The Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced on Sunday that its members have succeeded in manufacturing chemical and biological weapons. In a leaflet distributed in the Gaza Strip, the group, which belongs to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party, said the weapons were the result of a three-year effort.According to the statement, the first of its kind, the group has managed to manufacture and develop at least 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons.
The group said its members would not hesitate to add the new weapons to Kassam rockets that are being fired at Israeli communities almost every day. It also threatened to use the weapons against IDF soldiers if Israel carried out its threats to invade the Gaza Strip.
"We want to tell [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz that your threats don't frighten us," the leaflet said.
"We will surprise you with our new weapons the moment the first soldier sets foot in the Gaza Strip."
This may be bluster. If it isn't -- if the Palestinians follow through on their threat to lob biological and chemical weapons into Israel -- they will experience severe retribution by the IDF. It's really doubtful that Israel will encounter much diplomatic resistance to eliminating Hamas and the Al Aksa Martyr Brigades in the wake of a WMD attack.
These people's capacity for bone-headed self destruction amazes me. What fantasy are they living under? That they'll use WMDs against Irsrael and the world will back them, with Israel backing off into the sea? Couldn't they at least exercise a little savoir-faire in their war making? As it stands, the next time a chemical or biological weapon is used in the region, they're the automatic fall guys. Do they really want to be eliminated that badly?
Weird.
They're talking about launching the WMD on Qassams, many of which fall away from built up areas. Even if one were to fall in Sderot, Ashkelon, etc, it is likely that few people would be exposed. I may be extremely cynical, but I'd wager that, if the casualties were - at first - low, the response would be limited. Israel would get used to that.
But as I mentioned, I'm cynical.
Knowing the Palestinians the reactants would then blow back into the West Bank and kill Palestinians. Of course Israel would still be blamed...
You remember all those stories about Israel releasing poision gas in the territories, and poisoning water supplies? If their claim is true, expect to see more claims like that when the terrorists screw up.
I am skeptical of the claim, but Israel has just been given a little more leeway with locating the wall.
The calculation is that a massive Israeli retaliation will - FINALLY! - trigger the pan-Arab/Islamic war to destroy Israel.
Don't you think they're just trying to out-macho Saddam? Arab mano-a-mano?
Someone needs to point out to them how extraordinarily well that worked out for Saddam, since they are evidently so busy building rockets to shoot at the Jews they've neglected to listen to their radios for the last three or four years.
Colt,
The term of art is "desensitization" - the boiling frog strategy. The appropriate response is utterly disproportionate retaliation. For WMD that means genocide. Kill them all in Gaza.
Use the litigation process to attack the Times.
The leftwing has been using the courts to attack the system for years. It is time to fight back.