By • The Washington Free Beacon
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Wednesday celebrated Israel’s Iron Dome, just months after she backed down to pressure from the anti-Israel flank of her caucus and cut funding from the missile defense program from a major government spending bill.
Pelosi, who traveled to Israel this week to meet with leaders of the Jewish state, posed for a photo in front of an Iron Dome missile-interception launcher that she posted to Twitter. The speaker praised the system for saving “thousands of lives,” and touted House legislation that funded the Iron Dome.
Unmentioned by Pelosi is that last September, as the House voted on a funding bill to avert a government shutdown, Democratic leadership cut $1 billion in Iron Dome funding from the bill after anti-Israel progressives threatened to derail it over its support for Israel’s defense. “Squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) reportedly persuaded Pelosi to remove the funding.
Days after Democratic leadership cut Iron Dome spending from the funding bill, the House overwhelmingly passed a stand-alone bill to fund the Israeli self-defense system, but its removal from the larger spending bill was a major victory for anti-Israel members of Congress. The progressive “Squad” members, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (R., Mich.), either voted “present” or against the funding.
Israel’s Iron Dome has proven to be an effective self-defense tool. The sophisticated missile system is able to calculate whether missiles shot at the Jewish state will hit populated parts of the country, and shoot them down if they pose a danger to civilian or military targets.
by Peter Huessy • Gatestone Institute
The U.S. Air Force has just completed a review of the ballistic missile threats to the U.S.: China is building more ballistic missiles than anyone – and faster. By 2015, Iran’s and North Korea’s long-range missiles will be able to reach the United States.
The Israeli Air Force, on June 7, 1981, carried out Operation Opera, in which F-16s flew hundreds of miles and successfully destroyed the nuclear facility in Osirak, Iraq — the difficulty of the task only increased by the absence of laser-guided technology and the distance the jets had to fly.
When, shortly after, President Ronald Reagan was asked whether a National Security Council emergency session should be called to “assess what to do,” he replied, “Well, boys will be boys,” and calmly proceeded to the presidential helicopter. No NSC session was convened. Continue reading
by Peter Huessy
Cranky opponents of the Iron Dome Israeli missile defense claim the system doesn’t work. Some in the arms control community have latched on to such criticism to smear missile defense work in general especially that in the United States.
What happened then to the nearly 3000 Hamas rocket warheads that if not intercepted largely landed somewhere in Israel? The same critics say not only did Iron Dome not work, but the Hamas rocket warheads didn’t work either! Continue reading
by Uzi Rubin • Reuters
While the troops of Israel’s Air Defense Command are blasting Grad and Fajr rockets shot from Gaza out of the sky with success, there are an obsessive few who try to blast Iron Dome’s evident achievements into oblivion. They insist on trivializing the missile-defense system’s rock-solid record because the facts don’t fit their theory that no missile defense system can ever work.
The chief Iron Dome scold is Ted Postol of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a professor with academic standing but no experience in designing or managing the development of modern missile systems. Continue reading
U.S. Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today joined several of his Republican colleagues in reaffirming their support for Israel, America’s friend and ally, and its sovereign right to defend itself against Hamas: Continue reading