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The Morally Reprehensible ‘Iron Dome’ – Hamas’s Best Friend
The Jewish Press ^ | 11/19/2012 | Yori Yanover

Posted on 11/20/2012 8:30:13 AM PST by RightGeek

A social worker friend of mine used to talk about the ways dysfunctional families adapt and adjust to the craziness of an abnormal family member. Typically, they are so used to making allowances for the neediest family member, that they stop noticing his or her deficiencies. Only a visiting social worker, dropping in unannounced on a home visit, is able to recognize that the fact that Moishe'le is sitting naked under the dinner table eating the scraps his siblings hand him from above the table is crazy.

Israel and the world have become one such a dysfunctional family, with the crazy member being the Gaza Palestinians, most notably the Hamas and its sub groups of various degrees of terrorist and Islamist zeal.

Israel has invented a magnificent tool that allows those truly horrible people to continue fire lengthy cylinders full of explosives at civilian men, women and children, without having to confront too often the fact that those are horrible criminals who should be either dead or in prison. We call it the Iron Dome.

To be perfectly frank, Israel would have been much better off if the Iron Dome had proven to be a flop, like the U.S. made Patriot system, which is notorious for causing as much damage as it attempts to prevent.

The Iron Dome is a great technical device which cuts in half and even better than that the number of terrorist missiles entering Israel. So far it has failed only once, in Kiryat Malachi, this week, resulting in the killing of three civilians. But it has saved countless lives.

Iron Dome is the best terror-containing system known to mankind. The only problem is, containing terrorism is morally corrupt, and a society that dedicates its resources to continuing to live next-door to a community run by terrorists is inherently insane.

Amir Peretz, former defense minister in Ehud Olmert's government, architect of the national fiasco which is also known as the 2006 Second Lebanon War, has had a resurgence in popularity in the past couple of weeks. Not because he's won the primaries to lead his Labor party – he lost; and not because experts have reconsidered his prowess as a military leader and picked up on some hidden competence—the video of him observing the front with capped binoculars has remained viral-huge for half a decade, having made the entire late-night circuit.

Former Defense Minister Amir Peretz's claim to fame is that against heavy resistance from the military experts both inside and outside the IDF, he pushed the idea of a defensive rocket system that would shoot down incoming short- and mid-range missiles. He fought, he overcame ridicule and derision, all alone, a mere civilian—one of the few Israeli defense ministers without a prior military career—and he won.

To understand the context of Peretz's achievement: During the Second Lebanon War, more than 4,000 Hezbollah rockets landed in northern Israel, hitting major cities like Haifa and Safed, and killing 44 Israeli civilians. An estimated 250,000 Israelis were relocated, and a million more lived much of their daily lives in bomb shelters.

Along the Gaza border, where Jewish settlements had just been dismantled for the sake of peace, thousands of primitive, home-made Kassam rockets and mortar shells were fired into Israel by the Hamas, and another million Israelis were living in bomb shelters there.

In February, 2007, Defense Minister Peretz announced his choice of the Iron Dome as Israel's defensive solution to this short- and mid-range rocket threat. The U.S. paid Rafael, Israel's military industrial giant, upwards of $300 million to make it happen, and it is a marvel of technology. If you had a chance to watch the Iron Dome rockets meeting the oncoming Gaza rockets over the past week or so, it's absolutely astonishing.

Except, here's a true story: Back in mid-June, during the great Paris weapons show, the Rafael pavilion was absolutely the busiest around, and everybody wanted to look at the new, exciting, Iron Dome system, the greatest achievement in rocket defense ever. But by the end of the show, Rafael hadn't made a single sale. The Arrow sold well, other systems did great – Iron Dome wasn't moving. So they contacted their big clients, the serious ones, and asked what gives. And those clients told them no one except Israel has any use for these things. Because in any normal, sane country, if some hooligans were to start targeting civilians with rockets – the army would go and kill them.

Like it or not, there is only one solution to the Hamas tyranny of terror in Gaza: they need to be rounded up and killed, and their terrified subjects need to be permitted to pursue their lives with dignity and liberty and happiness.

The state of Israel did just that in 2002, with Operation Defensive Shield, following a suicide bombing in the Park Hotel in Netanya, that killed 30 on the Seder night. It took several weeks and enormous resources, and then a lot of follow up procedures. But today the terror infrastructure in the PA is not operational. And the result is a much better life for the civilian population, a touch of prosperity, new construction – and a significant drop in the birth rate, for your information, demographic doomsayers.

