60% of such attacks targeted Jews. This marked an increase of 14% over the previous year.
In other words, even though Jews barely account for 2% of the US population, they are the target of 6 out of 10 of all crimes driven by religious hatred.
This harrowing tidbit, of course, only represents those incidents that we know about and that people bothered to report. And there are compelling reasons to believe that the scope and extent of anti-Jewish acts in the US is actually far worse.
Indeed, just a few weeks before the FBI report was published, the American Jewish Committee issued its first-ever State of Anti-Semitism in America on October 16, 2020, which offered a revealing glimpse of just how bad things have gotten.
An astonishing 88% of Jews said that antisemitism is either somewhat of a problem or a very serious one in the US and 82% believe that Judeophobia has worsened in the past five years.
And yet, a whopping 76% of Jews who were on the receiving end of antisemitic verbiage or violence admitted that they did not report any of the incidents to authorities.
So as grim as the statistics are regarding the increased targeting of Jews, they do not tell the full story, which is clearly more appalling than many of us would like to believe.
Another survey, released by the Anti-Defamation League last month, confirmed this, finding that 63% of American Jews – nearly two-thirds! – said they had personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the past five years. At the same time, 59% of those questioned said that Jews are less safe now in America than they were a decade ago, while 49% said they are fearful of violent attacks against synagogues.
So not only is antisemitism clearly on the rise from sea to shining sea, but we only have a faint idea of its magnitude and breadth.
And it isn’t only the numbers that are troubling. Unlike other forms of bigotry against ethnic or religious groups, which are usually confined to one side or the other of the political spectrum, antisemitism is a great unifier in that both left-wing and right-wing extremists deploy it with glee.
While they might disagree on just about everything else, there is one subject on which both white nationalists and black supremacists seem to concur: hatred of the Jews. In a sense, then, antisemitism is the most combustible form of hatred out there, one that can sweep up large and disparate swathes of the population.
Add to this the tepid reaction with which antisemitism is often greeted by the larger population as compared to other forms of bigotry, and you have the makings of potential calamity.
Consider the following:
• Last July, a US television personality named Nick Cannon, who hosts a popular program called The Masked Singer, was interviewed on a podcast and spewed forth the most vile forms of Jew-hatred imaginable. Declaring that antisemitic speech is “never hate speech,” he insisted that blacks are the “true Hebrews” whereas Jews are phonies, and then ranted about how Jews control banking “and everything, even outside of America.” Had his remarks been directed against Hispanics, Asians or just about anyone else, it would have meant the end of his career. But after going on a brief “apology tour” and muttering a few words of regret, his fame remains undiminished.

• A month ago, Meyers Leonard, a player on the Miami Heat, was caught using an antisemitic slur while playing a video game online, referring to an opponent as a “kike bitch.” He was promptly suspended for a grand total of one week and levied with a $50,000 fine, which considering the fact that he is earning $10 million this year on the basketball court, is unlikely to make much of a mark on his psyche. He continues to be a popular player.
And on and on it goes. Back in February, NBC was forced to pull an episode of its medical drama Nurses after a scene portrayed Orthodox Jews in a hateful light, and Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che accused Israel on air of vaccinating only “the Jewish half” of its population. Both Che and the writers for Nurses remain at their posts.
VIEWED IN isolation, it is easy to dismiss each of these incidents as insignificant. But when considered as a whole, they should be keeping American Jews up at night.
As Meghan McCain, the late senator John McCain’s daughter, recently pointed out, “Antisemitism is still the last form of passable bigotry in America.” She also offered a spot-on rhetorical question, one that Americans, and especially American Jews, need to confront: “Why do we, as Americans, seem to find more forgiveness in our heart for antisemitism than we do racism of any kind?”
I do not write these words gleefully and I am certainly no alarmist. I am proudly pro-American and cherish the freedom and opportunity that the country gave my forebears and me.
But the sharp rise in antisemitism across the US, combined with the violent attacks that targeted synagogues in Poway, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, cannot and must not be ignored.
The sad truth is that all the millions of dollars that have been poured into education, promoting tolerance and combating antisemitism have failed to stem the surging tide of hatred, one that seems poised to grow still worse.
If Jewish history is any guide, then what the future may hold for American Jews is hardly encouraging. Perhaps, we like to convince ourselves and others, America is different. Perhaps it is one station of the Exile that will prove to be the exception, offering Jews a long-term respite from persecution and fear. But if the storm clouds on the horizon are any indication, it may be time for American Jews to start rethinking their prospects. Before it is too late.
The writer is founder and chairman of Shavei Israel (www.Shavei.org), which assists lost tribes and hidden Jewish communities to return to the Jewish people.

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