Israel might attack Iran by using electromagnetic impulses (EMP) that could cripple the country by shutting down its electronics and sending the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Age,” The London Sunday Times reported.
EMP causes non-lethal gamma energy to react with the magnetic field and produces a powerful electromagnetic shock wave that can destroy electronic devices, especially those used in Iran’s nuclear plants.
The shock wave would knock out Iran’s power grid and communications systems for transport and financial services, leading to economic collapse.
The “back to the Stone Age” tactic was proposed in the right-wing publication Israel National News by Joe Tuzara, a US writer who said signs that Iran was speeding up development of nuclear weapons should be met with a pre-emptive EMP strike.
The idea previously was published by Dr. Joe Tuzara in Arutz Sheva. A former clinical research-physician-general surgeon for Saudi Arabian, Philippine and American healthcare systems, he wrote, “The wild card is in Israel’s hand – with Electronic Magnetic Pulse (EMP) inscribed on it. If Israel chooses one of its Jericho III missiles to detonate a single EMP warhead at high altitude over north central Iran, there will be with no blast or radiation effects on the ground.”
He explained that one effect of the EMP attack would be that, “Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges in Fordo, Natanz and widely scattered elsewhere, would freeze for decades.”
The WorldNetDaily reported three weeks ago, “Israelis have not ruled out a Jericho III missile launch to detonate a single electromagnetic pulse warhead at high altitude over central Iran.”
The Sunday Times report quoted Bill Gertz, editor of the Washington Free Beacon, said that the United States expressed concern about using a high-altitude nuclear bomb to set off the an EMP attack.
@ vivarto:
I’m not even sure that it IS strictly a problem of Islam as such.
I mean, it’s true that Islam clearly has a serious internal flaw.
But there’s no denying that there are non-Arab, Islamic countries that have come a long way.
It seems to be something about the CONVERGENCE of Arab culture (specifically) with the Religion of Peace that brings on the nuttiness. (Not sure why that is, but it does appear so.)
Fire requires the CONFLUENCE of
A. heat (spark),
B. fuel,
C. O2.
Separate any one of those elements from the others — and there’s no fire.
@ Jayne:
Arabs are probably not genetically deficient. The problem is Islam.
Islam makes everyone stupid because it opposes critical thought.
Judaism does encourages a measure of discussion and doubts.
@ CuriousAmerican: Yes perhaps Hasids do a lot of inbreeding, but it just seems to result in smarter and smarter children, or children
so dysfunctional that they can’t reproduce! Arabs do the same and everyone is mentally retarded it seems, with funny shaped heads to boot.
vivarto, you can start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse
and have a look at the transistors here:
http://www.theowlnest.com/PNP-NPN.jpg
Meathead Said:
Where can we read more about this?
what is PNP and NPN
@ sandman:
Sam, the truth is that NOBODY KNOWS as this has never been tried before.
Everything you read is just speculations.
Wars are horrible, terrible immoral events. Yet, they are unavoidable.
@ Ben Ze’ev:
Don’t see why his reason for the point (or ‘gibe’) — REGARDLESS of what the reason or ‘non-reason’ may have been — should have any bearing whatsoever on whether he gets to post on Israpundit.
More essentially though, B-Z, since this blogsite isn’t a “democracy” — neither your opinion in the matter NOR mine counts for deciding whether he should or shouldn’t appear here in print.
Still, for what it’s worth:
I personally see no value in 86-ing people — irrespective of p.o.v. — except in those extraordinarily rare cases in which somebody clearly, systematically persists in deliberately trying to generate confusion amongst the posters. I’m not speaking of mere social awkwardness leading to compulsive irritation (or even rudeness per se); I’m speaking of a clear, unmistakable & unrelenting pattern of intentional obfuscation.
Banning people for that sort of thing is a purely PRACTICAL consideration: the site simply cannot function (let alone, serve its purpose) under such conditions.
That kind of behavior has appeared here in the past. It entailed, among other things, the poster assuming the online “handles” of other Israpundit posters, for the purpose of “putting words in their mouth” that they did not, and would not, say (and there are those here who remember what I’m referring to) — but as I said, it’s been quite rare.
Short of that sort of thing, though, I say, leave the banning of persons to the liberals. That’s their trip, and they’re so good at it.
Look, B-Z, I’m far-from-‘delighted’ with lots of posts I read here. Lots of other ones get, maybe, 7 seconds of my attention before I realize my time is better spent elsewhere — and with a click of the mouse, I’m gone.
Not everybody here has to be my “penpal.”
And some of the ones who seem to be
— are sometimes the very ones who cuss me out the loudest.
Nu, so?
I’m a big boy.
— So are you.
@ CuriousAmerican:
We’re not talking about Hasids, only you make this unneccesary point, to get in your standard gibe at Jews.
Isn’t it long past time for you to disappear from this site. You won’t be missed.
@ zechariah823:
I really don’t know enough about it to comment on it. I would just like to say that I don’t care two hoots about what’s going on in Stria, except where it might affect Israel. They can slaughter each other to extinction for all I care. As for which side is the “good” one…who really knows why it happened or how. They are Arabs, and by nature and upbringing fundamentally unstable and more than a bit crazy. Assad, by virtue of his name and membership of his sect, would almost be forced to act as he has been, just to keep himself alive. Neither side deserves either support or sympathy.
Just my opinion.
@ sam s:
Everybody says that an EMP would not harm people?
