The single greatest current threat to Israeli security is enemy missiles. With its superb army, air superiority and technological advantages, Israel can prevail in most conventional war scenarios. Moreover, fine intelligence work in combination with the security fences separating Israel from Gaza and the West Bank/Judea and Samaria have reduced Palestinian terrorism—not to acceptable levels, since there is no such thing; but to manageable levels.
In response, Israel’s enemies—Hamas, Hezbolla, Syria and Iran—have hit on the strategy of targeting Israel with rockets and missiles. These are typically aimed at Israel’s cities rather than military targets. Avi Schnurr, the director of the Israel Missile Defense Association, reckons that Israel’s enemies have some 100,000 short-, medium- and long-range rockets and missiles. Even without Iranian nuclear armed missiles, which will be here soon if decisive action is not taken, the missile threat is extremely grave.
Thank God, there are missile defense systems that work. Israel has developed several of them, in cooperation with the U.S. One of these is the Arrow system, designed to take out medium-range missiles. Israel is upgrading to the Arrow 3, so that it will work at greater distances and higher altitudes. The U.S. was to fund this upgrade, but there was concern that Obama administration defense budget cuts could imperil this coordination.
However, on May 21 it was reported that the U.S. will fully fund the Arrow 3. Perhaps it is a coincidence that the day before, Iran successfully tested a 2000 kilometer ballistic missile. Or perhaps not.
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