By: Lieba Nesis

Does it make you mad that on Sunday April 21st Columbia Chabad Rabbi Elie Buechler told the 1,500 Jewish students, over a quarter of the school, to leave campus since it was no longer a safe place to learn? Or that out of the thousands of anti-Jewish protestors spewing venom on Jewish students for the past 6 months the only two who remain suspended by Columbia through May 2025 are Jews who sprayed harmless fart spray on these protestors? Or that Columbia hasn’t fired one anti-Semitic professor since October 7th?

Or that Governor Hochul fails to call in the National Guard to arrest Columbia students protesting, throwing things and punching Jewish students on campus with more rabid anti-Semites surrounding the gate leading other college campuses to follow suit? Or that President Minouche Shafik doesn’t consider calls for the annihilation of Israel or glorifying the intifada anti-Semitic? Or that after months of Columbia professors praising Hamas’s atrocities the only professor being investigated, according to Shafik, for harassment was the lone Jewish voice fighting back Shai Davidai? Or that Jewish students, who are over a quarter of the campus, are hiding in their dorms, as chants calling for their death reverberate in their beds!

The shocking fact that Columbia and Barnard have closed their campus to non-students, resulting in hour long waits for students to scan ID’s to enter, means the thousands of radical Islamists photographed on campus holding Arab prayers and screaming “Fuck Israel” and praising Hamas martyrs are matriculated students-meaning this problem isn’t going anywhere.

Those outside the gates are even more venomous pushing and assaulting people as the NYPD helplessly watches without any directive from party hopping Mayor-Eric Adams-who talks a good game with slogans like “Never Again is Now” while “never” producing concrete results. Who exactly are the terrorists screaming and assaulting others outside the gates? They are a domestic terrorist group called “Within Our Lifetime” led by head Jew hater Nerdeen Kiswani who flouted her ban from Columbia’s campus for incitement of violence as she was pictured in the past few days lauding Hamas calling for the eradication of Israel and the takeover of universities. While the NYPD on campus is banned by Columbia: Violent Jew hater Nerdeen Kiswani is welcomed with a wedding ceremony.

Witnessing the pathetic testimony on Wednesday of Shafik along with her supercilious, incompetent supporting cast: professor David Schizer and Board of Trustees Co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald was astounding. They admitted within the last six months they had been unable to come up with a definition for anti-Semitism ultimately allowing students to scream “fuck Jews” with no repercussions.

Despite Shafik’s fake British accent her three hour performance-in the words of the Brits-was bloody awful. She lied, obfuscated, hesitated, and was completely overwhelmed by the questioning after preparing for months. When asked if Shafik was hiring more professors to combat the anti-Semitic bent of the Middle East Department or if professor’s views on Israel were being taken into account her repeated response was “no but moving forward” we will.

The phrase “moving forward” by a current president means “I stink at what I do”, “I am totally unprepared for this hearing” and “I have been derelict in all my current duties.” The congressional House committee, led by Virginia Foxx, saw right through her as they relentlessly questioned her failed response to a burgeoning Jew hatred that has become de rigueur in the halls of academia making this horror show readily predictable.

On that fateful Wednesday April 18th a five-day-protest began where unlawful Gaza solidarity encampments littered the campus requiring the NYPD to make over 108 arrests- the first time they have been called to the Columbia campus in over 50 years. All those hate spewing anti-Semites were released hours later after claiming to be emboldened by their ability to shut the campus down and receive nationwide attention. The Keffiyeh clad protestors told Jewish students October 7th would be repeated over 10,000 times while pro-Jewish Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad was punched in the face as anti-Jewish violence becomes commonplace.

The origins of these hearings began December 5th 2023 when Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT failed to answer Rep. Elise Stefanik’s simple question as to whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their code of conduct- ultimately resulting in the removal of both Harvard and U of Penn’s Presidents Claudine Gay and Elizabeth Magill. Minouche Shafik’s absence in December was due to “a scheduling conflict” biding herself a much needed four months to prepare her testimony and implement phony safeguards for Jewish students.

