The Problems With Israel’s Missile Defense Systems

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NUMBER OF TERRORIST MISSILES AND MORTARS SHOT AT SOUTHERN ISRAEL SINCE THE CEASEFIRE AGREED TO BY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ON NOVEMBER 21, 2012:

30

UPDATE 10 am Israel time Wednesday:

Yael Re'em-Matzpun, the woman who fought off the Palestinian terrorist early yesterday morning. Note the bandage on her face where she was slashed by the terrorist's knife.

***More details of the attempted Palestinian terrorist attack at Sde Avraham emerged yesterday as the woman who fought off the attacker, 39 year old Yael Re’em-Matzpun, recounted how she awakened at 3:30 am to find him in her bedroom–where the two youngest of her four children were also sleeping (her husband was away in an IDF combat unit).

Ordered to lie down on the floor, she fought back instead and was slashed in the face and pushed down on the bed and stabbed. But she continued fighting and even managed to lock the terrorist in a bathroom and began ringing a large bell she kept in the bedroom to summon help. The terrorist then escaped out the bathroom window only to be shot to death near the house by IDF troops.

Re’em-Matzpun refused to call her actions ‘heroic” adding that the real heroes were her young children who did not panic throughout the ordeal. By the way, it was revealed the terrorist entered the community through a hole in the fence that had been cut the previous day by a mob of Gazans who came up to the border fence–now that PM Netanyahu has absurdly agreed to the elimination of the buffer zone between Israel and Hamas Gaza.   

***The parade of old-time politicians mounting comebacks continued yesterday with the return of Tzipi Livni to the political scene. Livni announced the creation of her new party, egotistically named in Hebrew “The Movement Led by Tzipi Livni” and in English “The Tzipi Livni Party”.

Tzipi Livni is back with a new political party named after what else? Herself.

To the applause of political activists she had planted in the audience, Livni immediately began raiding other parties for candidates to include on her list–especially her old party Kadima. It turns out that for each representative of Kadima currently in the Knesset who jumps over to Livni’s Party, Livni gains (and Kadima loses) 1.3 million shekels in campaign funding. 

In making her announcement, Livni managed to anger just about everyone on all sides of the political spectrum. From a leftist member of Kadima: “We will tear her apart. We will make sure the public knows she cannot even run a corner store. We won’t let her raid our party’s coffers after she left it NIS 34m. in debt.” The Labor Party leader, Shelly Yachimovich, accused Livni of trying to splinter the center-left block, and then sniped: “Only someone who can make decisions and avoids constantly changing the agenda is worthy of being prime minister.” From a conservative member of Likud:  “Livni supported the disengagement from Gaza and brought Hamas there, now she is vigorously acting to bring Hamas and Iran into Judea and Samaria.”

TODAY’S BLOG:

The David's Sling system in a test on Sunday (photo: Haaretz).

This past Sunday, Israel’s newest missile defense defense system, “David’s Sling” (also called the “Magic Wand”), was successfully tested over the Negev in southern Israel.

Coupled with the Arrow system which has already been deployed to counter long range rockets (from Iran and elsewhere), and the Iron Dome which has just shown its capabilities with short range missiles in the hostilities with Hamas in Gaza, the David’s Sling system adds another layer to Israel missile defense by specifically targeting mid range missiles with a range of 180 miles (300 kilometers)—especially of the type fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

While your humble servant lauds the development of all of these systems, our recent experience here in the South has abundantly shown the shortcomings of any missile defense system.

To begin with, some incoming enemy missiles will always get through. By the time the eight day war with Hamas was over, the efficiency of the Iron Dome was down to about 85%. In addition to the incoming missiles that the system just plain missed (some missiles hit homes and businesses within the city), another missile misfired and almost hit the Iron Dome battery itself, and another started a fire when it hit a field on the outskirts of Ashdod.  

All of the above was bad enough with the smaller short range missiles of Hamas, but can you even begin to imagine what would happen if some of the mid-range and long-range rockets fired by Hezbollah and Iran got through? Particularly missiles that carry a much heavier and deadly payload? Perhaps even nuclear weapons?  

Secondly, even when the Iron Dome made successful intercepts in the skies over southern Israel, the resulting rain of metal shrapnel subjected everyone to possible injury. As has already been reported in this blog, we found large and small metal fragments on our roof, in our garden, and in the park beside our house. Almost certainly, the coming months will bring injuries and perhaps worse as children and adults step on the metal shards that are all around or are hit by metal pieces flying out of lawn mowers.

But more than this, your humble servant finds it deeply disturbing that the Iron Dome experience has seemingly weakened the resolve of the Israeli government and the IDF to root out the missile problem at its source. By adopting such systems as the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow, Israel runs the danger of adopting a military strategy based almost entirely on defensive, reactive measures. 

There seems to be the thought now that all Israel has to do is to put everything on “automatic pilot”. When the missiles come in, the systems will operate, and we will all be saved.  Of course, the missile systems are critically important–but they have to be used in combination with a strategy that is unafraid to be proactive and goes on the offense to attack when necessary.

In sum, the dangerous complacency of relying on missile system defense has potentially catastrophic implications for the survival of Israel.