The Israeli Navy, still recovering from the image of one of its missile ships struck by a land-launched missile during the summer 2006 Israeli assault on the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, has received a new commander — of Chinese descent.
The Israeli minister of defense and other senior military officials had earlier stepped down following recriminations and investigations of the ill-fought conflict. Rear Admiral Eli Marom — with the nickname “Chiney” — took command of the navy in October after his predecessor, David Ben-Bassat, retired amidst the continuing criticism of his conduct during the Lebanon war.
Marom’s mother was a member of the Chinese Jewish community, born to an Israeli and a Russian migra woman. She married Marom’s father after he had fled his native Germany for China during World War II. In 1955, the couple moved to Israel, where Marom was born.
Because he looked different, it “forced him constantly to show that he was better. He became one of the very best very quickly,” one former comrade told the weekend newspaper Yediot Acharonot, which published a profile of the new admiral.
Marom, age 52, trained as an engineer and ascended through the ranks, overseeing major naval operations such as the 2002 capture of an Iranian-supplied weapons ship en route to Gaza.
The Israeli Navy is currently undergoing a major expansion, with additional German-built Dolphin-class submarines and American-built Sa’ar V-class missile corvettes as well as lesser craft under construction. These new ships will lead to an expansion of the active Israeli Navy, which currently has some 5,500 active duty personnel and about 3,500 reservists.
One of three earlier Sa’ar V corvettes delivered in 1994–1995 was struck by the cruise missile on 21 July 2006. The Hanit was part of the force blockading the Lebanese coast to prevent additional weapons from reaching the terrorists by sea from nearby Syria. At 8:45 P.M. a C-802 cruise missile struck the ship some ten miles offshore. Indications are that one missile was fired “high” to distract the ship’s defensive systems and the second was aimed at the Hanit (spear).
The first missile struck a small merchant ship, reported to be a Cambodian-flag cargo ship with an Egyptian crew, steaming about 35 miles offshore. The second missile struck the stern of the 1,275-ton Hanit. The Israeli ship, fitted with a massive array of anti-missile systems, was apparently taken by complete surprise by the missile attack.
I love the judicious amount of propaganda that your articles use, calling Hezbollah terrorists, why ? ..because Isreal says so, oo sorry I forgot they kill civilians, but doesn’t the US and Israel.
Didn’t the US kill civilians deliberately during WW2, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki etc…
What makes it so bad when they do it and good when you do it ?
Best thing about the 2006 Lebanon war is that Israel got whipped ! Hezbollah opened a can of ‘whoop-ass’ as you Americans say.
It was nice to see the jews suffer for once.
Love Hezbollah. Keep an eye on the Yids!
yay for more clueless fools pointing and shouting at israel being the “pure evil” of the world.
Im sorry that Bob is hopelessly lost. Maybe he just has a brain the size of a pea, or is that giving him to much credit. Maybe he could spend 30 seconds on the internet and find the truth. O ya his brain is to small to think that hard.
Israel got surprised, but ill bet they will be more aware about this sort of thing from now on. The Hezbos bite off more than they could chew. O well the more of them that Israel gets the better.
Bob, neither the US nor Israel deliberately killed/kill civilians, especially in this day and age. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki spared the lives of millions by ending the war quickly, can the same thing be said about Hezbollah?
In this day– and age, when a soldier or person deliberately kills a civilian, they are tried and put in jail. You just have to look at the several high profile cases were American and Israeli soldiers were tried and jailed. 6 major countries list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization (Canada, US, Israel, Denmark, Australia and Britain). They EU does not because they don’t want to “damage relations” with the Middle East. See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah#Designation_as_a_terrorist_organization
Contrary to the US and Israel, Hezbollah terrorists are not tried and punished for killing innocent civilians, but are praised by people such as yourself. It’s rather unfortunate that you place such little value on human life. Perhaps if we had fewer people such as yourself, the world would be a better place.
Arthur, I love getting ‘holier than thou’ lectures by Americans, a country based on ETHNIC CLEANSING and GENOCIDE and that’s been at war with one country or another in it’s rather short 300 year history.
Nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved alot of lives did it ? Well rocketing Israel also saved alot of lives, Lebanese lives, it brought Israel to its senses and made it realise that it could not win this war. If you can use the excuse of killing civilians to save lives then I guess so can Hezbolah and it does.
