Israel's strategic policy used to be based on the principle that "a good offense is the best defense" -- namely that when in battle Israel moved as quickly as possible to the attack, even when vastly outnumbered. By moving the battle to the enemy's territory Israel's own territory was protected while the enemy would lose territory and suffer all the collateral damage of the war zone.
That concept has largely fallen by the wayside since the beginning of the Oslo process, since going on the offense meant destroying Israel's so-called "peace partners". Instead Israel tried to play defense by trying to protect every restaurant, bank, mall, bus, school, etc. from terrorists for whom every Israeli was a potential target. The ultimate expression of the defensive mentality was the "Wall" still being built to divide Judea and Samaria from the rest of Israel.
Not surprisingly, this policy was a complete failure. It is impossible to defend every soft target in the country from terrorists who can pick their victims at their leisure.
Here is the logical extension of that failure:
Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists have amassed a 50,000 rocket arsenal aimed at Israel against which Israel has no defense according to a
UPI report cited by
Israel National News.
The UPI report, as cited by Israel National News notes:
The government’s highly touted Iron Dome short-range missile defense system is far from being in operation and may not even be practical.
“Even if Iron Dome works perfectly, it is never going to have the firepower in interceptors to credibly intercept most, let alone all,” of the rockets.
The Israel National News report continues:
Hezbollah has amassed far more rockets than it possessed before the Second Lebanon War in 2006, despite Israel’s agreeing to a ceasefire on the condition that United Nations Interim Forces (UNIFIL) would prevent arms smuggling into Lebanon.
In the south, Hamas continues to smuggle weapons into Gaza despite a similar ceasefire ageement, supposedly conditioned on a cessation of arms smuggling, that the Olmert administration announced when concluding Operation Cast Lead in mid-January.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised two years ago that the Iron Dome short-range missile defense system, along with other systems, would protect Israel from 90 percent of missile attacks, although mortar shells would continue to explode in Israel without interception.
Barak announced in October 2007 that the Iron Dome was near completion and would be in place by 2010....
Last year, officials admitted that the Iron Dome system would not be effective against Kassam rockets fired from less than two miles.
The main UPI report notes:
The Iron Dome very-short-range interceptors are designed to destroy missiles fired from a range of approximately 3 to 24 miles, and the David's Sling system to intercept ballistic missiles with a range of 24 to 150 miles.
The Israel Defense Forces said they have already tested the system successfully several times.
Barak has made the successful development of Iron Dome and its sister David's Sling/Magic Wand program to produce an interceptor capable of defending against missiles with a 24- to 150-mile range his top priority...
However, as of today, Hamas continues to fire its low-tech Qassams into the settlements and towns of southern Israel with impunity, and short of launching another costly major military operation such as it did at the beginning of this year, Israel has no credible defense available. Iron Dome is nowhere near being deployed.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are completely open about the fact they will never accept Israel's existence, so they can not be placated. Outsourcing Israel's defense needs to third parties, especially the UN, has failed so many times that that is also not an option.
Therefore, the only ways to protect Israelis from Arab rockets are 1) massive deterrence against their leaders and their state sponsors that call the shots and/or 2) reconquering their territory and spending years finding and collecting all their weaponry while tightly controlling what goes on on the ground.
Is there anyone who is willing to try one of these two approaches?
