Flex, we’re not discussing Hamas here, don’t confuse the issue. The Israel-Palestine debate is something for an entirely different thread, and I’m really in no mood to see this thread sidetracked onto that topic. Besides, it was hardly Israeli aggression which led to the 1948 war, rather it was the refusal of the Arab nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria et al) to accept a United Nations resolution which partitioned the land into fair portions in an attempt to find a solution. Lest you believe they did so for the Palestinians, don’t be fooled, the Palestinians were occupied by the invading Arab states who never gave any thought to Palestinian rights or statehood. Considering Israel’s enormously weak position (it had just declared statehood in line with the resolution, and barely had a military), it’s clear that they couldn’t have been the aggressors in that situation.

But the group we’re discussing now is Hezbollah, and it has nothing to do with 1948. It is a Lebanese group which was founded in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent occupation, and thus its entire raison d’étre was in opposing the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. Thus, once Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah’s entire justification disappeared. There was no longer any occupation, therefore there could no longer be any resistance to occupation.

So what Hezbollah has been doing since 2000 has nothing to do with occupation or any of that bull****. Instead, it’s a clear case of a terrorist group having no other justification than a desire to kill as many Jews as possible, while being ably assisted in its task by Iran and Syria. I’m sorry, but there is simply no way that you can rationally defend their actions as being anything close to legitimate, and I’m rather disappointed in your attempt to do so.

War is always a mess. One of Clausewitz’s less famous dictums was: “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” A statement which is as true today as it was when he wrote it in the 19th century.

Four days of intense bombing resulting in less than 200 civilians killed, and some here call it genocide? What a joke, if Israel was interested in genocide the Lebanese death toll would be hundreds of times what it currently is.

Israel is not the aggressor, as it is acting entirely within its rights of self-defence. It is Hezbollah, and by extension its controllers in Damascus and Tehran, who are the aggressors. They launched an unprovoked attack over an international border with no justification. The usual anti-Israeli voices can’t even cry out about “occupation”, because the occupation of Lebanon ceased long ago.

Yep, Israel withdrew from Lebanon over six years ago, yet in those intervening years Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets at Israeli towns and villages, getting ever bolder as the years progressed and obtaining ever more sophisticated rockets and other weaponry. What possibly legitimate reason could Hezbollah have to keep doing what they’re doing? Short answer, none.

For over a year now, the IDF has been observing troubling signals by Hezbollah and its Iranian advisors, as defenses were strengthened and observation towers with cameras were built all along the Lebanon-Israel border, to watch the movements of IDF troops. Make no mistake, the kidnapping of IDF soldiers has been planned for a long time, and four days ago Hezbollah saw its chance and took it. This is a clear act of war, the unprovoked kidnapping of a state’s soldiers, and Hezbollah must be held accountable for it.

Nor are the Lebanese guiltless. As the months passed, and the IDF became increasingly concerned about Hezbollah’s preparations, Israel’s leaders quietly demanded that Lebanon do something about it, and that it reign in and disarm Hezbollah in line with UN Resolution 1559. Instead of attempting to disarm Hezbollah, or even asking for outside help in doing so, the Lebanese government flatly ignored Israel’s requests and even appointed Hezbollah members to the governing cabinet. Thus, in legal terms they are responsible for the actions of Hezbollah, whether they knew of the plan or not.

Let’s face it, from the Israeli perspective enough was enough. Something had to be done about Hezbollah, and seeing as though nobody else wanted to do anything it was left to Israel to do it itself. In my opinion, it has struck back fairly, hitting only Hezbollah targets and infrastructure (such as the airport) which could be used to resupply Hezbollah (and thus lengthen the conflict). The number of civilian deaths truly are regrettable, but unfortunately they are unavoidable in war, especially against an opponent such as Hezbollah which hides its rocket launch positions and weapons stockpiles in civilian houses and in civilian villages.

This is not a war against Lebanon, it is a war against Hezbollah. Unfortunately, Lebanon is now caught in the middle and must suffer because of the foolish decisions taken by its government in the past year in their convenient ignorance of the fact that sovereign states also have responsibilities. Perhaps, if things go well, both Lebanon and Israel will benefit from this war, as Hezbollah is destroyed, Iran and Syria’s influence is weakened, and Lebanon becomes able to rebuild itself without the poisonous influence of Iran’s proxy in its midst. I hope that’s true, because let’s be realistic here: Hezbollah has been the 800kg gorilla in Lebanon for a while now, and anybody who thinks they would have sat back and allowed Lebanon to quietly become a truly democratic and free society are being naive. Sooner or later, Hezbollah would have acted against its host, and you can be damn sure that they would have done so at a time when they were far too strong for the Lebanese Army to resist.

There’s a limit to how stealthy you can make an object as a large as a ship, especially if you’re not keen on spending insane amounts of money.

So instead, the stealth features used on the Sa’ar 5 ships (and others, like Germany’s MEKOs) are not to make them invisible, but rather to decrease the range at which they are easily detectable. So if, for example, a non-stealthy ship of the same size can be detected and identified at 200km by radar X, the stealth features might reduce that detection range to around 100km or less, giving the ship an advantage it wouldn’t otherwise have.

But if your ship is as close to the enemy radar as the Israeli ship was (not more than a few dozen miles), that stealth construction isn’t going to help at all and you can be hit by any anti-ship missile. Hence self-defence systems like the Barak.

The UAV report was mistaken. It’s not unusual for reports to become confused and conflicting during wartime.

So far as I know, the INS Hanit’s counter-missile system was off, due to some or other problem with interference. Israeli intelligence had mistakenly believed that no anti-ship missiles were in Lebanon, so it wasn’t considered vital to leave it on. Stupid mistake.

The missile has also been reported as the C-802, which has been exported to Iran in recent months. In fact, there is speculation that it was fired by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel embedded with Hezbollah.

It’s a radar-guided system, and was linked in to one of the existing shore radars along the Lebanese coast. Hence the destruction, earlier today, of all those radars by the IDF.

It’s still very early news (and therefore not all that reliable), but it seems that Israel might allow foreign nationals in Lebanon to leave over the Israel-Lebanon border.

I for one like the name, and I think it’s more than suitable. Lest we forget, lightning is something which shoots down from the sky violently and suddenly, leaving death and destruction in its wake when its accurate enough. There is no warning, and by the time you hear it, it’s too late. What better analogy for a strike fighter, especially a stealthy one?

Incidentally, for fans of the EE Lightning, the AAD’06 airshow in South Africa this September is set to feature a display by four EE Lightnings, culminating in the always spectacular bomb-burst manouevre. Should be fantastic.

Actually, the original poster is correct, the plane will take-off.

Although the conveyer belt is moving, it is exerting zero to minimal force on the aircraft itself because the aircraft’s wheels are free-wheeling. What matters in this situation is lift and thrust, and neither is counter-acted by the conveyer belt’s movement.

So the aircraft’s engine will provide thrust, which is acting against the air and not against the ground, and the aircraft will move forward. As the conveyer belt is matching the aircraft’s velocity, the aircraft’s wheels will then spin at twice their normal velocity, but will otherwise have no effect on the aircraft’s forward movement. The aircraft will accelerate down the conveyer belt and take-off with little effort and in much the same distance as it would on an ordinary runway (maybe a bit longer, due to a small amount of friction in the wheel bearings).

Remember, it’s all about forces. The conveyer belt is not directly acting on the aircraft, and it’s actually an irrelevant distraction meant to confuse.