Defensive yield

While it’s often thought that the best defense is a good offense, sometimes in war theory and diplomacy the inverse is more apt: the best offense is a good defense. What a good defensive offense is, though, isn’t quite settled. Does it mean smashing your enemy’s weapons before they can be used to devastating effect against you? Or does defense mean taking away your enemy’s reason for being an enemy? Do you take away guns or hand out more butter?

The latter two choices are front and center in the Hebrew press Monday morning, with stories heralding the deployment of the David’s Sling medium-range anti-missile system, the last piece in Israel’s air defense array puzzle, as well as a report on a plan for a series of goodwill gestures toward the Palestinians, at the urging of US President Donald Trump.

Both tabloids Israel Hayom and Yedioth Ahronoth lead off with the David’s Sling system, their breathless coverage echoing the jingoistic statements that came out of the ceremony held as the battery was declared operational.

“I feel great pride, along with the staff that worked with me,” Yedioth quotes the head of the project to develop the missile shield, who cannot be named, alongside a nifty explanation of how the system will work (spoiler alert: it tracks missiles and shoots them down).

“After 11 years of working on the technology, we take great pleasure in seeing the system enter operational deployment, and now we wait until the moment it shoots down its first threatening target, and at the same time hope it never needs to do so.”

Israel Hayom echoes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that the system’s deployment marked “a holiday for Israel,” and places it in the context of Israel’s larger missile defense array, noting that Friday will mark six years since Iron Dome shot down its first short-range rocket.

“Since Iron Dome was deployed by the air force six years ago, its capabilities have improved significantly, and today it can intercept rockets at far longer ranges,” the paper writes, ignoring the fact that short-range missile defense is often the larger challenge. “At the same time, in recent years the capabilities of the Arrow system have also been upgraded, and today it can intercept medium-range rockets and missiles. As a result, the three air defense systems overlap, what air defense official call an ‘integrative’ approach, which sometimes allows three different solutions for one target and increased intercepting opportunities.”

Count on dour broadsheet Haaretz to bring a much-needed dose of reality to all the merrymaking, with columnist Amos Harel noting that the system sends a message to Israel’s enemies, but they will likely respond by attempting to circumvent the system.

“Israel’s solution to the missile threat still isn’t anywhere near perfect, and most likely never will be. The problem is first and foremost economic: The enormous price tag on the interceptor missiles (up to $100,000 for Iron Dome and $3 million for the Arrow) means these systems can’t be used without regard to cost,” he writes. “The calculation is simple. Hezbollah has around 100,000 rockets and missiles, while Hamas has several thousand more. Thus in wartime, the enemy will try to inundate Israel’s interception systems. That will also force the defense establishment to switch to a risk management policy to ensure that it doesn’t run out of interceptor missiles.”

While missile defense might work to some degree against some enemies, like Iran, for those that Israel wants to make peace with, like the Palestinians, all the David’s Slings in the world won’t help matters. Haaretz’s front page reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu briefed ministers on steps to sling some goodwill gestures Ramallah’s way.

“Netanyahu said he intends to agree to the American demands for additional goodwill steps in the West Bank and Gaza, with the potential for an immediate uptick for the Palestinian economy. He did not provide details about what moves would be taken, but a number of the ministers present understood that one possible step would include granting the Palestinians permission to build in Area C (some 60 percent of the West Bank, under full Israeli civil and security control),” the paper reports.

At the same time, Yedioth reports that Israel is wary of giving out too many economic goodies to the Palestinians, worried that money will end up in the hands of terrorists and their families who paid a salary by the PLO whose size depends on their sentence. A new law being proposed, the tabloid reports, will have Israel deduct the amount of money funneled to terrorists from the tax receipts it transfers to the PA.

Echoing the “give a little, take a little” mentality, columnist Ben Dror Yemini starts off his op-ed in Yedioth by saying the chances for Israeli and the Palestinians reaching a deal are pretty much nil, especially given PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s insistence on the right of return for Palestinian refugees, but ends on a more hopeful note.

“It’s doubtful whether Trump or the Arab states can budge the Palestinians from their position. It’s doubtful whether the Arab states will publicly declare recognition of Israel as a Jewish state or retreat from the demand for return. But it’s possible to put together an outline agreement by Israel, the US and the Arab states. In practice, the first part of the draft is already underway: the freezing of building outside existing settlements. You don’t need much more than that to prevent the creeping disaster of a one-state reality. We can take more steps that will allow West Bank cities to economically prosper,” he writes. “The chances of a peace deal, it must be repeated, are near nil, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing that can be done, that we can’t make achievements toward a regional agreement, that everything needs to stay as it is now. The first step is underway, and if that’s agreed upon and happening — there’s more that can happen. Inshallah.”