Israel’s Iron Dome Isn't Working: A Weapons Expert’s Warning | Hacker News Reader

Israel’s Iron Dome Isn't Working: A Weapons Expert’s Warning

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An interview at NPR with Theodore Postol where he discusses this topic:

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/09/330183774/the-rockets-from-ham...

I guess the Iron Dome missiles have to intercept the rockets head on to have any chance.

Of course it isn't. If it were working there would be no need for more money, would there.

I'm curious how they are ever going to stop handmade rockets.

Apparently all it takes it fertilizer and sugar to make them.

The range is only going to get further as they get more sophisticated.

There were over 2000 of them in 2008 http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket

Lasers have been regarded as the most promising option for the past decade. MTHEL on a humvee for example, was once a hoped for potential solution. Then there's this:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2013/ma...

Complete propaganda by the Zionist owned media.

Why the heck is it our problem to fund Israel's genocide of the palestinian people??

If you are a Zionist downvoting this comment, go ahead and explain why.

"If Iron Dome isn’t effective, then why have so few Israelis died from rocket fire?"

Because the threat of rockets is over-hyped as part of the justification for the slow-motion war going on. Israel got about 90% of the way finished taking over the area and then had this pesky treaty thing interfere.

So now they use any and all excuses to try to finish the job and completely take over the West Bank and other Palestinian areas despite the war supposedly being over.

Which means a lot of lying and propaganda.

What Israel is doing to Palestinians is not quite genocide, but actually approaching that. Thousands of civilian injuries, hundreds of deaths, tens of thousands displaced by military offensives.

Israel of course uses the "terrorist" device to full effect by labeling any small amount of military resistance that comes from Palestinian territory with that word.

I actually went on odesk to try to find help with my startup recently and without realizing the seriousness of the situation in the entire area (not just the West Bank) contracted a very experienced and smart system administrator who lives in Hebron (and happens to be Palestinian). I did not realize what that meant at the time. Now I just don't look at the news related to that area because it always makes me wonder if the guy I was hoping to train as my Support Engineer is actually still alive or not.

Here's one of those over-hyped rockets fired at Israel nearly daily, a mere 175kg warhead of explosives and shrapnel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajr-5

175 kilograms. A suicide bomber, capable of killing dozens and maiming many more, would usually only carry about 10kg on their body.

You're living in the comfort of your first world country (which at some point of history was, surely, involved in a bloodbath of one kind or another), and criticize those who need to fight for their lives and their loved ones. What the fuck do you know about the Middle East, its history, culture and how conflicts are solved there? Are you spreading your enlightenment around, Bush style, spewing your opinions of those who have to live through a reality you are thousands of miles away from?

You're on a site that is heavily about sharing views and opinions. I can't imagine what value your anger contributes here, given the supposed low quality of the opinions here according to your response (after all, how many people on HN could possibly know anything about the Middle East per your rant, thus nearly all opinions here are disqualified).

Conflicts are not solved there, they never have been. That's the problem.

Israeli death toll: 25 soldiers, 2 civilians.

Palestinian death toll: Nearing 600, over 150 children killed.

I know that it is a long history which is generally misconstrued deliberately by Western and Israeli media.

Israel is not fighting for its life. Israel mostly won, and is now terrorizing civilian Palestinians and killing them in order to finish taking over the area again (which they previously controlled).

I'm not saying the rockets aren't a real threat, the threat is just overhyped and used as an excuse to abuse the Palestinians.

Saying Israel is at war with Gaza to take Gaza strip is like saying the American military went to war with Afghanistan to colonize Kabul.

It doesn't matter who "won" in the bigger scheme of things, what matters is that Israel, like any other country, is obliged to provide its citizens with the maximal level of personal safety. Having rockets and mortars shot at, teenagers kidnapped and executed and - last but not least - tunnels spanning kilometers that go underneath its borders and allow dozens of Jihadists to emerge in the middle of a neighborhood, contradicts the safety the government is entrusted to provide its citizens (of which 20% are Arabs, by the way - not that it matters).

There is some truth to what you say. But:

'Israel of course uses the "terrorist" device to full effect by labeling any small amount of military resistance that comes from Palestinian territory with that word.'

When this "military resistance" takes the form of firing rockets at the civilian population, it's terrorism by definition. As is Israel's use of collective punishment against Palestinian civilian families.

EDIT: Some have responded that the Palestinians lack any kind of targeting technology. It seems to me that if you're firing rockets without the ability to select a military target, then the only purpose of your rockets is to create terror. Also, by Israel's imposition of "collective punishment" I did not have in mind measures such as checkpoints that might be necessary for security. I meant such things as bulldozing houses and the use of sonic booms to harass civilians.

Once you use label terrorist to supress a majority of innocent people it losses all meaning. You might as well as call them crepe makers.

I just wonder what integrity US has when it lets its allies get away with murder.

The problem is that when Israel does not allow building materials into Gaza it is presented as collective punishment (or siege). But if Israel allows those in then they are used to build tunnels and bunkers. In Gaza it's Hamas that is responsible for the condition of the civilians. They also have a border with Egypt so it's impossible for Israel to impose a siege on them. Unfortunately, when you're a bad neighbour you can't expect other countries to keep an open border.

When Israel had more open borders with the West Bank and allowed for free movement of Palestinians there were suicide bombings, stabbings, shooting and bus explosions. When Israel puts road blocks and builds walls to prevent those (successfully) it is collective punishment (which, honestly, is true).

At any rate, this situation doesn't lend itself to simplistic interpretations or explanations. Whenever one is offered there is surely a political agenda behind it. Not every problem has a 140 character description or solution.

It is terrorism by definition, because they have no targeting, however the reason they have no targeting is obviously due to technological availability rather than an intent to have no targeting. It usually helps if you can aim.

On the other hand, the Israeli forces have state of the art targeting systems - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/21/hospita...

Why do you believe that they are mainly firing at civilian population? That's just what the Israeli media says.

> So now they use any and all excuses to try to finish the job and completely take over the West Bank and other Palestinian areas despite the war supposedly being over.

Israel removed its last remaining settlements in Gaza in 2005. Israel gave up control of parts of the West Bank even earlier. There's a grain of truth to what you're saying, in that Israel wants to hang on to parts of the west bank that are strategically valuable and have large Jewish settlements, however, even the right-wing Israeli government has no interest in a long-term occupation of Gaza or of much of the West Bank. The costs are too high and the benefits are very limited. The path that the Israeli government formally supports is a two-state solution which would involve a Palestinian state comprising Gaza and the West Bank, with Israel trading some land inside Israeli borders for certain settlement blocks.

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