There are many ( myself included ) that wear electronic devices that will be killed, due to the pacemakers, defribulators, heart pumps, medical devices that sustain lives.
Am i true to say that these will not function after such an event?
Then an EMP will kill lots of people.
Correct me if wrong!
Well, let’s pray for EMP over Iran:
In the name of Holy Ghost, the God the Father,
Oh wait, the wrong god…
Let’s try again:
Allah willing Iran will be EMP’d.
We can always ask Shiva, to release his pashupatastra! 🙂
@ Bill Levinson:
A “normal” nuclear explosion does put out an EMP, but it is relatively weak and dissipates rapidly. A “special” nuclear explosion designed to create a high magnetic field positioned high above a target can overload low voltage semiconductors and destroy the barrier between PNP and NPN devices. How long would it take Iran to procure and replace all their solid state electronics?
@ Bill Levinson:
Hmm interesting points about Tzar Bomba.
Perhaps it was not high enough?
@ CuriousAmerican:
If Israel hits them first, Iran’s weapon systems will be “fried”. Having weapon systems that are inoperable doesn’t pose much of a threat.
@ CuriousAmerican:
Isn’t marriage between (first) cousins outlawed in most US states?
Speculating on Israeli strategy simply helps the enemy, who won’t be deterred by words and wishes.
In response to the question why we’d need nukes if emp’s could destroy a country, the answer starts with the fact that it doesn’t ‘destroy’ a country, at least not in the normal sense of the word. EMP’s do more than just disable electronic devices in the affected area. They also fry machinery, electronics, and more importantly, the chips within too, which basically means that every item of machinery within the affected area is not only inoperable, but is as good as garbage, and has to be replaced. Now, to replace machinery for nuclear reactors is far from simple, which theoretically means that if Israel does use an EMP warhead, Iran’s nuclear program is as good as over, at least for the time being. However, it does not affect buildings, humans or anything else like that. No one dies, nothing collapses, so from that point of view, it’s a pretty clean way to target a country. That also answers your question as to why we need nukes. Nukes were meant to cause a carnage, and deliberately does target buildings and EMP’s. So using an EMP would be an amazing way for israel to avoid using a nuke, while at the same time, be able to leisurely bomb (with conventional bombs) everything else at their ease…
Muslim fertility rates are dropping; though they still are high. Stop sending them Western meds and see how fast their population sinks.
I admit cousin marriage is borderline universal in Islam. Unfortunately, it is known among Hasids, too.
But the point is insightful.
Western women will not go back. Nor should they.
The goal should be to radically Feminist-ize Arab women.
You’ve been reading my mail, Bob! Sounds like you read Mark Steyn. Demographics, my dear Watson.
Your all missing the point.
While the two empires, Russia and the West, were stacking up ICBM’s, the Muslim world was stacking up babies in our inner cities and Russia’s ready to take up the fight at the right time.
They may crazy retarded inbred babies from massive cousin on cousin action that makes hillbillies look intelligent, but their sheer numbers will take over the West and send us back to the 7th century.
It will take women all over the Western world to put aside getting their Anger Management and Queer Studies degrees, and go back to what their grandmothers did a whole lot better.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/159777#.UEyVJaM-XYA
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12164
Turning Iran back to the stone age would solve many problems on a number of levels.
1.Iran would immediately cease becoming the center of terrorism export in the Middle East.
2.All production of weapons in Iran would stop.
3.Weapons from Iran to Syria,to Hezbullah in Lebanon,to Hamas in Gaza would dry up.
4.Many thousands of lives in Israel and Iran and Lebanon and Gaza would be saved from war.
5.Hezbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and even Egypt would dare not become Iranian proxies to shoot tens of thousands of missiles into Israel because with Iran neutralized Hezbullah and Hamas and Egypt would be facing the full force of the Israeli army.
6.The Iranian army would be fully busy trying to keep order in a ‘stone age’ Iran as well as trying to fight a civil war against the Iranian resistance which would be helped because of the world-wide in-pouring of aid to help the humanitarian disaster hitting Iran.
7.Just as the allies in World War 2 had the idea of seeing if a fire-storm could be produced using strategic allied airplane bombing to burn down the Nazi city and all the inhabitants of Dresden and subsequently actually succeeded in doing this; the idea of an EMP destruction of the neo-Nazi Islamic state of Iran could be tested from a military standpoint.
8.Finally, the balance of power in the Middle East would be shifted to the good and moral side for decades.
Iran is ALREADY in the Stone Age. Israel would have to bomb them BACK to Prehistoric times! haha
@ Michael Ejercito:
Emp does not work so well against high voltage vacuum tubes.
It is murder on low voltage solid state electronics.
To do more than merely cause a nationwide blackout. A nationwide blackout is merely a short-term setback, and the goal of a war is to do more than a short-term setback.
“Living in the stone age” is giving iran too much credit!
Intellectually, because of Islam, Iran is already living in the stone age, or one step away from it. Right now Iran has one foot in the grave and doesn’t know it.
@ CuriousAmerican:
I recall reading that Iran was already preparing a missile that could carry an EMP weapon as soon as they had a nuclear warhead. We can be sure that Iran is not sleeping. This would also give Iran an EMP capability against the U.S. as well. Iran is already talking bout sending warships off the U.S. coast, perhaps into the Gulf of Mexico, where it would be closer and take much less time to reach the center of the U.S. than if launched from Iran.
The main problem is Obama siding with Iran and the timid Israeli leaders.
Doesn’t Iran have EMP weapons?