One startling outcome of the recent outbreak in hostilities between the Hamas-run government in Gaza and Israel is that it renders void an ancient paradigm. In a recent Op Ed, Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the US reflected that, in war, it has been long held: a potent offense will eventually overwhelm even the most determined defense.
The archives of military history make the case that defensive measures work until they don’t. For over a millennium, the great fortifications that surrounded Constantinople seemed impregnable. Begun in 330 AD by Constantine, the city’s founder and first Christian Roman Emperor, the great series of moats and walls were massively expanded by the Emperor Theodosius beginning in 395. So massive were these fortifications that they were considered a wonder of the ancient world. And for a millennium they withstood many assaults, mostly mounted by the armies of Allah. But on May 29, 1453, with the use of huge cannons developed with the help of European mercenary craftsmen, the great walls were breached and the inhabitants slaughtered or taken into slavery.
As it pertains to modern offensive rocket attacks on population centers, in the twentieth century, the British defenders were helpless against the Nazi V-1 and V-2 rockets, seeing large sections of London reduced to rubble. As recently as 2006 and 2008, when thousands of Iranian built missiles were launched by Hezbollah and Hamas from Lebanon and Gaza into Israel, it forced the Israeli’s to launch costly and bloody invasions to stop them.
Enter Iron Dome, the new Israeli missile defense system. As Ambassador Oren points out, their new anti-missile system went from drawing board to deployment in three years. Amazingly, just two missile defense batteries achieved an 85% success ratio in Gazan attack and shot out of the sky scores of missiles aimed at southern Israeli population centers, making it the first antimissile system ever to succeed in combat.
Iron Dome is so intelligent that in split seconds it can determine whether an incoming rocket is headed for an open space or a population center and only launches at those which threaten life. This is the fusion of technology and the belief in the sanctity of life. As the Ambassador puts it:
“Millions of Israelis live within the terrorists’ range, with as little as 15 seconds to reach a bomb shelter.”
Moreover, the Israeli’s know that their terrorist enemies just outside their borders have 70,000 rockets and that 15 out of 100 can still penetrate Iron Dome even after it is fully built out. (Estimates are that 10 – 13 batteries will be needed to defend the whole country).
The Ambassador goes on to say that the Israeli’s, with assistance from the US, are also working on a system which will intercept orbital and suborbital ballistic missiles called Arrow and another system, beautifully named “David’s Sling,” which will destroy a long-range rocket defense system.
To be fair to the Obama Administration, it has supplied funding to the Israeli’s in their development of its Iron Dome System and should be commended for doing so. But for the past five or six decades, the Democrats and John Kerry specifically, the man who is rumored to be on Obama’s short list to be the new Secretary of Defense, have uniformly voted against the development of missile defense technologies.
Obama was even caught on an open microphone letting Dimitri Medvedev that he would accede to the Russians’ desire that US limit or halt our missile defense development.
Based on this encounter, what Obama clearly doesn’t understand is that the rise of militant Islam, the on-coming nuclear weapons proliferation within the very unstable Muslim world can be contained through missile defense technologies. Thankfully we still have an Israeli nation to lead us toward that salvation.
We must pray that we can bring about a more visionary leader of the US. Missile defense technology is nothing less than a humanity game changer.
As H.G. Wells famously wrote:
History has always been a race between knowledge and catastrophe.
You so flippantly refer to the Hamas militants as ” terrorists.” So you may, but you sure do smack of being a common, treacherous neo-con with your ” poor little peace loving Israel” comments. While I am NOT one of those wimpy lefties or strange bedfellow anti-Semites who spend most of their time attacking Israeli policies, I find any one-sided, good guy/bad guy positions quite discusting. I am NOT a Muslim, nor a Christian or Jew; they’re all insane dogmatists who cause untold suffering in defense of their respective lunatic beliefs. For you to not have any empathy for the human beings (even though the average Israeli Jew considers them mere insects) who live pathetic lives because of their oppressors’ expansionist desires, says PLENTY about your twisted views. I will still listen to your rap on tonight’s Coast to Coast broadcast, but not as enthusiastically as I first was when I saw you would be John B.’s guest. May I add, the West Bank “settlers” are among the lowest of the low scum who crawl on our planet; far worse than any deranged jihadist. The bottom line is, the whole lot of these fanatics, Jew and Islamist alike would be better disarmed and imprisoned within their borders so they cannot cause so much grief to the rest of the world. And of course, ALL Zionist neo-cons and snake handling Zionist Christians in the USA be deported to live crowded existances in their beloved “holy land.” Wake up, Kelley; rid yourself of your jaundiced view of the world.
I completely agree with James Wooten. This ‘poor Israel’ schtick driven by holocaust-guilt tripping has gone on far too long. Israel has constantly expanded its colonies and massacred anyone in its way since 1948. Israel has killed 100 times more innocent (Palestinian) civlians than Hamas has Israelis. And all in violation of international law. The US gives 3 billion in aid to Israel, half of which is military spending. If you decry the “welfare state” and “entitlement” so much, start there. What an utter colossol waste of money, all to uphold a brutal apartheid regime that has created, not peace, but the world’s largest outdoor maxiumum security prison.
Shameful.
No, what is Shameful, are the anti-Jew hateful lies that you two just posted!
In 1948, the Jews were granted what was then unwanted wasteland, and they’ve developed it into a great nation, that INCLUDES millions of non-Jewish Arabs.One big mistake by Reagan, was ordering Ariel Sharon to pull out of Lebanon, and an even bigger mistake was Sharon’s decision to pull out of Gaza.
To call Israel an “apartheid regime” is just the standard lie, but to call pro-Zionist Christians “snake handlers” is a clear example of your miopic view.
KEITH – GOD BLESS YOU. I AM A CHRISTIAN. I BELONG TO NO DOGMATIC RELIGION, I FOLLOW THE BIBLE. IT IS VERY SAD THAT PETER & JAMES DO NOT KNOW THE BIBLE & BIBLE PROPHECY. GOD GAVE ISRAEL TO THE JEWS FOREVER IN A PROMISE TO ABRAHAM. THE PALESTINIANS NEVER HAD CLAIM TO THAT LAND. IT WAS DESOLATE – NO RAIN UNTIL THE JEWS WERE GIVEN THAT LAND BACK IN 1948!! THEN THE RAINS CAME BACK & ISRAEL FLOURISHED. THIS WAS IN FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY. AS A STUDENT OF BIBLE PROPHECY, EVERYTHING IS ON SCHEDULE FOR JESUS’ RETURN. PROPHECY PROVES THE BIBLE AS A GIFT OF LOVE FROM GOD. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN 100% CORRECT IN PROPHECY & WILL CONTINUE TO PROVE IT IS DIVINELY INSPIRED. NO OTHER BOOK CAN CLAIM THIS.
Yes, thank-you.
I’ve been watching Hal Lindsey every Friday night for years.
I first read his book back in the ’70’s.
Wow, just wow, all of you. A “jew” is one circumsized by heart alone, if you are holding to scripture. Christ bled for ALL people as well, if you give any credence to scripture.
If not, it would be quite interesting if we had the same borders.