Unfortunately for Shafik, being the sole focus of a three hour inquiry proved detrimental as she revealed she was feckless and uninformed as the beleaguered administrator failed to check if anti-Semitic professor Joseph Massad was still teaching and admitted she was lax in combating anti-Semitism. Acknowledging she prepared hundreds of hours with dozens of lawyers for this inquiry made Shafik’s admissions more reprehensible and attested to her unsuitability for the presidency.

Shafik, newly appointed as of July 2023, manifested at Wednesday’s hearing that the school’s out-of-control pervasively violent anti-Semitism during the past six months is no accident; House members were in concurrence that at best Shafik was clueless and weak as her campus was overrun by Hamas supporters. At worst she is a covert anti-Semite allowing claims of freedom of speech to outweigh Jewish students concerns over personal safety as she fails to close down the campus and throw out unlawful protestors. Since when is 24-hour trespassing and sleeping on University property allowed? The newly signed petition of 100 Jewish students requesting to learn remotely, means the school is no longer safe for alternative pro-Jewish political views and as such Columbia University must close its doors immediately.

Who is Minouche Shafik and how did she become President of Columbia after an unimpressive stint as President of the London School of Economics for 6 years? An acolyte of Bill and Melinda Gates who serves on their foundation Board the 62-year-old Minouche is Egyptian born and counts arabic as one of her first languages. Born in Alexandria to a wealthy landowning family she fled Egypt when she was 4 after the Egyptian government seized her father’s property forcing her family to move to Savannah, Georgia in the mid-1960’s. Despite a recent New York Times profile and dozens of articles written about Minouche her parents names are nowhere to be found and so we are left with the quandary as to why her family remains so enigmatic and what their true identities are. Her parents are referred to as educators on Wikipedia and yet where and what they have taught remain a mystery. Shafik’s prominent position at Columbia University can be attributed to her close connection to Bill and Melinda Gates who have donated more than $70 million to Columbia since 1999.

Over the past nine months Shafik’s tenure at Columbia has been unremarkable-that was until October 7th when Columbia University became Ground Zero for dangerous demonstrations with keffiyeh wearing students overtaking the campus as chants of “fuck the Jews”, “long live the intifada”, “we will honor all the martyrs”, “there is no safe place death to the Zionist state”, “we will distract you in the streets and turn your life into nightmares” have become typical intimidating jargon greeting Jewish students on campus while Shafik remains missing in action.

Since the October 7th massacre where Hamas raped, murdered and beheaded thousands of Israelis a blatantly naked anti-Semitism has emerged resulting in the tearing down of hostage posters depicting infants and teenagers tortured by Hamas. Columbia has become the ultimate hotbed of Jewish hate as pro-Palestinian students who signed an October 9th letter empathizing with Hamas’s “military action” were subsequently backed up by 170 Columbia faculty members on October 30th urging Columbia’s leadership to protect Jew hating students while themselves labeling Israel an apartheid state.

It wasn’t until top Columbia donors such as Leon Cooperman threatened to boycott that Shafik outlawed Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on November 10th after weekly demonstrations on Columbia’s campus supporting Hamas and calling for the violent elimination of the Jewish people and Israel made the campus unlivable. In March, Columbia considered reinstating these dangerous organizations while tacitly permitting them to endure as they held weekly unauthorized demonstrations threatening Jewish students.

Student bodies never exist in a vacuum as dozens of Columbia teachers promulgate and encourage rabid Jew hatred. The most glaring is Joseph Massad a tenured professor of modern Arab politics and history who has been teaching at the Ivy League School for the past 25 years and has called Israel a racist state while praising Hamas’s October 7th attack as “awesome” “astounding” and a “stunning victory for the Palestinian resistance”.

He also chairs the Academic Review Committee and when asked by House Committee Members Tim Walberg and Elise Stefanik if he was still chair Minouche falsely responded no and claimed he was reprimanded while conceding she was unsure if he still teaches. Massad refuted these claims in a written statement to CNN by saying he is not under any Columbia investigation, has never been reprimanded nor removed as chair of the Academic Review Committee. In fact his chair, Gil Hochberg, told Massad she and her Israeli 14-year-old son applauded his descriptive anti-Israel article.

