I realize that humans just want to feel "safe," but as a technologist, I caution people from putting a lot of faith in these weapons. Basic physics says that these anti-missile system are mostly going to fail. Think about what is involved ... two devices approaching each other at several thousand Km/hr with one possible being in unstable flight and the "killer" having to get within 5 meters of the thing it wants to kill. Once you understand the physics, you will very likely treat all the hype about Arrow, Magic Wand and Iron dome with a lot more skepticism. Note also that AL:L of the components in these "defense" systems are are also subject to random failure. I wish Ynet and all the media were a lot more objective and skeptical about these wild claims of defense contractors. There are no magic weapons!

no matter how sophisticated and reliable the arrow system is, the surest way to defend against missiles is to destroy them before they are fired. president obama has bungled israel into this dangerous and desperate corner, with his inept policy of endless, futile "engagement" with iran.

And what would you suggest: surrender to radical Shiites? There is no such thing as "peace" in Islam.

That BIG LOVLEY WALL, everyone loves to hate prevents mini-nuke in a suitcase from being brought into Israel! If the only way to keep my people safe is by the suffering of palestinains, than so be it. they brought it on themselves, and while they are fooling everyone else into thinking they are victims of Israeli aggression, instead of victims of their own aggression,hate and blind prejudice. they havn't fooled the only people that can remove those WALLS they love soo much! US! "If they don't want to share the world with us, than we don't have to share it with them, peace or war, Israel is ready and waiting!" Hamas and Hezbollah wanted war, they got it! Egypt and Jordan wanted peace, they got it!

while pretending to be an objective, disinterested observer.

The REALITY is no such thing exists, nor can it exist for some very real technical reasons, but that does not stop people from being delusionaly paranoid about them. There are no "magic" weapons - they are either scientifically impossible or totally impractical in the real world. For example, yes, rail guns are possible (Disneyland uses the technology to launch roller coaster cars), BUT they require tremendous energy and massive cooling. Both are somewhat possible for a ship, but not for any land-based weapons. The same goes for all the other "magic" weapons people always bring up on ynet and all the other reader discussion forums. believing in "magic" weapons, just leads to irrational and very BAD decisions.

Indeed: Obama (if one can call this inept Islam lover a President) is the least qualified military and political leader in the US history. Let's pray that he does not cause irreparable damage to the M.E. Western and Israeli political realities V.S the cunning and ruthless Iran, Syria and the Russian involvement in the present complex stand-off.

Yes there is no fail safe technology. Fact But mankind has always been willing to weigh the risk of failure against the likely benefit. That's we we fly in planes, drive cars, use other newly developed technologies. Planes do crash, technologies fail, but we all measure the likely chances of this happening against the risk of failure. I have no idea if Arrow will work, ever, sometimes or most of the time, but it is certainly better than using the medieval technology of bows and arrows.