On January 6,2003, Tel Aviv was hammered with a devastating suicide bombing attack as a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up just seconds apart in a downtown area crowded with foreign laborers, killing 23 people and injuring 100 more, in the deadliest attack against Israel in 10 months.
Preventive operations
Although there had been no suicide bombings for several months, the Israeli government reported they disrupted more than 150 attempted attacks in one month alone. At the same time, Israeli forces have carried out numerous operations of their own, including the targeted killings of as many as eight Palestinians in a single evening.
On a recent weekend, Israeli officials were inundated with intelligence reports that attacks were on the way. In response, Israeli soldiers combed the area between Jerusalem and Bethlehem lighting the sky with flares and the beams of helicopter searchlights.
Weapon development
The Israeli military recently carried out its first successful test-firing of the Arrow missile defense system against more than one incoming target, Israeli officials said. The test, carried out off Israel’s Mediterranean coast, was devised to simulate an attack by a salvo of missiles resembling Iraqi scuds. The New York Times reported “Israeli officials said they were testing the system in preparation for a possible war against Iraq, which fired 39 scud missiles at Israel during the Persian Gulf war in 1991.”
The Times continued, “Arieh Hertzog, director of Israel’s missile defense program, said in an interview tonight that the Arrow system had performed successfully. The test was largely simulated; it involved the firing of one Arrow missile and three dummy rockets aimed at four computer-simulated targets. The Arrow missiles were fired in rapid succession, just seconds apart, at their simulated targets. ‘It did everything it could have done to intercept those targets,’ Hertzog said. ‘We know how to simulate the real thing.'”
The Arrow missile defense system has been developed and financed jointly by the Americans and the Israelis, and American officials were present during the test. The Arrow is believed to be an improvement on the Patriot, which did not fare well against incoming scud missiles during the gulf war. The Israeli military has already put in place two Arrow missile batteries in the country, and it is rushing to perfect the system.
There is growing concern the Iraqis will launch missiles armed with biological or chemical weapons, especially if Saddam Hussein is cornered.
The 23-foot-long Arrow is designed to intercept missiles at higher altitudes and at greater distances than the Patriot, and with much greater accuracy. Officials say the Arrow should be able to intercept an incoming missile in less than three minutes at altitudes of more than 30 miles.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One