Lunch at Jish

Our family trip on Saturday was planned to include a stop for lunch at Jish. Often referred to by its original Hebrew name Gush Halav, Jish at one time was known by a Greek rendition of the name - Giscala which happened to be the name of the restaurant where we had lunch. The town's 3,000 inhabitants are mostly Maronite Christians, the rest are Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim. The town's last Jewish inhabitants left in the mid nineteenth century. The Ottoman Land Code and Registration Laws of 1858 and 1859 made life hard for farmers, both Arabs and Jews alike. Jews still farmed in a few villages in Galilee almost continuously for more than 1700 years.

While we waited for the food to be served I briefly recounted a few events from the past

Yohanan of Gush Halav, also known as John of Giscala: was the local commander here during the first Jewish-Roman War (66–73). He built a wall to defend the town from an impending Roman assault. When the town's defenders realised they were hopelessly outnumbered they retreated. Gush Halav surrendered but Johanan escaped and lived to fight another day during the siege of Jerusalem. He was captured, sent to Rome where according to one account he died in prison. His comrade in arms Josephus Flavius commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee was more fortunate. He surrendered to the Romans at Yodfat, wrote two monumental histories of the Jews and lived to a ripe old age.

The wall that Johanan built was never put to the test, however a modern day defence barrier, Israel's Security Fence is meeting up to expectations. Despite all the objections and protests the security fence/wall separating Israel from the West Bank, albeit incomplete is nevertheless very effective. Admittedly the fence's planners could have avoided a lot of controversy and caused less hardship in some places. Hopefully this will be rectified.

Along our border with Lebanon not far from Jish and demarcating the border between Israel and Gaza, fences help keep enemy land forces at bay but fail to prevent rocket attacks.

Developing a defence system capable of destroying rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah has to be cost-efficient and if possible transportable. Destroying a cheap homemade Qassam rocket used by Hamas or a mass produced Katyusha rocket favoured by Hezbollah with an expensive interceptor equipped with sophisticated homing technology, makes no sense.

By this time next year Israel will deploy its first counter-rocket “Iron Dome” battery. Initial elements of the Iron Dome developed by Rafael, an Israeli defence systems company, have already been delivered. Once supplementary components have been supplied, incorporated and tested the system’s first battery will become fully operational. Its core element termed the battle management and weapon control (BMC) is capable of detecting if a rocket or even an artillery shell presents a real threat. The Iron Dome’s radar detects a hostile rocket seconds after it is launched and calculates its predicted impact point. If it is expected to hit a populated area the BMC prepares an interception plan and launches an interceptor to engage the rocket at the optimal point of its trajectory.

Such a battery is capable of defending an area of 150 km² from attacks by rockets with ranges of up to 70 km, namely, an arsenal that ranges from the indigenously developed Qassam rocket to the Syrian B302 and Iranian Fadjr-5 deployed in Lebanon and Syria.

The first Iron Dome battery will be positioned outside Sderot in the western Negev and will protect the town from Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. If necessary the battery can be redeployed along the Lebanese border within 12 hours. The IDF assesses that up to 13 Iron Dome batteries will be required to give full protection against threats from Gaza and Lebanon.

So far the IDF has allocated $215 million for the development and procurement of the first four batteries.

Iron Dome has been criticized for its prohibitive cost. The estimated cost of the interceptor is $35,000–$50,000, whereas a crudely manufactured Qassam rocket costs a few hundred dollars. Rafael claims the cost estimates are exaggerated. The Iron Dome is a ‘discriminating’ system selecting only the real threats

Some critics have argued that Iron Dome is ineffective in countering the Qassam threat given the short-distance and flight time between close-to-the-border launch pads in Gaza and the targets in Sderot. Other anti-rocket systems are said to be more effective, namely the Nautilus laser defence system. From 1995 to 2005, the United States and Israel jointly developed Nautilus but scrapped the system after concluding it was not feasible. However, an American defence company - Northrop Grumman has proposed to develop a more advanced prototype of Nautilus called 'Skyguard'

Skyguard would use laser beams to intercept rockets, with the launching of each beam costing an estimated $1,000–$2,000. With an investment of $180 million, Northrop Grumman says it could deploy the system within 18 months. Israeli defence officials rejected the proposal, citing the extended timeline and additional costs. Officials also insist that with recent improvements to Iron Dome, the system is fully capable of intercepting Qassam rockets. Tests conducted recently have confirmed these new capabilities.

The Iron Dome is the lower tier of a multi-layered defence system. The second tier coined “David’s Sling” is currently in the development stage and is planned to counter attacks by longer-range rockets such as the Iranian Zilzal and the Syrian M600 which can reach targets 250 km away. This second tier will also be able to counter cruise missiles and gliding bombs.

Defense Update an online defence magazine reported that, “The United States and Israel have initiated development of an upper-tier component to the Israeli Missile Defense architecture, commonly known as 'Arrow 3'. The development is based on an architecture definition study conducted in 2006-2007, determining the need for the upper-tier component to be integrated into Israel's Ballistic Missile Defence system. According to Arieh Herzog, Director of Israel's Missile Defence Programme, the main element of this upper tier will be an exo-atmospheric interceptor, to be jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, (IAI) and Boeing.”

Lieutenant General Patrick J. O’Reilly, Director of the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) described the upper tier component in glowing terms, "The design of Arrow 3 promises to be an extremely capable system, more advanced than what we have ever attempted in the U.S. with our programs" Gen. O'Reilly told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services sub-committee for strategic forces. "This has to do with the seekers that have greater flexibility and other aspects, such as propulsion systems - it will be an extremely capable system" he said.

It might appear strange that the US MDA which is involved to some extent in furthering the Arrow 3 development is also prepared for a cutback in its own missile defence systems.

Washington Post Staff Writer R. Jeffrey Smith reported on a US volte-face regarding long range missile interceptors,

“Last week, after a lengthy internal Pentagon review and against the backdrop of new limits on overall military spending, the generals again threw their weight behind a relative contraction of the effort to defend against long-range missile attacks. They cited needed budgetary savings and more immediate threats in demanding faster work to protect overseas forces and bases against shorter-range attack.

The latest shift shelved a plan to deploy in Europe an advanced radar and interceptors of long-range missiles by 2017. And it adds impetus to the Pentagon's request earlier this year for a cut of about 15 percent in overall missile defense spending, a scaling back of the deployment of long-range missile interceptors in Alaska and California, and the cancellation of three costly Reagan-era missile defense programs that officials say had threatened to balloon out of budgetary control.”

Admittedly our Iron Dome is intended to counter short-range rocket attacks, but it is also a comprehensive defence system which at a later stage will integrate the upper level tier to counter long range threats.

Viewing the US defence missile retrenchment it should be considered for what it is, a scaling-back, not a total dismantling of its missile defence system.

Furthermore the Iron Dome was developed to provide a counter to a very real threat. The Qassam and Katyusha rockets, Syrian rockets and missiles as well as the ever present menace of Iran’s developing nuclear capability are threats we can’t ignore.

This obsessive need to wall ourselves in, or wall our enemies out is not an exclusive Israeli paranoia. I doubt if we are paranoid, the threats we face are very real.

Over lunch recalling the hapless Johanan of Gush Halav and his wall I was thankful for our ingenious Iron Dome and all its tiers.

Gmar Hatima Tova

Beni 24^th of September, 2009