Sunday, January 04, 2009

Operation Cast Lead

I have been wondering for a while what the meaning of the Israeli's Operation Cast Lead was. I think I have an answer.

Head of IDF Military Intelligence General Amos Yadlin also addressed the meeting and gave an assessment of the Gaza operation's progress.

"The organization [Hamas] took a serious blow, we killed hundreds of terrorists and damaged their ability to build weaponry," Yadlin said.
Casting lead is an old term for making bullets. In other words weapons. So Operation Cast Lead means that the central focus is the destruction of the Philistine's weapon's factories and stockpiles. And there is further confirmation of that in the linked article.
Diskin also said the weapons factories used by Hamas have been wiped out in the offensive and dozens of tunnels used to smuggle arms into the coastal territory have been destroyed.

According to a Military Intelligence assessment released Tuesday, Israel's air offensive on Gaza has thus far destroyed one-third of the Hamas' rocket arsenal.
And what of the brave Hamas leaders? Evidently their love of death is not near so great as they might have us believe.
Hamas "has been hit like it has never been hit before," Diskin said.
Diskin said the Islamic group's ability to govern the Strip has been seriously damaged, and that senior Hamas officials are hiding out in Gaza's hospitals, where they have "disguised themselves as doctors and nurses."

"Many Hamas officials are hiding in mosques throughout Gaza, out of the assumption that Israel will avoid attacking Muslim houses of worship," Diskin said. Dozens of the mosques have been turned into weapons stockpiles and command centers, he added.
Dressing as women? What are they? A bunch of girly men? Evidently.

And mosques off limits? I don't think so. Especially if they are full of weapons.


You can see more IDF videos at IDFNA Desk.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

5 comments:

RavingDave said...

Not that i'm wanting to pick a nit, but aren't the Philistines extinct ? Or are you using the term figuratively ?



David

M. Simon said...

Palestine is derived from Philistine. The Romans did it to suppress the name Israel.

Of course there have been a few twists and turns since then.

M. Simon said...

During the Late Bronze Age, Philistia was located approximately where the Gaza Strip and the cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod are situated today in modern Israel. Philistia was a confederation of five city states: Gaza, Ashkelon and Ashdod on the coast, and Ekron and Gath inland.

Palestine

RavingDave said...

As you have researched it I accept that it is true. My misconception is the result of an article I read several years ago which discussed the realtionship between archeology and the bible. It mentioned that there were several examples of ancient peoples who are mentioned in the bible, but no modern knowledge of them exists. The philistines were mentioned as an example of acheological artifacts being discovered of them, only because people were using clues in the bible to figure out where they might have lived. The implication was that they had no modern descendents.

It is of course possible that the article wasn't researched properly, or that I have seriously misremebered it. I would certainly rather believe that someone else made a mistake as opposed to me loosing my mind ! :)

David

M. Simon said...

David,

You are correct. They have no modern decedents.

The people are different. The name is the same.