[gcb0]

the oppressed people on the other side now engage in a financial war. for the price they would build one rocket with explosive payload, now they can build some 4 dummy ones. making the invading state pay 20k x3 more than before. while also recruiting more people, who would be averse to the violence before.

[kenrikm]

Or.. you know, stop firing rockets and maybe then more people will come and hear what you have to say.

[nardi]

A long-range rocket without a payload is probably still pretty expensive.

Edit: Let me rephrase—"probably not much cheaper."

[blhack]

Not really. These are improvised rockets made of steel pipes and welded sheet metal fins. The propellant is fertilizer (smuggled from Egypt, usually), and sugar.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/graveyard-shift-fo...

[cdash]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket

These seem to be about 800 dollars a piece with the payload

[Tycho]

All they're doing is creating an excuse for Israel to move in and crush them.

[copx]

Israel has absolutely no interest in crushing Hamas. Even before Iron Dome Hamas never posed a real threat to Israel. Hamas is in fact way more valuable to Zionists than Iron Dome.

It would be a catastrophe for Netanyahu and company if all Palestinians would suddenly stop fighting because then all attention would focus on Israel's settlement policy and its unwillingness to give the Palestinians anything deserving the name "state".

No, the Zionists do not want to crush Hamas. They tellingly call campaigns like the current one "mowing the grass". Thing is, mowing the grass is not an attempt to destroy it, the point is to preserve it in a manageable state. And that is exactly what Israel is doing with Hamas.

[asadlionpk]

what if Israel paid the other side to fire rockets at them to create the excuse of invading Gaza.

How unlikely is that?

[Tycho]

Not sure but my point stands either way.

[hn_politics145]

Considering that Israel pulled its citizens and troops out of Gaza in 2005 in the hopes of peace, I'd say not only is this an insane conspiracy theory but also just obviously dumb.

[icebraining]

It may be false, but I don't see why would it be "obviously dumb". 2005 was nine years and a few governments ago; enough time for policies to change. After all, just eight years before that, the current PM, who was also the PM back then, presented a plan that included annexation of most settlements.

I'm not saying the theory is correct, again, I have no idea, but that argument seems weak.

[ibisum]

Given that in times of war, truth is the first victim, the likelihood that black flag operatives are planted throughout the Gaza region is pretty high. There haven't been rational investigations into the Israeli claims that these rockets are fired by Hamas - the bullhorn is loud enough that people cannot believe anything else, because they don't hear it.

But Israel, of all states, is more than capable of pulling off these kinds of activities, and its been in the dirty-tricks playbook for decades (along with those of most modern governments with an Intelligence budget, to be fair).

Until we, the people - the true masses - demand a truthful process in place of propaganda and deceit, we will never know the real truth. The likelihood that these events are orchestrated by those who truly stand to profit from both sides is pretty high. There may well be a hidden third party between Palestine and Israel, intent on continuing to profit from the conflict, and those people - well funded, I might add - are very far from the visible center stage, nay the prison dock, where they belong.

[yazaddaruvala]

That is silly, if someone is "averse to the violence" they aren't going to be recruited by an argument that essentially boils down to "No.. don't worry about it.. now only 10% of our missiles make it through.."