Will progressives succeed in keeping the Israeli “Iron Dome” anti-missile system de-funded? Reading about all of the political opposition they’ve inspired, ehh, hard to say. But good on them for trying!
Back in the 80s, I did a paper on missile defense and found it to be utterly worthless. Pretty much just a money pit. With the Israeli anti-missile system as used both against Iraq’s missiles in the 90s and against the much smaller rockets that Palestinians have used, the Israeli anti-missile system has a much better chance of actually intercepting its targets.
I noticed that no one gives figures for how many Palestinian rockets have actually been knocked down, but I’m reasonably sure some were hit. The Jerusalem Post blames the former Prime Minister Netanyahu for politicizing the relationship between Israel and the US. It is certainly true that Netanyahu very explicitly took the side of Republicans, but Israel’s actions towards Palestinians have been quite brutal. Amnesty International refers to “ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION: 50 YEARS OF DISPOSSESSION,” so it’s unfair to blame Netanyahu entirely.
Update: ADL supports Iron Dome.
Update: The final vote was only 9 votes vs everybody else to defund Iron Dome, but that’s better than any vote prior to this.
