By Roy Tov
Online Journal Guest Writer
Oct 7, 2010, 00:08
Courtesy Of "The Online Journal"
Following the crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza’s Freedom Flotilla events (now it’s official, the UN committee investigating the event found Israel committed war crimes on international waters), Turkey cut its extensive military relations with Israel. The IDF cannot use Turkey’s air and maritime territories anymore. Considering the fact that Turkey and Iran are experiencing a warm spring in their relations, this last move may not be a surprise. Yet, it turned out not being an isolated event. Last week, Israel was restricted again, this time at an unexpected flank.
In the last week of September, Norway announced that Dolphin submarines built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel, Germany, for Israel, would not be allowed to be tested in Norwegian waters. HDW leases from the Norwegian government the Marvika Submarine Base on Norway’s southern shore as a tasting base; oddly, this port served the German submarines during WWII. As of now, no new site for deepwater tests has been chosen by the shipbuilder.
This is a new and important implementation of the existing security exports bans of Norway on Israel. Until now, it was directed mainly towards Elbit Systems, an Israeli company specializing in electro-optics and instrumental in the construction of The Wall in the West Bank. How come Norway is giving such an importance to a still German vessel checking out if it has any holes?
Based at Haifa, the Israeli Navy owns three diesel-electric, Dolphin-class submarines; these are known as “Dolphin,” “Leviathan” (whale) and “Tkuma” (revival), they form a unit known as Squadron 7. Two additional Dolphin-class submarines are scheduled to join the fleet next year, that is, if the shipbuilder can test them. During the last year, this fleet reached the news, when one of the submarines crossed the Suez Canal on its way to the Red Sea. It means Israel threatens the Gulf and that Egypt actively supports this policy, since the canal is controlled by the latter.
Dolphin, Leviathan and Tkuma are not timid fish exploring the colorful corals of the Red Sea. They include a “wet and dry” compartment for special operations and four 650mm torpedo tubes, which could be used for Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (that means they are delivery platforms for the marine commando, Shayetet 13, the unit that perpetrated the crimes during Gaza’s Freedom Flotilla’s event).
They are equipped also with six 533mm torpedo tubes capable of launching Harpoons, five SSM/SLCMs and sixteen torpedoes. In June 2002, former State Department and Pentagon officials confirmed that the U.S. Navy observed Israeli missile tests in the Indian Ocean in 2000, and that the Dolphin-class vessels have been fitted with nuclear-capable, submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM), capable of reaching targets 1,500 kilometers away. (“Gabriel,” Jane’s Strategic Weapon Systems, August 28, 2003)
In fact, Norway is making its best to block a Nuclear Aggressor. What about Germany? Not only the German government approved the production of these deadly weapons, but it is actively financing it.
The two new submarines cost 1.3 billion Euros and Germany is funding a third of that. The rest is financed with the American military aid to Israel. Germany cannot claim these are inoffensive toys. It knows these are platforms for the launching of Weapons of Mass Destruction and yet it is supplying them. As such, it would share responsibility for the crimes committed by them.
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