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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Iron dome -- a harbinger of what?

The Israelis conducted a successful test yesterday of their new Iron Dome system. This is an anti missile shield that acts extremely quickly in order to shoot down even short range missiles. It would be effectve, once deployed, against missiles from Hezbollah aimed at Tel Aviv or Haifa and it would also be able to shoot down the shorter range missiles aimed at border areas.

Iron shield is to be deployed by the Israelis in November. Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal muses that this deployment may be the reason that the Israelis have not yet attacked the Iranian nuclear sites. After all, why suffer retaliatory missile strikes when you could have a defense that would shoot down most of them in just a few months.

I think this analysis may be too simplistic. Israel will attack iran only when the Israelis feel they have no alternative and only if they feel they have a chance for success. The news a few weeks ago that the Saudis may have given the Israeli air force landing rights in Saudi Arabia from which to launch an attack on Iran may well indicate that the day of that attack is closer than we think.

It would be nice if the USA did something to end the Iranian threat. After all, the threat is just as much against the USA as it is against Israel. President Obama, however, seems to believe that he will be able to stop it with a speech. His delusions may get millions killed.

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