Did Israel Provoke Gaza Escalation To Test Iron Dome? – OpEd

By

Four days ago I suggested that the reason Israel assassinated the Popular Resistance Committee leader Zuhair Qaisi in Gaza may have had less to do with foiling an attack and much more to do with testing Iron Dome. Yousef at The Jerusalem Fund agrees, saying that a successful test of the missile defense system could go a long way to assuage the Israeli public’s fears about retaliation from Iran following an Israeli attack.

The greatest obstacle to Israeli public support for a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran is the belief that the consequences of the attack from Iran, Hezbollah and other factions like Islamic Jihad, would be too high a cost to bear.

What could the Israeli government do to change this perception? Well, a successful large scale live action test of the US funded Iron Dome would probably help, and assassinating a PRC militant would provoke the projectiles to trigger one.

In the glow of the test’s successful outcome, Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak didn’t even seem to think it was worth the effort to perpetuate the narrative that Qaisi had ever posed an imminent threat. After the militant leader’s assassination, Barak said: “it is not completely clear what the plan was and where, or if it had been foiled.”

Paul Woodward - War in Context

Paul Woodward describes himself by nature if not profession, as a bricoleur. A dictionary of obscure words defines a bricoleur as “someone who continually invents his own strategies for comprehending reality.” Woodward has at various times been an editor, designer, software knowledge architect, and Buddhist monk, while living in England, France, India, and for the last twenty years the United States. He currently lives frugally in the Southern Appalachians with his wife, Monica, two cats and a dog Woodward maintains the popular website/blog, War in Context (http://warincontext.org), which "from its inception, has been an effort to apply critical intelligence in an arena where political judgment has repeatedly been twisted by blind emotions. It presupposes that a world out of balance will inevitably be a world in conflict."

3 thoughts on “Did Israel Provoke Gaza Escalation To Test Iron Dome? – OpEd

  • March 16, 2012 at 7:53 pm
    Permalink

    You’re insane. So Israel is putting over 1 million of its citizens at risk and disrupting daily life and commerce for the entire nation as citizens from the south pack their belongings into vans and head for the north just to test Iron Dome (I was there in August of 2006 and saw that in reverse when the north was under attack)?
    The Israelis are neither that stupid nor so callous toward human life.

    Reply
  • March 17, 2012 at 6:22 am
    Permalink

    A very silly analysis of the events. Zuhir al-Qaisi was the leader of the PFLP an internationally recognized terror group. He is responsible to kidnaping Gilad Shalit, and a large number of terror attacks against civilians in the last decade. Israel was trying to kill him since 2011, he narrowly escaped death in January. He was finally killed together with a Mohammed al-Hanani, a terrorist released during the Shalit deal.

    This isn’t to say that the Iron Dome is not a resounding success, with 90% success rate at targeting missiles aimed at population centers. South Korea was certainly excited and ordered some. But don’t confuse the cause and effect. Israelis are not callous

    Reply
  • March 17, 2012 at 5:43 pm
    Permalink

    I agree with Jen, Mr Woodward. Furthermore, if Israel wants to test a new defense against live missiles, they don’t have to wait too long, the Palestinians are always happy to oblige.
    Also, citing Yousef’s support brings into question your ability to be impartial in matters involving Israel.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Gerry G Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *