The choice of JP-8 makes sense for an autumn strike because the fuel’s flash point of 38 degrees Celsius makes it dangerous to carry in external tanks on long-range flights in summer.

The shelf life of JP-8 is 18 months, but guidelines suggest using it within 8 months. This limitation is especially important for long-range flights from Israel to Iran. Presumably, Israel will receive the American stocks from Iraq, which were produced earlier. The IAF would have 4-6 months to use the fuel.

This is enough fuel for all the IAF’s jets to fly to Iran 400 times each. So it’s either we’re gearing up for an all-out war, or there is a reporting error, or perhaps the Americans dumped their excess fuel on us at subsidized prices.

But why? Marmara terrorists entered the military blockade zone, attacked soldiers, and were detained. By any reasonable measure, they were POWs. The fact that they were released without criminal charges being filed against them confirms their POW status.

POWs are only accorded property rights in regard to their personal holdings. A POW’s toothbrush cannot be taken away; that protection does not apply to his laptop. At most, the accused soldiers took property which could in theory have been claimed by the Israeli government. They did not rob the POWs because the POWs’ property rights regarding laptops became void upon their detention.

Be that as it may, it would have been better for the government and soldiers alike to ignore the reports, or to ‘investigate’ and acquit the soldiers. The last thing we need is to uphold the spurious property rights of Islamic terrorists.

Despite the position taken by IDF’s spokesman, we find nothing shocking in the photos of Jewish teenagers standing triumphantly near the captured terrorists. These Arabs are not some lost sheep to be pitied. They are committed terrorists who have been arrested on security charges. Our soldiers risk their lives following insane orders to arrest the Arabs instead of shooting them on the spot. Now IDF brass also demand that the soldiers show understanding and compassion, and forfeit their few minutes of triumph over the enemy.

The incoming Chief of Staff, Yoav Galant, is a typical political appointee who spends more time at political receptions than conducting real-world military activities. And to boot, he hired a consulting firm to instruct him on the best ways to bad-mouth other candidates.

But Jewish madness is unlike any other. The government has not given up on using Navy commandos against ‘peace’ activists. It has not given up on the idea of rappelling commandos into hostile crowds. Instead, the government seeks to further restrain those commandos from shooting at enemies who attack them with axes, pipes, and knives.

The Israeli General Security Service trains Navy commandos in hand-to-hand combat, so that they won’t shoot any more Muslim terrorists on “Free Gaza” ships.

Losses are natural, especially in the army. Though regrettable, they must be tolerated, and in practice, ignored.

The IDF was at that time pursuing a Kassam crew. Not by bombing the entire neighborhood, as any normal army would have done, but by attempting to take them out with a missile. The guerrillas hid near a building which Hamas later declared to be a mosque, though it had no minaret.

The results: an IDF captain who suspected that the building might be a mosque but did not stop the strike was demoted, and two officers who used a heavier-than-prescribed missile for the lack of a smaller one we charged with misconduct.

The IDF’s disclosure won’t deter Hezbollah from stockpiling weapons. If anything, Hezbollah will simply change the locations of its arsenals.

Unless the Staff has lost all common sense and prefers bragging to military surprise, it seems that IDF’s extensive information on Hezbollah’s positions is intended for Western consumption. If Israel plans on simultaneously attacking Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran, then Western public figures must be shocked into accepting the necessity of destroying Hezbollah.

The spectacular strategic air raids and tank campaigns of previous wars have given way to the political cowardice of sending lightly armed Jewish teenagers into terrorist nests without fire cover.

The Turkish coroners’ report points out several holes in the official Israeli story.

The head of one dead Muslim contained a small container with shots. That means the commandos were using the supposedly non-lethal ammo in regular rifles.

The bodies of nine dead Muslims contained 31 bullets. That means that quite a few Marines were firing at them. The official story is that most of the casualties were inflicted by a single sergeant.

Many wounds were inflicted from above, which means that the Marines received cover fire from helicopters. It is very well that the Marines behaved appropriately and crushed the resistance, but the government’s story is different.

The Turks identified one of the dead as an American citizen. We have yet to hear any regrets from Obama.

One would expect the army to learn from that success and expand on in future wars. Well, Jews learn backwards.

According to a Jerusalem Post report, the army has developed a new doctrine which does exactly the opposite: instead of bombing the enemy by surprise, the army would start with large-scale evacuation of civilians. The IAF will proceed then to bomb the empty shacks.

To be sure, the new doctrine aims to avoid civilian casualties. Now imagine the photos of Israeli soldiers evicting Palestinian families, young and old, from their homes, searching the women (or letting them through with their males’ weapons), and beating the intentionally unruly teenagers.

