One of Obama's first photo ops during his recent visit to Israel was in front of an Iron Dome battery, set up especially for that purpose near the Tel Aviv airport.
Occupy Tel Aviv Encampment, May 29 - praises for the success of the Iron Dome anti-missile system, a costly US-Israeli co-production, was one of the highlights of Obama's recent visit to Israel.
The Iron Dome was also central to Bibi's attempt to placate the Israeli public ahead of his planned all out war with Iran.
Yesterday, the Israeli public displayed general apathy during a national alarms drill in preparation for such war.
This morning, the Israeli minister in charge is quoted in the papers as saying that the public must internalize that the Iron Dome will not provide protection against missile attack in case of such war.
What the minister fails to internalize is that the public ignored the drill, not because of trust in the Iron Dome (and similar systems), but because the idea of all out war with Iran is so off the wall, that the public refuses to take it seriously.
The case of the Iron Dome is the latest in a long series of military procurement of systems (e.g. the Patriot anti-missile system) that were advertised as close to magical, and ended up being useless or close to useless, at enormous price tags (corporate welfare? or corporate fraud?).
Given that the Israeli military-industrial complex is small in comparison to its US counterpart, the questions that comes up is:
- How many people in Israel, and for how long, have known that the Iron Dome is at best a "psy op" system, directed against the People of the State of Israel, and kept silence?
- Given that in Israel this is a major life and death issue, what should such conduct be considered?
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