12 | JUNE 3 • 2021

PURELY COMMENTARY

IRON DOME from page 10

defense contractors to propose
innovative systems to protect
against aerial bombardment.
Hamas in Gaza and the
Iranian-backed Hezbollah in
southern Lebanon had been
launching crude, short-range
rockets against Israel since the
1990s. Israel so far had been
fortunate; they caused little
damage and few casualties.
More sophisticated
and deadlier rockets,
however, were sure to
follow. To Israel’s defense
establishment, the notion
of a home-grown weapon
against incoming missiles
seemed far-fetched, if not
impossible. The tactical
principles behind a missile
shield hypothesized constant
monitoring of all of Gaza,
detection of rocket launches,
instantaneous calculation
whether a rocket was likely
to hit an Israeli target,
followed by launching of a
missile from the ground to
destroy the incoming rocket
— within 15 seconds.
And the system had to
be economical, lest waves
of rockets — however
ineffective — would stretch
Israel’s defense budget to the
breaking point.
Gold’s project struggled
to find funding and political
backing. In early 2007,
Israel’s Defense Ministry
backed the project’s pilot
phase with an outlay of
$10 million. Then Israel
approached the Bush
administration requesting
hundreds of millions in
additional support to deploy
what by then was being
called Iron Dome. The U.S.
instead suggested the Israelis

use its Vulcan Phalanx
system, guarding the skies in
Iraq. Israel demurred. In the
meantime, Iron Dome won
$200 million of additional
Israeli funding needed for
round-the-clock testing and
development. In early 2009,
a prototype intercepted an
incoming rocket during a
field test.
By then, Barack Obama
had been elected president.
He hadn’t forgotten his
visit to Sderot and ordered
his staff to look into the
project and Israel’s request
for financial assistance.
Colin Kahl, then overseeing
U.S. Middle East policy at
the Pentagon, liked what
he saw. The Pentagon sent
experts in the fall of 2009.
Iron Dome worked; and it
proved superior to the U.S.’s
Phalanx system. Kahl’s office
recommended $200 million
in aid.
In May 2010, Obama
asked Congress to provide
$205 million for production
and deployment of Iron
Dome, which would be
manufactured by Israel’s

state-owned Rafael
Advanced Defense Systems
Ltd. The U.S. House of
Representatives approved the
funding later that month in
a 410-4 vote. The measure
became part of the National
Defense Authorization Act
for fiscal year 2011, approved
by the Senate and signed by
Obama on Jan. 7, 2011.
Iron Dome went
operational in March
2011 and shot down its
first missile a month later.
Whether the new missile
defense ever would have
been built without Obama’s
support and U.S. funding is
questionable.
In 2019, defense industry
trade publications reported
that the U.S. Army
purchased Iron Dome
batteries — further evidence
of the mutual benefit derived
from the alliance of the two
countries.
On June 4, 2009, Obama
had delivered a speech in
Cairo to the Muslim world
titled “A New Beginning,”
calling for a two-state
resolution to Israel’s conflict

with the Palestinian people.
Some Israel partisans were
alarmed, but Obama’s speech
also reminded Muslims of
the “unbreakable” nature of
the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Tensions between Obama
and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
eventually cropped up over
the U.S. response to Iran’s
development of nuclear
capabilities, as well as to
Israel’s settlement policy in
the West Bank.
Differences between
the governments are
surfacing again as the Biden
administration called for
a ceasefire in Gaza while
simultaneously pursuing
nuclear talks with Iran
that were halted by former
president Donald Trump.
Progressive Democrats have
further strained relations by
embracing the Palestinians in
the current conflict, framing
conflict between Jews and
Arabs in terms of “racial
justice.”
How the Democrats
resolve the split over Middle
East policy inside their
party is less important than
the overarching political
consensus in Washington
in support of a safe, strong,
defensible Israel. That
nonpartisan consensus spans
73 years, to the Jewish State’s
founding. Iron Dome — with
thanks to Barack Obama
— represents nothing short
of a miraculous umbrella
in Israel’s fight against
extremist terror.

Doron Levin is a Metro Detroit

journalist.

IDF

Iron Dome launches an interceptor during Operation Pillar of Defense.