You can win a war, but PR exercises are always a losing proposition for Jews.

According to Ben Yehuda, the world’s navies know of only one way to stop a hostile ship: boarding it. Which is nonsense. The range of options includes warning shots, shooting the ship above the waterline, moderate damage below the waterline, and damaging the ship’s controls. Roof-knocking—dropping dud bombs on the ship as a warning—is another option; this technique was used extensively in the Gaza war.

Ben Yehuda is a typical half-baked high-level Israeli commander, more savvy about politics than about war. In any other navy in the world, becoming a vice admiral in only fifteen years would be frowned upon, but not in the Israeli milieu of political appointments. He does not entertain the option of shooting the enemy ships, but prefers to risk  the lives of Jewish soldiers instead.

Well, Reuters did—and cropped the knife out of the photo. The cropping could not have been aimed at painting the IHH terrorists snowy white: the soldier is shown wounded. More likely, the knife was indeed cropped out to concentrate on the soldier. Reuters was not whitewashing the terrorists.

Yet, the fact that the editor considered the knife unimportant speaks volumes about Reuters’ intentions. In this sort of sensationalist reporting, truth is not the objective and is easily cropped out. It does not matter that the terrorists were well-armed. Reuters expected its audience to be interested in two facts: that evil Israelis took over the ‘aid’ ship and that the Jews suffered because of the incident. Who cares that the truth is in the details?

Speaking of details, note that the terrorists were able to hide the photos from Israeli interrogators who thought they had confiscated all the materials. Under pressure from Obama, Israel deported all the attackers instead of jailing them. Contrary to official reports, the search and interrogation of them was apparently cursory.

The soldier’s green camouflage also raises questions. The Sh-13 commandos who took over the Marmara are dressed in black.

There is a standard way to deal with trespassing ships: they are warned—first by radio, then through loudspeakers. Then warning shots are fired. Then the boat is fired upon in order to disable its controls. But the Israeli government is too fearful even to follow standard international procedures—non-lethal procedures at that.

Update: Ignoring the Marmara lesson, Israeli Marines boarded the “aid” boat again.

Only 15 Marines took over the ship. Even with the best training, they wouldn’t have been able to prevail against the alleged 100-150 highly motivated, axe-wielding guerrillas—guerrillas who allegedly had military training.

According to S., his comrades formed a wall to protect the wounded. That would leave next to no Jews to take over the Marmara.

S. says that immediately upon landing he spotted two comrades with gunshot wounds. As a commando, he would have no trouble distinguishing gunshot wounds from those inflicted by bats. Yet, the IDF is still uncertain whether the guerrillas used firearms.

T. says he fired warning shots as he descended from the helicopter. In such a scenario, he would have continued shooting upon landing, and the situation would have improved by the time S. reached the ship.

S. says he started shooting because a guerrilla held a pistol to a Jew’s head. Yet he also says that immediately upon landing he was attacked with axes, bats, and pipes. It is unlikely that he could have survived such an attack, let alone looked after his comrade.

If S. saw a guerrilla pointing a firearm at a Jew, he wouldn’t have shot at the feet, as the official story about the first shots goes.

A wall of Marines allegedly faced a crowd of a hundred guerrillas with axes, pipes, and some firearms. The guerrillas wore ceramic vests. Yet the Marines, acting in the open, gunned down dozens, while suffering only a 30% casualty rate themselves. S. is credited with killing six guerrillas, thus the rest of the detachment killed only three.

Our preliminary conclusion is this: the guerrillas’ numbers, their military training, and their equipment are greatly exaggerated. The Marines’ leader acted in rage, killing six. Others followed suit with some reluctance. The affair was not exactly a safari hunting of peace activists, but it definitely exceeded the norms of riot control.

Israeli Marines were right to kill anyone who threatened a Jew. The government was exceedingly wrong to send a totally unsuitable type of troops to intercept the ship.

It speaks of the IDF commanders’ mentality that the video was released as a proof that the Marmara attacked the Israeli Navy. Rather, the video is incriminating evidence against Admiral Marom. He knew that there would be resistance before he sent unarmed Jewish boys onto the Marmara.

The admiral must be put on trial, given the significant evidence pointing to his complicity in murdering Jews.

Upon entering a town, the army is supposed to fire shells into empty buildings to scare the neighbors out into the streets. The IAF can then proceed to bomb the emptied buildings. Even that senseless tactics is to be conducted in the most expensive manner possible, with precision munitions, making the cost of any armed conflict prohibitive.

In the meantime, Syria is transfering SCUD missiles to Hezbollah, Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and the Palestinians have not ceased their terrorist attacks. In a region that is preparing for total war, Israel insists on remaining Snow White.