This is just one of many lies told by Shafik who claimed the University had suspended 15 students in relation to antisemitism when in fact according to Chairwoman of the House Committee Virginia Foxx only three students were given interim suspensions between October and March all of which had been lifted. Seeing there are no consequences to pay has made Columbia the ultimate breeding ground for Jew hatred.

Other Jew hating professors include Mohamed Abdou who was brought on as a visiting Columbia scholar for the Spring 2024 semester to teach a weekly class on “Decolonial-Queerness and Abolition” after having posted immediately after October 7th “Yes I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”

When asked by House member Kevin Kiley if he had been fired Shafik could not respond adequately instead saying he had been asked to leave and that she was unsure when but placed it a couple of weeks ago-coincidentally close to the hearing. He has recently been seen on campus participating in “fuck Israel” protests. As a visiting professor he was asked not to come back and never actively fired despite his reprehensible remarks. Shafik waited until April 7th to denounce the horrific “Hamas terrorist attack in Israel” right before the hearings producing snarks from a weary student body.

The list of Shafik’s transgressions are endless: Professor Rashid Khalidi a former PLO spokesman who said in 2016 that the pro-Israel Trump team members had “infested the government” and called Israel a “colonial power engaging in ethnic cleansing and legalized lawlessness” continues to teach. Current Iranian studies and literature professor Hamid Dabashi continues unscathed despite a Facebook post in 2018 calling Israel a “key actor in every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world” and said “these laughing hyenas-the Zionists the Saudis and the US neocons are fucking with the wrong country.” Shafik said none of these professors had been spoken to since there were no complaints against them.

This festering anti-Semitism has gone unchecked for decades as Shafik told representative Kevin Kiley she was unsure if chants of “free Palestine from the River to the Sea” “long live the intifada” or calls for BDS-boycott, divestment and sanctioning-were anti-Semitic. Paradoxically, Columbia’s own Anti-Semitism Task Force established in March refuses to say what anti-Semitism is revealing it encourages pro-Palestinian hate speech.

Despite the threats of violence and intimidation and the storming of classrooms the only students that remain suspended until May 2025 under Shafik are Jewish students who sprayed a harmless fart spray on anti-Israel protestors in January which Israel hating Ilhan Omar, whose net worth is $83 million, incorrectly referred to as a “noxious chemical substance” that required student hospitalization. Predictably, Shafik did not dispute Omar’s faulty characterization. In fact, Omar’s Barnard attending daughter “whom she was enormously proud of” was temporarily suspended at the protests-as the Jew hating apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The only teacher out of the 3700 faculty members to stand up to Columbia’s pro-Hamas bullies is Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School who was quickly thrown under the bus by Minouche who claimed under questioning from Omar that Davidai, who called Minouche a “lying coward”, was being investigated for 50 harassment complaints by students.

As students overrun an already frightening campus anti-Semites such as 77-year-old actress Susan Sarandon and machete carrying ex Cooper Union professor Shellyne Rodriguez run to the Columbia campus to enjoy the Jew hating fun fest. After calling the NYPD after over ten hours of Jew Hating chants on Thursday April 18th because Shafik said “extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary steps” all 108 arrested students were released from custody that evening and the Gaza encampment was moved to the opposite lawn.

The fact that Shafik considered the removal of violent threatening students “an extraordinary step” is noteworthy, as the following day their protests continued unfettered with an escalation in aggression. With only Columbia and Barnard students permitted on campus half hour lines to enter the University continue to make the situation untenable as hate group “Within Our Lifetime” (WOL) berates students outside.

After Columbia University’s successful protests Anti-Israel Non Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) have been emboldened to seize campuses across the USA to force BDS with Yale, Harvard, Brown and Princeton following suit. This unchecked takeover is reminiscent of the 1940’s where hateful rhetoric ultimately led to the death of 6 million Jews. Jewish students are currently being forced out of institutions they helped build. This weekend has become a watershed moment in the takeover of hate speech as Jewish students flags are torched, while Jewish students are pushed and threatened with death-a triumph for Hamas and all its terrorist spewing acolytes.

