Weeks after reports that the US was growing increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unwillingness to take the indirect peace talks seriously and reluctance to even address core issues, Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro announced a plan to “encourage” Israel to move forward with the process.
The answer is, as it ever is with US diplomatic efforts, throwing more money at the problem. Or in this case, throwing more money into Israel’s already enormous annual military aid.
Shapiro said the administration hoped “that the expanded commitment to Israel’s security will advance the peace process.” The effort would be above and beyond the roughly $3 billion sent to Israel annually for military aid.
Of course the aid in question is largely already approved, the administration already pushed through Congress in late May a measure to send an additional $205 million in emergency aid to pay for Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile project.
The money will fund materially the entire project for the Israeli military. President Obama announced the aid after Israel’s military decided to scrap the project, saying it cost too much and was of comparatively little utility.
With the Obama Administration already having pledged absolute commitment to Israel in all ways, including shielding their nuclear weapons program from their own support for a nuclear-free Middle East and shielding them from international scrutiny for attacks on humanitarian aid ships, it is hard to imagine that Israel doubts the US commitment to its security or that the additional funds will change anything about that perception. Rather it seems another excuse to throw money at an impractical weapons project under the guise of support for peace.
This Iron Dome Project is being hawked as a way of defending Israel from Quassam rockets fired from Lebanon or Gaza. The ststem uses to radar to detect intruding missiles, determine their trajectory and them blow them up with an intercepting anti-missile missile. All very well., especially as America will pay for it.
The catch is that it takes about 15 seconds from detection to destruction. This means that it must be deployed about ten miles into Israel from the Lebanese or Gazan border. Therefore for total protection of Israeli citizens, the Israeli citizens must mave back about ten miles from the Lebanese or Gazan border. This action would harelip all of Israel, as they will not concede so much as one inch of land to the Arabs for even a buffer zone. They could do that right now, Iron Dome or no Iron Dome as the useful range of the crude Hamas or Hezbollah missiles is just a few miles anyway. Just move Israeli citizens ten miles from the borders and the Arab missiles fall harmlessly to the ground anyway. If Iron Dome does get deployed watch for the Israelis to deploy it right on the borders and they will force the Arabs to concede the ten miles of buffer zone.
There is an American system that uses lasers to intercept missiles which is faster but Israel prefers to have the American taxpayer’s money to stay in Israel employing Israeli engineers. Plus what a neat way to annex ten more miles of Arab territory.