Eurovision can be a trigger?
I think AK84 didn’t particularly like this thread of mine: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=868584 . I also mention Jews/Judaism so you can decide if I’m anti-semitic too. If I am, does that mean I have to stop reading Paul Krugman and Karl Popper?
You might want to read it in the context of this thread: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=875064
Oh, I know why he thinks that. It’s the “You disagree with Islam so you’re a racist” thing. Guilty then because I think all religions are equally true.
Disrupting it would be a major loss of prestige to Israel (and also really piss Israelis off). That makes it a big, fat target.
Alessan:
Cool, I didn’t know that Israeli helicopters ran on those kind of batteries. Amazing technology!
Moderator Warning
AK84, insults are not permitted in General Questions. This is an official warning. Don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Moderating
I recognize that this is intended as a joke but considering the potentially inflammatory nature of the thread let’s refrain from such remarks.
And we don’t need references to US politics either.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I can’t believe how one-sided this is… Ugh.
How one-sided what is? A discussion of the capabilities of rocket construction in the Gaza Strip?
Looking back on it, I should have seen that some topics are indeed too touchy for puns. I’ll keep that in mind from now on. Thanks.
It’s not so much resource-constrained as just allocation of resources. It wouldn’t be that hard or expensive to obtain guidance modules for these terrorist missiles, but why bother? They are not intended to take out specific military targets; rather the intent is to cause chaos and disruption to the Israeli general population. So the random falling on civilian homes & institutions is just fine for that. Spending more effort to make them more targeted is not needed.
I’m surprised they haven’t come up with a simple mechanism to waggle the vanes on the rockets to give them a slightly erratic random path - thus making the Iron Dome interceptions more of a challenge.
But yes, the tech for a drone or other motorized, self-controlled device, with computer and electric actuators and all - that’s just far too much effort and too much tech for a small payload that has a good chance of being intercepted. Filling a pipe with rocket fuel and a warhead is a far simpler thing to do, especially when you can make them by the hundreds… and each intercept costs Israel $100,000.
The thing is that Israel does not seem to realize it is running out of time to make a meaningful peace. (or attempt to) The last major war, the rockets reached as far as Ben Gurion Airport and shut it down for several days? What happens when the tech gets a bit better and the shutdowns become routine? When Tel Aviv - a dense target - is within easy reach?
md2000:
What does time have to do with it? Do you think Hamas is interested in a meaningful peace? How can Israel make a meaningful peace without someone on the other side who also wants to?
Indeed.
[Moderating]
This thread is about the specific mechanics of rocket construction and smuggling. It is not about the entire Israel-Palestine conflict, about which many entire books have been written. Any attempt at that discussion belongs in GD, not here. This is a specific moderator instruction to leave it out of GQ.
I began the thread, and I agree.
I have an answer; the rockets and parts are smuggled in from sea and through Egypt.
If you would like to close it, Chronos, I have no objection.
According to Yaniv Kubovich, haaretz.com, May 5, Hamas has UAVs and long-range (>100 km) rockets, but not thousands of UAVs and long-range rockets. Only tens of long-range rockets and hundreds 45-80 km are listed on the graph, including the “J-80” and “R-160” made by Hamas and the “M-302” (Syrian manufacture, supplied by Iran). They have invested 40% of all military spending on underground tunnels. Islamic Jihad currently possesses thousands more rockets than Hamas does, mostly short and medium-range but also hundreds of longer-range ones.
Again, from what I’ve read they fill a pipe with rocket fuel and explosive. Put on an end cap and a rocket nozzle constriction and you have a remarkably cheap rocket. By bombing infrastructure and buildings, Israel gives them a plausible reason to import more pipe. (When they or Egypt let supplies in…)
Can’t agree with war
The quassam rockets that they use are simple enough that a highschool workshop could build one.
The hardest part is finding enough tnt for the warhead, and i somehow do not think this is a limiting factor for the people in gaza.
Building one requires a welding machine, oxy-aceteline torch, and a drill. The newer designs don’t even need a lathe for the rocket nozzles.
You do NOT need to import anything to build one. Warhead aside, every single component would be available at a farmer’s warehouse store.
The launch facility is a metal stand, with a slide. Significantly easier to build than, say, a chicken coop.
And about as conspicuous as a chicken coop, too. The launcher would not look out of place in a childres’s playground. Not until you plonk the rocket on it.
Yes, the rocket is hopelessly inaccurate. They don’t care, their target is a huge suburban sprawl. Hard to not hit something in there.
The only real hope to stop them is either stop the actual missiles (which israel is doing, but its ludicrously expensive)
or get the locals to rat out their bomb-making neighbors (not too successful)
or to detect the launch site within seconds of a launch, and get boots on the ground there within a minute. (which israel is trying, not much success yet)