Israel Matzav

Iron Dome is not a panacea

Those of you who are long-time readers know that I have been a skeptic about Iron Dome from the get-go more than five years ago. Here's a good summary from former Congressional candidate Liz Berney of why Iron Dome does not resolve Israel's problems with incoming missiles and will not resolve them even if there are tens of Iron Dome batteries around the country.

Buultjens touted experimental Israeli missile shield technology as a probable panacea, while neglecting to mention escalating destructive rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. On April 7 (the day before the professor's Temple Emanuel talk), Hamas terrorists fired a rocket at an Israeli school bus, injuring the bus driver and mortally wounding a 16-year Israeli old boy, Daniel Viflic. (Sadly, the boy died 10 days later.)

This school bus attack followed weeks in which Gaza terrorists fired 120 rockets on Israeli civilians. On April 8, for the first time, an Israeli "Iron Dome" missile shield stopped one incoming rocket fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians. Buultjens touted the one rocket stopped by the missile shield, but never mentioned Hamas's deadly escalating attacks on Israeli school children.

It is of course wonderful that the missile shield stopped a rocket (and several more since the Professor's speech). Every life saved is a great gift, and every person injured or killed by Hamas terrorist rockets is a calamity. However, the missile shield is not a panacea - and Buultjens neglected to mention the shield's serious limitations.

Technion University aeronautics lecturer Nathan Faber, a former Israeli military rocket scientist, has sounded "alarm bells" about the Iron Dome system's weaknesses. The system has difficulty intercepting mortar shells and short-range rockets like Katyushas or Hamas' homemade Qassam rockets. The system has not been tested against large salvos of rockets, and may be completely unable to cope with them. [Actually, we can now say pretty definitely that Iron Dome cannot cope with a large volley of rockets. That's what happened in Beersheva on Saturday night. CiJ] In the next war, Israel is expected to face sustained periods when thousands of missiles and rockets rain on Israeli cities - far worse than during the terrible 2006 Hezbollah-Israel War, when 4,000 rockets fell on northern Israel in 34 days.

The July 2006 Hezbollah rocket attacks killed 43 Israeli civilians (and many of the 120 Israeli soldiers killed in the war), injured 418 Israeli civilians, caused 875 Israeli citizens to go into severe shock requiring medical treatment, displaced 300,000 Israelis from their homes, destroyed 6,000 Israeli homes, caused over one million Israelis to have to live in bomb shelters, and completely disrupted normal life in Haifa and other northern cities.

Today, Hezbollah reportedly has 45,000 rockets and missiles, four times the number it had when the 2006 war erupted, and Hamas has another 12,000 or more missiles. If a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank, particularly along the 1967 borders that Obama has been demanding, tens of thousands of additional rockets will be placed along Israel's longest border, aimed at every square inch of Israel.

Israel currently has only two operational Iron Dome shields, which can only cover limited areas. The Israeli government has warned Israelis under fire from Gaza that they are not completely protected.

According to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Israel needs "tens of thousands of the short-range interceptors [Iron Dome], thousands of the David Sling [mid-range] interceptors and hundreds of the upper-layers (Arrow-2)." The cost of all this is astronomical. Barak estimated it at $7 billion to $8 billion.

It may run as high as $50 billion or more. Ha'aretz's Reuven Pedatzur calculated that one David's Sling system interception costs $1 million, and one Iron Dome interception costs about $100,000, while Hamas's homemade Qassam rockets only cost at most $200 apiece, enabling the Palestinians in the South and Hezbollah in the North to defeat Israel at the bank. Pedatzur also noted that "the stock of Iron Dome missiles is liable to run out way before the rocket barrages end."

Israel does not have $50 billion or even $7 to $8 billion in its budget for these systems. American aid to Israel is only a fraction of these costs ($3 billion per year), and most is already allocated for other purposes. Last year, representatives of Ashkelon Hospital spoke at Great Neck synagogues, seeking to raise the few million needed to harden the hospital facility against Hamas rocket attacks - funds not available from the government. And as mentioned in my recent article about the Mayor of Itamar's speech at Great Neck Synagogue, the mayor reported that the modest funds needed for sufficient cameras on the security fence to prevent terrorist attacks are not even available.

Read the whole thing. Those who argue that in the missile age Israel can afford to give away territory are clearly mistaken. We cannot and should not be giving away territory.

Labels: Arrow 2, Beersheva, David's sling, Ehud Barak, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iron Dome, Second Lebanon War

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:55 PM