Iron Dome. Incredible success
Photo: Reuters
Israeli pride in the skies
Op-ed: Iron Dome gives Israelis the priceless feeling that government does care about them
What is the price of the personal sense of security felt by hundreds of thousands of southern residents, the feeling of solidarity, and the recognition that the State wants to and is capable of caring for its citizen? As it turns out, the price is much lower than we expected. And even if it’s still high, it’s worth every penny.
The Iron Dome anti-rocket system is emerging as an incredible success story. It’s also a top notch proof that we haven’t lost it: The spark, the initiative, and the abilities. We haven’t lost the human resource, and the Jewish genius - which we sometimes suspect to be the invention of a megalomaniac mind (and a Jewish one at that) - is still an option.
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The sight of Iron Dome intercepting a missile fired at one of our southern cities is among the most pleasant and inspiring spectacles we’ve seen around here in recent years. At times like this we are allowed to cast cynicism aside and say “yes, we’re proud.” The emotion that has almost been forgotten, national pride over the technological prowess of our defense industry and the ability to build a sophisticated, life-saving system that functions without killing innocents.
We don’t get to enjoy many pleasurable moments like that, certainly not as of late. We are used to waking up to mornings that give rise to stories of corruption rather than success. We learned to bow our heads in the face of failure rather than to be excited by victory. So many times we appeared to be a Third World country; a banana republic. What’s more, a long time ago we lost the faith that there is someone here taking care of us; that planning and risk analysis are involved.
All is not lost
Within this landscape of disappointments, failures and mistrust, the Iron Dome story is an exception: An Israeli-made system born thanks to the determination of then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the decision-making abilities of then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and current Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
This achievement has, first and foremost, immense psychological significance that is no less important than the military implications: It means that finally we are doing something for our own sake. Not because of defeatism and not because we are following someone else’s orders. This time we are not waiting for someone else to do something for us.
Rather, we initiated this project and assumed responsibility for our own fate. We did it based on the understanding that a State that does not care of its own citizens cannot expect someone else to do it.
So Iron Dome may not provide 100% protection to southern residents, and we may need many more batteries to secure this objective. Moreover, Iron Dome is certainly not the solution to the ongoing war in the south. The only solution is a peace deal. Yet for the first time in many years there is a feeling here that this State is functioning after all. That despite all, we have strong minds and thinking people here. And that maybe all is not lost.
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