Hello John and Doves - sorry for my absence, but house trim needs painting....but, I am still watching, ever vigilant for His "shout" from heaven.....

ISRAEL'S NEW "SOUND-WAVE" weapon:
this article reminded me of Gideon, who won the war with the Midianites, by using "shouts", and also the battle of Jerico where all the people "shouted"......now, Israel has another "sound-wave" weapon?    called "the Scream"....very interesting....
YSIC    Arlene

Israelis unleash Scream at protest
Sound blast triggers nausea, dizziness

MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

JERUSALEM—The knees buckle, the brain aches, the stomach turns.
And
suddenly, nobody feels like protesting anymore.

Such is the impact of the Scream, the latest weapon in the Israeli
army´s high-technology toolkit.

Launched Friday afternoon near the West Bank village of Bil´in,
after another in the almost daily demonstrations against Israel´s
controversial security barrier turned violent, Israel´s secret
weapon lived up to its billing, by most accounts.

Witnesses describe a minute-long blast of sound emanating from a
white Israeli military vehicle. Within seconds, protestors began
falling to their knees, unable to maintain their balance.

An Israeli military source, speaking on the customary condition of
anonymity, confirmed the existence of the Scream, or Tze´aka in
Hebrew, in an interview yesterday.

"The intention is to disperse crowds with sound pulses that create
nausea and dizziness," the Israel Defence Force spokesperson told
the Toronto Star.

"It is probably the cleanest device we have ever had, when you
compare it to rubber bullets or tear gas. It is completely non-
lethal. It has no adverse effects, unless someone is exposed to the
sound for hours and hours."

IDF officials said the technology was researched and developed over
a span of five years as a result of "lessons learned" during the
Israeli army´s withdrawal from Lebanon.

"We had a situation during the Lebanon withdrawal where we had
hundreds of people storming IDF positions," a military source
said. "As a direct result, it was decided we needed the means for a
more benign way to control crowds."

Army officials said the Scream might become an element in its
strategy against Jewish settlers and their supporters in August,
when the Israeli government begins uprooting 25 settlements in the
Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

"We will use what we need to use during the disengagement, depending
on the circumstances on the ground," the official said. "Nobody can
foretell the future."

The IDF is saying little about the science behind the Scream, citing
classified information. But the technology is believed to be similar
to the LRAD — Long-Range Acoustic Device — used by U.S.
forces in
Iraq as a means of crowd control.

Hillel Pratt, a professor of neurobiology specializing in human
auditory response at Israel´s Technion Institute, likens the effect
of such technologies to "simulated seasickness."

"It doesn´t necessarily have to be a loud sound. The combination of
low frequencies at high intensities, for example, can create
discrepancies in the inputs to the brain," said Pratt.

"Basically, the brain receives a signal that your body has lost
balance. You feel like you are tilting even when you are not. The
discrepancies can cause headaches and nausea."

Pratt said such phenomena sometimes occur by accident. He remembers
one instance in which office staff at an Israeli bank building fell
ill after the installation of an industrial air conditioning unit.

"When everyone became nauseous, tests were conducted to find a
contaminant. But nothing was found. Finally, acoustic tests were
conducted, and a certain low-frequency sound was discovered," said
Pratt. "It made people sick, all because of the way the noise of the
new air conditioner resonated in that particular space."

Israeli and Palestinian activists are unsure what to make of the
IDF´s new machine. Some who were witness to the deployment on Friday
said Palestinians have already learned to neutralize the Scream by
stuffing cotton in their ears.

"Just before the sounds began, a Palestinian man I know from Bil´in
gave me cotton for my ears. He said, `The Israelis are going to make
a noise. This will help,´" said Lisa Nessan, an International
Solidarity Movement activist from Ramallah.

"How did he know to do that? Obviously it must have been used at a
previous demonstration. Or the Palestinians wouldn´t have been
prepared for it this time.

"I was lucky because the cotton seemed to filter out the problem.
But I saw other people around me sit down because they couldn´t keep
their balance. I really don´t know what to make of it. I´ve never
seen anything like it before."

Arik Asherman, a leader of Rabbis For Human Rights, was cautiously
optimistic the Scream could make a positive difference.

"We´ve been arguing for years that Israel should engage non-lethal
approaches to crowd control. If this thing actually works without
doing any permanent damage, that´s a step forward."

But Asherman said Israeli officials would be wise to use the Scream
sparingly, lest it become a tool to "sanitize dissent."

"We need to remind ourselves the problem is not the demonstrations,
but what the demonstrations are about," he said.

"If this makes it any more difficult for Palestinians to express
themselves in a non-violent way, that is problematic. The best way
to disperse demonstrations is to deal with the actual issues.