On 1/3/09 F wrote:
Interesting. Thanks for the analysis; it cleared up a lot for me. I am assuming that the source of Hamas’ rockets is Iran. Is that what is generally believed?
Stay out of harms way. Cheers, F (Sunday we go to Costa Rica for one week. 82 and sunny)

Hi F,
Hamas was originally an offshoot of the Moslem Brotherhood, which is a militant religious group based in Egypt. The Moslem Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, although it is a potent force there (that’s why it is banned). When Hamas was formed it didn’t fit into the structure of the PLO because it was so religiously based (the PLO is an umbrella organization whose most important member is Fatah). At one time, before Hamas was a military organization, Israel actually supported Hamas as a moderating influence on the PLO.
The Iran connection is important. Hamas is Sunni, Iran is Shia, that’s a problem. But Iran is the biggest player in the region right now, it’s religiously based, and it shares Hamas’ goal of destroying Israel. So yes, for now Hamas is aligned with Iran and Iran supplies it with weapons and training. That is well understood. There is no question about the source of Hamas’ rockets.
Egypt is guarding the southern border of Gaza. Egypt has a very real interest in containing Gaza. They don’t want the Gazans (Palestinians) escaping to Egypt and causing trouble there. But Egypt’s ability to control the border is limited. Egypt doesn’t deploy enough troops on the border and I’m sure not everyone they do deploy there are all that enthusiastic about helping the Jews. The Bedouins in the Sinai smuggle all sorts of goods to Gaza, weapons and rocket parts included. The contraband enters Gaza through a large network of tunnels. The rockets come mainly in the form of rocket parts that have to be assembled. That’s why the media refers to the Qassam rockets as homemade. The Qassam rockets are relatively small and sometimes land inside Gaza. But most of them go in the general direction of where they are aimed, in buckshot short of way, to cause havoc randomly in southern Israel. Think of the V1 and V2 bombs from Germany into England during WWII, except the Qassams are much smaller.
Somehow, the Palestinians are also able to smuggle in the larger, much more powerful grad rockets, which are like the katyusha rockets Hezbollah has stockpiled in Lebanon. The grads have a much longer range and a much larger payload than the Qassams. A grad rocket in Beer Sheva killed an Arab Israeli this week (ironic, isn’t it?).
Enjoy Costa Rica. Regards to D,
Barry