IAW Day 713

The Israel Defense Force (IDF), unlike in the past must go in full force to take Gaza City as we’re told in an article from World Israel News:

As Israel Defense Forces tanks and infantry push into Gaza City, the question that matters most is what happens after Israel takes operational control of the city. Half-measures have plagued Israel’s various Gaza campaigns for decades. The desire to stop Hamas mixed with the impulse to avoid condemnation or regional instability led to policy fits and starts.

Israel has done this before and it led to the October 7th massacre:

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and, even after “mowing the grass” in a series of counter-terrorism operations, it withdrew and enabled Hamas time to build, rearm, and return to the fight. Israel cannot afford to repeat these mistakes. It should lean on operational planning concepts to ensure long-term victory. Securing the Gaza City objective is only the beginning.

Action points are needed:

Commanders must plan “Actions on the Objective,” steps necessary to lock in gains, maintain momentum, and prevent the enemy from reconstituting. Accordingly, once Israel controls Gaza City, it must finish the job completely. This requires full control of Gaza that lasts indefinitely.

That last sentence is sure to spark controversy even in Israel, but I agree that this must be done. And voluntary evacuation of those in the area must be done as well. And once they’re out, those who remain must be vetted to make sure they are not in league with Hamas. The area must be controlled by Israel or Hamas will just rise up again. Defeating Hamas will also have regional and global effects:

To finish the mission in Gaza both ensures Israel eliminates Hamas and that it sends a message to every Islamist adversary: Any group that attacks Israel will guarantee its own destruction. By executing a plan to resolve the Gaza situation definitively, Israel puts the region on notice. By forcing neighboring states and peoples to accept that Israel is not going anywhere, that its military strength is unmatched in the region, and that is has full U.S. support, can create the strategic space necessary to move towards the next phase of regional cooperation.

Israel has the most pro-Israel US president ever and they need to take full advantage of that. As Hamas gets closer to being defeated the pressure from the international community will heat up to a fever pitch. Lies about genocide will proliferate even more but Israel can’t let up:

Arguments against decisive victory are arguments for endless conflict. It is an argument for suffering without resolution…Half-measures lead to quagmires. They allow adversaries to survive battlefield losses and persist. Terrorist groups are adept at absorbing these temporary blows and carrying on their cause. The cycle of war will continue. The only option for peace is to seize the objective and hold it, until the cause is defeated.

Those who only see this war through a Western mindset will never understand what Israel is up against and how the conflict must end. Surrender isn’t in the terrorist dictionary. Martyrdom is. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels must be totally obliterated from stem to stern.

The Iron Beam

Israel is known for their cutting edge military technology and we learn that yet another one will be fully operational very soon as we read in a report from the Jewish News Syndicate:

Israel has developed the world’s first operational laser interceptor, having completed a series of successful trials of the Iron Beam high-power laser system in a facility in southern Israel, the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Rafael defense technology firm announced on Wednesday.

“The system proved its effectiveness in a complete operational configuration by intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios,” the two bodies said in a joint statement.

The name will change, although we’ll probably still call it the Iron Beam:

The Iron Beam—to be renamed “Ohr Eitan” (“Eitan’s Light”) after Eitan Oster, who fell in battle in Lebanon and whose father was one of its developers—is set to be integrated into the Israel Defense Forces air defense arrays by the end of this year.

It will join other defense systems in use and show that Israel leads the world in air defense:

A global technological and engineering breakthrough, the laser system is expected to be utilized as a complementary capability to Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow air defense systems.

“Achieving operational laser interception capability places the State of Israel at the forefront of global military technology and makes Israel the first nation to possess this capability,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz remarked.

“This is not only a moment of national pride, but a historic milestone for our defense envelope: rapid, precise interception at marginal cost that joins our existing defense systems and changes the threat equation… Our enemies from Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, and other arenas should know: just as we are strong in defense, we are strong in offense—and we will do everything to protect the security of Israeli citizens,” he added.

A Real Game Changer

The IDF has used laser systems already, this one ups the ante in many ways, even with costs:

Israel had successfully operated short-range laser systems against hostile drones in the past year, but the new Iron Beam system has a longer range that can also track and destroy rockets, mortars and aircraft—at a fraction of the cost of ground-to-air missiles.

The Iron Beam was developed by the R&D Unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense, the Directorate of Defense Research & Development, the Israeli Air Force and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Rafael’s leader says the Iron Beam will change how wars are fought in the future:

During an address last month at a Tel Aviv University event about the lessons of the 12-day war with Iran, Rafael chairman Yuval Steinitz said that the progress in laser technology would induce a “total change in the entire history of war as we have known it until today.”

He noted that others have tried to create a laser defense system:

The former strategic affairs minister said that after 60 years in which all the world powers, led by the United States and including Israel, tried to create laser weapons and failed, “there was a breakthrough at Rafael five years ago that allowed us to create the world’s first effective laser weapon.”

Steinitz said that only one such unit already helped in recent offensives:

“In the last war, both in Lebanon and in the 12 days [of fighting] against Iran, a single laser device—the smallest of our devices—shot down dozens of drones, with exceptional success rates,” he went on to say.

The target month is coming quickly:

The rollout of the Iron Beam is slated for November, Steinitz continued, and will provide Israel a much better protection against short- and medium-range rockets.

And then he made some rather bold predictions:

He further estimated that in about four to five years the laser system will be able to deal with long-range missiles.

“When we get there, the laser revolution will be so significant. Until now, throughout the history of armies—from ancient Greece or ancient Egypt to our days—we used projectiles, physical objects: we shot arrows, threw spears; today we drop bombs, shells, missiles. These are tangible, hard things—bullets flying through the air that hit a target. With a laser we kill the target essentially by a beam of light, by light rays that travel at 185,000 miles per second,” said Steinitz.

He then made this big prediction:

The Rafael chairman projected that in five to 10 years “nothing hostile will fly in the air—no aircraft, no drones, no cruise missiles, no shells, no bombs—because the laser will completely clear the air of anything detected, anything seen.”

Time will tell if he is right, but for now we see how God is working to protect His chosen people, the apple of His eye. As we pray for the peace of Israel we need to continue to lift even the defense systems that Israel creates.