Has Lebanon cracked the secrets of Israel’s Iron Dome?

Right, so Israel is in a significant amount of bother in the north as some 1,000 acres of the countryside is currently on fire courtesy of rocket fire they allege having come from southern Lebanon, so, so much for Israel’s Iron Dome defence system bringing such ordnance down then, supposedly 99% effective, yet, these scenes of fires are as a result of the second of two successful strikes on the apartheid state by Lebanese forces, having been engaged in strikes on Israel pretty much since October 7th, standing by the people of Gaza, taking military action much like the Houthis in Yemen have been, as genocide continues to be meted out upon them, even as a new peace plan is being considered and negotiations begin thereon between Israel and Hamas, and those involved as mediators. So have Lebanon found away around Israel’s defence system now and if so, will that change anything or simply result in more innocent people perishing as war widens on another front?
Right, so northern Israel is currently ablaze as some 1,000 acres of land burns due to missile attacks having come from Lebanon, Hezbollah, so does this mean the Iron Dome defence system that Israel are so proud of, that other countries, including this one if you listen to some Tories want has now failed. Well as is usual in these things, there’s no such thing as a yes or no answer.
The northern parts of Israel were evacuated ages ago, it’s an all but unliveable area for Israelis now, as tensions flared up along the border region in response to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and these people haven’t been able to return since. There are varying numbers of people claimed to have been evacuated from the north, displaced further south, the numbers moved are certainly in the tens of thousands, over 100,000 people displaced overall from northern areas, and it looks unlikely they’ll be able to return any time soon.
Now, given Israel has this iron dome defence system, 99% accurate, why on Earth should they have to evacuate? Surely all missiles fired can be intercepted? Well, the fires right now certainly imply otherwise, I suppose the iron dome is simply more effective the more time there is to respond, less effective the closer to borders with aggressors perhaps? That would certainly be one of looking at it, we’ll come back to iron dome effectiveness in a moment though, because although this is how I as someone observing this situation might assess that to be a perfectly logical reason to evacuate people, based on effectiveness, that isn’t what Israel apparently claim. No, they claim by evacuating people in the north, a claim at least being made last October by Mr Pointy, Daniel Hagari, you all know him by now, loves to point at stuff and tell a pack of lies about what it is, this is all about clearing the area so that the IDF can have more operational freedom and expand to deal with Hezbollah.
Well they haven’t been able to, to any particular degree to any difference making extent and now three incidents which have led to these fires, all within the last few days actually imply that Lebanon may well have the measure of the iron dome and have found a way to get around it, even set about bringing it down in certain areas.
The first of these strikes we knew about came over the weekend, Sunday, where for the first time, a Lebanese drone reached Nahariya, a Mediterranean coastal town in northern Israel about 7km from the Lebanon border, without the iron dome intercepting it. It wasn’t clear at the time if this was more by luck or judgement, but interception attempts by other means of this drone that crashed in a park there, by accident or design, failed, raising questions as to how it got through and got that far.
The attacks the following day however, Monday, are the ones that caused the fires.
These attacks took place in a different part of the north, within and to the west of the Occupied Syrian Territory of the Golan Heights and this time the attacks from Lebanon look a lot more intentional and the success of the strikes, combined with very dry weather conditions are causing the fires to spread, but again, the question needs asking as to how the Lebanese are once again getting past the iron dome defence system to land these strikes to begin with, because it is very much looking like that defence system is not living up to its hype right now.
Part of this is that we know the iron dome defence system is not running at 100% in the north of Israel, since Hezbollah managed to destroy two of the iron dome batteries last December, so there is that. At $50m apiece, these batteries are not cheap and materials to repair them, as well as replacement missiles and components are becoming more scarce the longer the atrocities in Gaza continue, because it means Israel is being spread more thinly, the iron dome also having to intercept ordnance being fired by Hamas. So one explanation is that the iron dome is simply becoming overstretched and all the more so, the more of it’s batteries get taken out. Have more been taken out in these latest attacks? Well it’s been reported that an air defence radar system, guidance for the iron dome, has been taken out in the Golan Heights and was done so on the cheap, Houthis style, with so-called kamikaze drones, just fly one of these relatively cheap unmanned aircraft into stuff to destroy it. They also get used to locate these batteries and radar systems, since all they have to do is fly a load of these things into Israel and see where the iron dome defence response comes from to pinpoint targets for an attempt at destroying them and although that might not happen often, it’s now happening more often, the more the iron dome defence system, little by little gets chipped away at. This has been the entire purpose of the Hezbollah attacks since last October when Israel went into Gaza. Whilst Israel wants to focus on the south and the Gaza Strip, they are being forced to constantly look north as well, as Lebanon attack them on that front, it’s divide and conquer if you like.
Things have got to the point, where Israel are now having to make a decision about what they are going to do about Lebanon constantly committing these skirmish attacks, to disrupt the IDF’s aims in Gaza and whether a full on offensive against Lebanon is what they want to do, because I should imagine they’d want to think twice.
When it comes to warfare, the only military force to have ever defeated Israel is Hezbollah, having driven Israel back in 2006, when Israel attempted to invade Lebanon again. Unlike Hamas, who are of course also Iran backed, let’s never forget that, the mainstream media certainly never will, Hezbollah are actually part of the Lebanese government and are certainly not occupied so Iranian backing of all kinds is much more readily available than it would be to Hamas, it means they are much more powerful and have ably demonstrated that. The fact Israel, whilst still engaging in atrocity in Gaza is now considering going to war with Lebanon again, rather than end the Gaza siege, just shows how mad they are, but when you’ve seemingly got an open ended tab to US money and military aid, perhaps you do just get that big headed and cocky, but the priority ought to be surely all the tens of thousands of people who have been rendered homeless in the north?
So what will happen in which case? Well last night Israel chose to again break international law and use white phosphorus on Southern Lebanon, illegal to use in populated areas, yet it was shelled down upon 5 towns and villages, which upon contact it can set buildings on fire and burn flesh down to the bone, these incidents having been reported by Human Rights Watch. Fortunately, the Lebanese Health Ministry has stated nobody has been seriously hurt, though 173 people have been treated for respiratory problems upon exposure to the fumes.
Again, this is just one more problem Israel is making for itself, by continuing it’s genocide in Gaza, is to make more enemies and end up engaging in more war on more fronts and in line with that, matters should worsen yet still for them, because as much as they might be mulling over going to war against Lebanon again, Egypt are at the end of their patience with them in the south as well, especially in light of the IDF having seized control of the entire Egypt Gaza border in violation of 45 year old peace accords, including the Rafah Crossing with no real sign of Israel being prepared to relinquish that control, so just how many battles does Israel think it can take on at once and how well will that iron dome hold up to that? You can get all the details of that story on this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.