This is because UNRWA doesn’t revoke refugee status for Palestinian terrorists.

By: Mike Wagenheim

Critics of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, have long noted its unique approach among United Nations agencies in granting perpetual refugee status to Palestinians, while other U.N. agencies seek to resettle those displaced by war or violence.

A JNS investigation reveals another manner in which UNRWA is an apparent aberration at the global body: It does not revoke refugee status of Palestinian terrorists.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees oversees the global body’s services to all refugees worldwide, except for Palestinians, who fall under the purview of UNRWA.

The latter is being investigated following Israeli charges that some of the U.N. agency’s staff participated directly in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel and that a larger number of UNRWA employees are tied to Palestinian terror organizations.

Those involved in acts of terrorism under globally-defined criteria are subject to exclusion from refugee status at UNHCR, which also may exclude refugees who belong to organizations that carry out or incite violence.

JNS sought comment several times from UNRWA and from the office of António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, about whether the agency also excludes terrorists as refugees.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of the nonprofit U.N. Watch, told JNS that for many years, Suhail al-Hindi, a school principal elected to chair UNRWA’s Palestinians’ workers union, was on Hamas’s Gaza politburo with the terror group’s Gaza head Yahya Sinwar.

Al-Hindi was eventually forced out of UNRWA not due to a violation of agency policy, but because UNRWA suffered too much embarrassment, Neuer said.

“They asked him to resign, meaning he’s probably still collecting pension,” Neuer said. “He’s now in Turkey, and he’s regularly quoted endorsing the atrocities of Oct. 7. It’s not only that they don’t deny them aid, but they allow them to serve in leadership capacity.”

“To the extent that UNHCR does have this exclusion clause, with UNRWA it would be the opposite,” Neuer said of the U.N. agencies’ approach to refugee status of terrorists.

JNS sought clarity from the United Nations and UNRWA several times about whether the agency would strip the refugee status of staff members that the U.N. investigation corroborates were involved in or connected to terrorism.

When Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, terminated the contracts of UNRWA staff members whom Israel accused of participating in the Oct. 7 massacre, he said publicly that the reason was “to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance.”

Loose interpretation

People can be excluded from refugee status if they violate the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, per UNHCR’s Resettlement Handbook.

More specifically, those about whom there are “serious reasons” to believe they committed a “crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity” or a “serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge” prior to being admitted to that country as a refugee or who have “been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations,” can be excluded.

Elsewhere in the handbook, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees notes that most acts of violence commonly called “terrorism” qualify, “particularly if they indiscriminately endanger or harm civilians.”

The 1951 convention, which the handbook cites, states that “This convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.”

          (JNS.org)

“In every generation they rise up to destroy us”

By: David Rosenberg – worldisraelnews.com

Israel is preparing to escalate its military campaign against the Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, just weeks after the IDF withdrew most of its ground forces from southern Gaza.

The prime minister issued a video message in Hebrew Sunday, highlighting the upcoming Passover festival, which begins Monday at sundown, and announcing plans for increased military and diplomatic “pressure” on Hamas to return the 133 Israeli captives remaining in Gaza.

“On this night, 133 of our dear brothers and sisters are not around the Seder table, and they are still held hostage by Hamas in hellish conditions,” Netanyahu said.

“We have already freed 124 of our hostages and we are committed to returning them all home – the living and the deceased alike. And why is this night not different?”

“That in every generation they rise up to destroy us, and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from them.”

Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the stalled hostage talks in Cairo, highlighting comments by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accusing the Gaza terror group of not negotiating in good faith.

“Unfortunately, until now, all proposals for releasing the hostages have been rejected outright by Hamas. Therefore, the American Secretary of State rightly said that Hamas has refused every proposal that it has been presented with. In his words, the only thing preventing a hostage release deal is Hamas.”