Furthermore Hezbollah warned Israel that unless Israel stopped bombing civilian areas then Hezbollah would be compelled to retaliate, and it did. Prior to this in the war Hezbolllah only rocketed Israeli military bases in the north of Israel.
You claim that Americans don’t glorify people who kill civilians or target them anymore, that’s a pack of lies !
During the cold war and even now, it’s deliberate national policy to target the CIVILIAN infrastructure in the event of a nuclear war and the US uses its military arsenal to threaten CIVILIAN targets as much as it does military.
Furthermore, take one example, just one US glorification of the murder of civilians, the film PEARL HARBROUR, based on real evens in which the Japanese attacked a legitimate military target and the US responded by bombing civilians, the film made no effort to cover up this double standard but glorified it.
Which brings me back to square one, what makes them so bad and you so good ?
Is it really so hard to do some **basic** research before posting half decent information? A C802 missile requires radar-guidance and target illumination at least in the initial phase, no way such a battery would make it past a couple of minutes of operation, even at the hands of experts, in an Israeli-owned sky. Plus of course, the detonation of a 363 pound HE warhead low by the waterline is good enough to sink any 1200 ton ship.
Bob I really can’t see where the heck you saw that “holier than thou” attitude in that post, if you have trouble venting your anger you should take it in a forum, preferably a therapy one.
..and Arthur perhaps you’d like to point me to a piece of news regarding ANY blackwater employee which has been jailed for killing a civilian?..
What I find most disturbing is that the headline of the article is “Isreali Navy looks East”, when it’s clear in the body that this new commander is a Isreali citizen of at least partially Asian Descent.
Is it as impossible for a partially asian person to be “Isreali” as it is for them to be “Americans”, “French”, “British” or “Austrailian”?
Israel should be praised for its motives–a country that mobilizes to save two of its citizens is worthy of admiration. Tactically, the war was probably a nominal Israeli victory. Strategically, Hexbollah won. Israeli’s reliance on stand-off fire and the IAF were the big mistakes. The IDF itself admits it. My feeling is that it is time to re-activate Bayonet and Spring of Youth. Most Arabs are decent people. Hezbollah, Hamas, and the PLO are slime. Syria is slime–Turkey is an Israel ally, you know. Strained conditions of late, but still allied. Same sorts of problems.
Israel should be praised for admitting they screwed up, why they screwed up, and keeping the dialogue open.
–G
Mr. Polmar keeps repeating the same erroneous date of the missile attack against INS HANIT. The attack took place on July 14, 2006 and not on July 21, 2006. INS HANIT was most likely struck by an Iranian-made mobile surface-to-surface KOSAR or KOWSAR missile (C-701/702) with a 21 kg (46.2 lbs) warhead. The Israeli Navy investigation has established that HANIT’s radar equipment was not functioning at full capacity at the time of the attack; however, HANIT had maintained its assigned operational station outside in the vicinity of Beirut harbor.
To whom it may concern
My name is J.H du Pisani (Dup) and I live in Lutzville, South Africa. I have done all sorts of diving,and ended my career with diamond diving on our West Coast. Because the water is so cold, I started to make my own dry suits. It took me over 4 years to perfect it. As far as I know, I am the only one in the world that can make my own latex dry suits in the sun. Many people have tried to make them without success. Up till know I have made hundreds of suits in a period of 30 years. They come in two sizes: medium and large. You can also choose between a hoodie or a neckseal.These suits are not made to compete with other sophisticated suits. They are made for the individual that has to pay himself for the suit, and where the water is very cold. They are not ideal for snorkelers, but rather like wreck diving,construction etc.where you go down and stay for some time. I have not patented these suits, because it will cost to much and I know that no one can make them anyway. When I needed to inflate the suit, I normally turned sideways and blew air through my nose.The air would go upwards and enter the side of the hoodie.However an inflation valve can be fitted.If you do get a hole,winddry it for +- 5 minutes and put ordinary patch and solution on and back in the water you go.
The beauty of this suit is that it has no zip. You enter through a tunnel in front and tie it in a specific way. After diving 150 feet, you can come up and if you remove the hoodie,powder is still in your hair.
After diving, winddry the suit for about 5 minutes, Throw some talcon powder (or baby powder) through the tunnel in the arms and legs, and roll it up and put in a bag with powder.(in the shade)
Some people have used my suits for up to 3 years
interestring thing/