Shoot an Arrow in the air, where it lands ...

Friday, August 27, 2004

n a spin that wouldn’t shame a master politician, the head of the Arrow Project, Arye Herzog told the press last night that while the latest test of Israel’s anti-ballistic missile system failed to knock out its target, the mere fact that the Arrow was able to distinguish between the body of the target missile and its separate warhead, proved the test successful.

‘The element of distinction was successful,’ he said, explaining that there was a ‘local malfunction,’ in the final interception.’ Besides, he told Israel Radio this morning, ‘since 2002, the system, which is operational, has been capable of intercepting Shihab-3 missiles, and we are certainly confident in this.’ Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron also described yesterday’s failure as a ‘semi-success. Most of the systems tested worked. There was a malfunction that needs to be sorted out, and we will continue to prepare to meet development of any future threats.’

The Arrow, originally conceived in the Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan administration in the 1980s, is a joint development by Israel and the U.S. While most of the so-called Star Wars project remained on the drawing board or failed to get past initial planning stages, Israel’s development of the Arrow was spurred with a sense of urgency by the 39 Iraqi Scuds launched in the 1991 Gulf War. Sometimes described as a bullet meant to hit another bullet, the system is supposed to identify a distant rocket launch, track the trajectory to determine the foreign missile’s target and then launch an intercepting missile. Although it has never been tested in real time, it was deployed in Israel last year ahead of the American invasion of Iraq.

Woman Crucified # 12 by Silvia Rosenberg, mixed media on recycled paper, 20x30 cm.

ith the demise of the Iraqi threat, Arrow’s strategic defense purpose is now framed in the context of the threat from Iranian Shihab missiles, and the war of words with Iran continues to heat up. Just this morning, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuval Steinitz of the Likud said the West should not expect ‘little Israel’ to take pre-emptive action to save the world from Iranian nuclear weapons. The free world, led by the U.S. should prevent Iran from getting the bomb. Iran plans to become a global nuclear power with long-range Shihab missiles that would put Europe and NATO forces in range, he said, and ‘This is a problem of the leaders of the civilized world. One shouldn’t expect little Israel to solve a global problem like this … The United States itself has said that it won’t hesitate to use any means at its disposal to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. If, God forbid, the free world, led by the United States, doesn’t stand behind these words, then a dark curtain will descend on the world raising the possibility of nuclear terror against us and Europe and NATO,’ said Steinitz, calling Iran ‘a totally irresponsible and unpredictable totalitarian regime that is ready to sacrifice millions of its people for its crazy ideology.’

Iran’s nuclear development plans are on the agenda of an upcoming International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting, and there is intense speculation that the board will decide to send the issue of Iranian non-compliance to the UN Security Council, where the U.S. can be expected to lead a move to impose sanctions on Iran until it halts its nuclear development program – or makes it entirely transparent, something Tehran keeps promising but does not deliver. Meanwhile, Iran keeps issuing calls for international pressure on Israel to reveal all its nuclear cards, something Israel says it won’t do until there is full-scale peace in the region.

In other developments today, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is under pressure – in the press, the Civil Service Commissioner and the State Comptroller to at least order a police investigation if not a prosecution of Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi for making dozens of illegal political appointments while he headed the Environmental Affairs Ministry in Sharon’s first government.

And in another affair involving Mazuz, Haaretz reports this morning that a plea bargain is being worked out with Raed Salah, the head of the radical Israel Islamic Movement (northern branch), who together with four other officials of the movement has been in detention for the last 15 months awaiting trial on suspicion he aided and abetted the Hamas. Apparently, Salah was right when he was arrested last year and said all the funds he raised for charities that turned out to be Hamas charities were indeed for charity and not for financing terror, as originally claimed by the authorities. The state meanwhile says it won’t drop the security-related charges, but there are indications that the final deal will be limited to money laundering charges for transferring funds raised abroad to the charities.

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