The Israeli premier compared Hamas to the biblical Pharaoh, and pledged that the IDF would strike “painful blows” to the terror group in the near future.

“Instead of withdrawing from its extreme positions, Hamas is counting on a rift among us. It draws encouragement from the pressure being directed at the Government of Israel.”

“As a result of this, it has only hardened its conditions for the release of our hostages. It is hardening its heart and refusing to let our people go. Therefore, we will strike it with additional painful blows – and this will happen soon.”

“In the coming days, we will increase the military and diplomatic pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve our victory.”

Responding to reports over the weekend that the Biden administration plans to blacklist the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion, Netanyahu said his government would do everything possible to defy the sanctions.

“I will strongly defend the IDF, our army and our fighters. If somebody thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit in the IDF – I will fight this with all my powers.”

“As our soldiers are united in defending us on the battlefield, we are united in defending them in the diplomatic arena.”

           (WorldIsraelNews.com)

The IDF has confirmed that 34 of those taken to Gaza on Oct. 7 are dead, and others are feared to be no longer alive.

By: JNS.org

The Shin Bet denied a report on Sunday by the British Daily Mail that intelligence gathered by Israel’s internal security service is leading to fears that only 40 hostages out of the 133 being held by Hamas in Gaza are alive.

According to the report from the London-based tabloid, a dwindling number of captives have survived after 253 were kidnapped during the Hamas-led rampage across the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.

The report cites the Shin Bet and anonymous sources to make the claim.

“The publication in question is not true and does not represent the opinion of the Shin Bet,” the agency said.

“The numbers mentioned in the article are based on the writer’s opinion only and are not based on information from the Shin Bet.”

The IDF has confirmed that 34 of those taken to Gaza on Oct. 7 are dead, and others are feared to be no longer alive.

A total of 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered and thousands of others were wounded during the attack, which included widespread atrocities.

A truce reached last November saw 105 captives released, with three other hostages freed in military rescue operations and four freed separately.

The bodies of 12 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military.

Negotiations to release the rest of the hostages have been going on for months.

They have been mediated by the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris with the involvement of the Israelis and the Hamas terrorist group and have taken place in Cairo, Doha and Paris.

“Negotiating is a lost cause. We cannot possibly negotiate dead bodies for the release of hundreds or thousands more terrorists,” a security source told the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, Israel’s War Cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the deadlock in hostage release negotiations following the response by Hamas to a U.S. proposal.

The meeting was supposed to take place last week but was postponed due to the Iranian attack on Israel.

The meeting is being held at the behest of Ministers-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot.

JNS also reported on Sunday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should be “ashamed” after he met at his office in Istanbul with Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday, Israel’s foreign minister said.

“Muslim Brotherhood: Rape, massacre, desecration of corpses, burning babies. @RTErdogan, you should be ashamed!” Israel Katz tweeted in Turkish alongside a picture of Erdoğan and Haniyeh shaking hands during their hours-long meeting. He tweeted the same message in Hebrew.

Ankara has given full-throated support to Hamas after its Oct. 7 massacre and during the ensuing war in Gaza.

The NATO member has also started a trade war with Jerusalem over the ongoing war to defeat Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and other governments.

According to Erdoğan’s office, the president, whose party recently suffered a historic defeat in nationwide local elections, urged Palestinians during the meeting to unite for “victory” against the Jewish state.

Also discussed were efforts to achieve a ceasefire and increase the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas still holds more than 100 Israeli hostages in Gaza taken during the Oct. 7 rampage in the northwestern Negev, with many feared to be dead.

(JNS.org)

By: NoCamels Team

The world watched on its screens and Israelis watched live in the skies above them. Almost every single one of the hundreds of drones and missiles that Iran’s fundamentalist regime fired at Israel on Saturday night were intercepted, thanks to Israel’s allies and the innovation for which the country has been renowned for decades.

Israel’s air defenses today are multi-tiered – providing layers of protection that are an overwhelmingly successful answer to the threat from terror groups, enemy states and their proxies in the region.

So how does it work?