This is the only viable solution to the Gaza predicament: round up the bad guys, take them in, take out absolutely every last shred of a firearm, and free up Gaza's civilian population.

In a briefing with an IDF official this week, I asked what's the end goal of the current operation, and the answer was: to bring the rocket attacks down to a reasonable number. It wasn't this officer's fault, it's what the political echelon has been dictating.

This kind of talk, about there being an acceptable level of rocket attacks, a tolerable number of injured and killed Israelis, a manageable number of nights a million Israelis will spend in bomb shelters and cement pipes – it is only made possible by the existence of the Iron Dome.

Because we deploy this wretched thing, the other side can continue to thrive, and young men can continue to pull a paycheck for killing—or trying to kill—Israelis. They rule their brethren and they invite regular IAF destruction on themselves and on their neighbors.

Blame our national hero, the relentless Amir Peretz, the man who made the devil an offer he himself didn't understand.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antisemites; israel; missiledefense; notapeacemovement; propalestinianwar
As usual the Western world plays with one arm tied behind their back. Key paragraph:

Except, here's a true story: Back in mid-June, during the great Paris weapons show, the Rafael pavilion was absolutely the busiest around, and everybody wanted to look at the new, exciting, Iron Dome system, the greatest achievement in rocket defense ever. But by the end of the show, Rafael hadn't made a single sale. The Arrow sold well, other systems did great – Iron Dome wasn't moving. So they contacted their big clients, the serious ones, and asked what gives. And those clients told them no one except Israel has any use for these things. Because in any normal, sane country, if some hooligans were to start targeting civilians with rockets – the army would go and kill them.

1 posted on 11/20/2012 8:30:20 AM PST by RightGeek
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To: RightGeek

“Because in any normal, sane country, if some hooligans were to start targeting civilians with rockets – the army would go and kill them.”

I agree. I think many Jews have a moral aversion to genocide because of their brush with extinction. But unfortunately in that part of the world, it is kill or be killed, as the bloody muslims keep proving. Israel needs to go Old Testament genocidal on them. Wipe out everything, including the livestock. Not a happy solution, but the alternative is worse. I’d rather be alive and remorseful than dead.


2 posted on 11/20/2012 8:44:05 AM PST by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: RightGeek
Only a visiting social worker, dropping in unannounced on a home visit, is able to recognize that the fact that Moishe'le is sitting naked under the dinner table eating the scraps his siblings hand him from above the table is crazy.

The problem is that the "social worker" (i.e. the UN and even the US State Department) in this case will condemn you for trying to dress Moiseh'le and sit him at the table.

3 posted on 11/20/2012 8:46:02 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Big Bird is a brood parasite: laid in our nest 43 years ago and we are still feeding him.)
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To: RightGeek

You can have Iron Dome and still take out Hamas...

Iron Dome is not preventing clearing out the Gaza strip...

And, as noted, ID is not perfect, and will never be perfect...


4 posted on 11/20/2012 8:54:15 AM PST by ltc8k6
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To: ltc8k6

That’s right.

We lock our doors but we still arrest the burglars.


5 posted on 11/20/2012 9:10:41 AM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: RightGeek

At first reading, this article seems strange. But after thinking about it a while, it is really true.

If someone was firing rockets into downtown San Diego, California from Mexico, what would we do. We wouldn’t install a rocket defense system. Special forces would go into Mexico and do what ever was necessary to stop them.


6 posted on 11/20/2012 9:15:28 AM PST by jimbobfoster
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To: RightGeek

The author is right, up to a point. But the author foolishly assumes that just taking out the bad guys right now, will somehow end it. It won’t.

The schools in Gaza raise children to be murderous jihadis. And as soon as they are old enough to throw a rock, they begin. And there are and endless number of radicals who will provide the information and skills they need, even directly smuggling rockets to them, to begin again. And again. And again.

The only way out of the situation is to remove the Gazans to where they can no longer effectively inflict harm. That is, to Egypt. For all their bluff and bluster, the Egyptians will not tolerate for a moment Palestinians making trouble in *their*, Egypt’s country.

It is the only way to end the fighting, short of killing every single Paleo in Gaza.

And because Israel has not done this before, though it should have, time and time again, the fighting continues. So in truth, the fighting is Israel’s fault. By their trying to be “nice”, all they are achieving is dead Israelis and dead Palestinians, and endless war.

Sometimes you must be firm, to really be kind.

Just issue an ultimatum, and see what happens.

