I began writing this article from a shelter in an evacuated kibbutz on with Lebanon, as anti-tank missiles were falling near the road I had just traveled on – and in an adjacent community. The magnificent view of the Mediterranean, the smell of jasmine, and the beauty of the area contrasted sharply with this being a war zone. So began one of many days over the last seven months since October 7 that I spent in the North with combat soldiers, intelligence officers, and ordinary civilians.
This day, Hezbollah again used Russian-made anti-tank missiles to , a war crime to which Israel has yet to develop an effective response as the time to respond is short, and the trajectory of the missiles makes Iron Dome ineffective. A future answer is the laser-based Iron Beam system, which is still in development. Over the past few years, I reached out to Congress to educate them about investing in a laser defense system.
It’s good to see that in a recent American security package, money was allotted for R&D, but more is needed. Back to Israel’s North. Many kibbutzim and communities along the border with Lebanon have been evacuated from the Mediterranean Sea in the West, along the western Galilee border, up the peninsula of the Hula Valley, and farther east towards the Golan Heights.
Cities like , with 22,000 residents, have been evacuated, along with another 75,000 citizens along these border communities who have not been in their homes for over seven months. As the war has heated up,.