Iron Dome (Hebrew: Kipat Barzel)

Perhaps the most famous component of Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome protects against short-range missiles and other airborne attacks, and has been extremely active in the past six months, bringing down airstrikes launched by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

https://twitter.com/StarshipAlves/status/1779270446942138781

Iron Dome batteries are mobile and placed within civilian areas (the “whoosh” of the system deploying can be heard during attacks by those in the vicinity) and activated when an attack begins.

The system, which was first brought into operation in 2011, uses radar to detect a missile attack on Israel, sending to a command center all information about the trajectory and speed of the projectiles that were fired.

The computers in the command center then calculate where the incoming missile is expected to strike, and personnel decide whether to intercept based on the threat to areas that are populated or of strategic importance.

If the missile is predicted to land in an open area, no interception is required. However, if the missile is expected to strike a populated area, the warhead-laden interceptors are launched to neutralize the threat in the air.

The system has a successful interception rate of around 90 percent.

The defense system was developed jointly by the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, with assistance from the United States.

The system reportedly costs around $50,000 per interception from a launcher’s battery of 20, although the complete system (radar, computer and three or four launchers) is believed to run to $100 million apiece.

David’s Sling (Hebrew: Kela David)

This medium-to-long range missile defense system first became operational in 2017, jointly developed by Rafael and the privately owned US defense contractor Raytheon (RTX).

Formerly known as Magic Wand (Sharvit Ksamim), the system is designed to intercept projectiles such as cruise and ballistic missiles as well as drones.

Unlike Iron Dome, the system has no warhead, instead striking its target directly to intercept it. The defense system works in two stages, first identifying and tracking the incoming strike and then targeting it.

The David’s Sling missiles (called stunners) are launched almost vertically and have a steering system at the front and the rear, as well as an onboard radar system and multiple sensors to track the attacking missile. The stunners also use radar on the ground to help guide them.

Each David’s Sling battery consists of 12 stunners. The batteries are stationary, but are believed to be able to defend the entirety of the State of Israel, with a range of 250 km.

Each stunner costs a reported $1 million to produce. Like Iron Dome, its success rate is said to be over 90 percent.

Arrow (Hebrew: Hetz)

The Arrow (versions 2 and 3) anti-ballistic missiles are Israel’s long-range defense mechanism, and considered among the most effective missile defense systems in the world.

Both versions of the Arrow use hypersonic speed (more than five times the speed of sound) – although the Arrow 3 is lighter, allowing it to travel faster and higher and for a longer range.

The Arrow 2 destroys its targets in the upper atmosphere while the Arrow 3 can intercept missiles beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, but both are designed to strike an incoming projectile before it begins to descend.

The Arrow works by identifying, tracking and intercepting long-range missiles by directly colliding with them. The Arrow 2 also uses fragmentation warheads, which splinter as they explode, sending fragments in multiple directions.

The system, which unlike the David’s Sling is mobile and can be launched from the back of a truck, became operational in 2000, and was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries alongside the US Missile Defense Agency.

Each Arrow missile is said to cost $3.5 million.

Iron Beam (Hebrew: Keren Barzel)

An experimental technology that is still officially in development although it is expected to be operational in the near future.

The mobile system consists of two pivoting laser guns, a surveillance system to track the incoming projectile and a control center staffed by personnel who issue commands to the system.

The laser gun creates a high-energy beam that can bring down missiles, mortars and drones at a reported maximum range of 10 km. The laser heats its target to incredibly high temperatures very quickly, rendering it obsolete.

While the system is still not operational, Israel says it will be massively less expensive than the existing costly tiers in Israel’s missile defense system, with unlimited interceptions and requiring less operators and maintenance.

However, its critics say that the system would struggle to function in cloudy weather, and because the beam requires several seconds to heat the target, it would struggle to stay locked on a fast-moving object. Furthermore, a heat-resistant coating could also thwart its effectiveness.

The system was also created by Rafael, and, according to Israel, an interception by Iron Beam would cost just $2, compared to the tens of thousands of dollars spent on each Iron Dome launch.

          (NoCamels.com)