“Unless all hostilities from Gaza end prior to a particular day, the Gazans will as a people be deported, in an orderly way. Gaza will no longer be Palestinian.”


7 posted on 11/20/2012 9:34:26 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (DIY Bumper Sticker: "THREE TIMES,/ DEMOCRATS/ REJECTED GOD")
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To: RightGeek

It is my understanding that Israel is not only defending against incoming rockets, but is also bombing the hell out of the enemy while they assemble their ground forces. That makes sense to me, and it is apparently effective because the Muslims are beginning to whine again.


8 posted on 11/20/2012 9:38:31 AM PST by layman (Card Carrying Infidel)
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To: jimbobfoster

True, and that’s as it should be. But the story is slightly for Israel, who would face international condemnation for protecting itself, as it has in every like instance before now. Even the US has become a fair weather “friend.”

This is, of course, no reason not to wipe out the dirtbags, but it helps to complicate things. As the next four years proceed, it will become increasingly so as the overtly pro-”palestinian” pro-muslim president ramps up his war on Israel.


9 posted on 11/20/2012 9:45:11 AM PST by DPMD
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To: KarlInOhio

Yep - we have to be sensitive to other “cultures”.

Who are we to judge - we who used to be a slave nation - yadda, yadda, yadda...


10 posted on 11/20/2012 9:45:34 AM PST by jonno (Having an opinion is not the same as having the answer...)
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To: layman
but is also bombing the hell out of the enemy

The leftists in Big Media are careful to tell us exactly how many bombing sorties IAF has carried out against the terrorists and islamists in Gaza (but not how many terror-bombing attacks the hamastards have launched against Israel) ... The number is impressive.

11 posted on 11/20/2012 9:51:23 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: TexasRepublic
as the bloody muslims keep proving. Israel needs to go Old Testament genocidal on them.

So how many should the Israelis kill?

The 6M Palestinians? (Interesting number.)

The 200M Arabs?

The 1B+ Muslims?

Do you have any reason at all to think the USA would allow them to do any of the above?

BTW, all but the first is beyond their capabilities.

12 posted on 11/20/2012 10:48:46 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan

“So how many should the Israelis kill?”

I’d start with the areas firing missiles at me. Dresden-ize them. I’m not kidding. Lasting peace with muslims will never happen because their mindset is bi-polar — muslim vs. non-muslim, and no gray area in between. Of course the USA will try to prevent it.


13 posted on 11/20/2012 11:09:49 AM PST by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: Sherman Logan

What do propose?

They’ve proven they won’t negotiate in good faith. They have repeatedly declared their genocidal intentions.

I wouldn’t wipe the Arabs of Palestine out (there are no “Palestinians”). I would drive them out into Jordan and Egypt and let them do the dirty work (they hate those people poisonously, too!) since no one seem to care what sort of murderous things they do.


14 posted on 11/20/2012 11:31:09 AM PST by Little Ray (I have VOTED AGAINST Obama in the General.)
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To: RightGeek
One additional problem. An Iron Dome battery runs $50 million, with each missile in the neighborhood of $40,000 to $100,000 (estimates vary). Meanwhile, the Fajr-5 is a cheap, unguided artillery-rocket.

Who is going to run out of money first, Israel, or Hamas's Iranian suppliers?

15 posted on 11/20/2012 11:33:27 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: TexasRepublic

Israel should use housewife logic:

It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

They’re going to be condemned no matter what they do. Might as well assure their own safety first.

As for these “poor Palestinians” or whatever they call themselves - curious that no other Muzzie country wants them....


16 posted on 11/20/2012 11:53:42 AM PST by LadyBuck (In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher')
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To: RightGeek
"...and a society that dedicates its resources to continuing to live next-door to a community run by terrorists is inherently insane."

It's enough to drive one crazy. Thank you Arafat, for nothing. ...but it's the pali's whom say it's the Jews, who are descended from "Allah transformed ... into monkeys and pigs. [Quran]: "We said to them: Be monkeys, despised and loathed,"

???

Truly it is a Mad World with much to prefer, of the chords of Gary Jules version of it, with lyrics containing

And I find it kind of funny,
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very, very

Mad world... mad world...
enlarging your world Mad world

17 posted on 11/20/2012 12:08:08 PM PST by BlueDragon (confucious say: sad man find many coin lost on ground)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks RightGeek. mass-murdering Arab bigots: Pro-terrorist Shills: Egyptian Islamofascism:
18 posted on 11/23/2012 12:35:56 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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