One of the major news items surrounding this week’s scheduled visit to Jerusalem by US President George W. Bush is the possibility of Israel obtaining the “Forward-based X-band Radar” system, a system that incorporates high-powered pulse beams to track objects in space. According to specifications, amazing as it may seem, the radar system can track a baseball that is 4,700 kilometers (2,820 miles) away, a reality that would permit Israel to track Iranian missiles far from their objective.
The system can be transported by air and it would permit intercepting an Iranian missile about halfway in flight, understanding that a Shihab-3 ballistic missile traveling from Iran to Israel would take approximately 11 minutes, military officials report.
Of course the US president is not that benevolent and he is demanding much in return, namely a signed peace agreement, something to show the Americans for his efforts in the Mideast and to district the American voters from the complicated situation in Iraq. Such an agreement would demand major concessions by Israel, with Olmert telling Newsweek he remains determined to close a deal with the Palestinian Authority by year’s end.
Once again, a window of opportunity, perhaps the last in the foreseeable future concerning the release of Jonathan Pollard is being ignored. Bush, an outgoing second-term president is more likely to pardon Pollard that any of the incoming candidates but nevertheless, Olmert has never hidden is lack of interest in the Pollard affair, with many accusing him of actually sabotaging such efforts, preferring that Pollard, an Israeli agent, remain in the US federal prison, as was the case with his predecessor, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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9 Responses
The technical specifications for the X-band radar presented in this article are not correct.
Israel already has a flying L-band system (Phalcon) which it attempted to sell to the Chinese, but withdrew after the US protested. It also has an operational ground based L-band system (Green Pine), used in conjunction with the Arrow missile system, as well as other L-Band systems (Meradir and Music) in the same family for other applications.
Israel is constantly begging the US for its latest technology, mostly because it wants it, not necessarily because it needs it. If it were up to me, I’d deny the request, for a lot of reasons.
Of course, all this is b’derech ha’tevah. Israel still doesn’t get it…
I’d like to know why the frum world isn’t doing more about the Pollard case. He has been incarcerated for 22 years and I think it’s high time stronger action is taken. We all have the mitzvah of pidyon shvuyim and should be extremely concerned with Pollard’s ill health and poor treatment, not to mention the injustice on the part of the U.S. government.
Where are the Gedolim on this?
Hevre, clearly there is more to the Pollard story then we know. He is being kept in prison for some reason that may become public in 50 years.
Humor:
If it were not for the seriousness of the condition of Jonathan Pollard and the long overdue Mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim, I would call the Bush-Olmert meeting a re-enactment of Megilas Esther. We have a Melech Tipaish (then Achashveirosh, now Bush; or is it Busha) meeting a soon-to-be-convicted prime minister (then Haman, now Olmert).
BTW the Geolim have called for the people to put diplomatic pressure for the release of Johnathon.
Charlie:
(a) Gedolei Yisrael have declared this case to be Pidyon Shvuyim.
(b) The U.S. may be a “free” country (in terms of religious freedom), but as has been documented repeatedly, this prison sentence is way out-of-line with those in other similar cases.
(c) Please do not be naive. Anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews are still common here, especially in this case.
OH GOSH
We have been through the entire Pollard episode a hundred times,, secrets, lashon horah, silence, … the guy is deserving and waiting for a pardon. The parole issue has also been rehashed, the Israeli govt has never requested his pardon, and you can be sure much will have to be paid for the freedom that he deserves.
Pashuteh Yid (di bist nish azoy pushit): I agree with you, and that was not the error in the article I was referring to (can’t comment more).
IMOD made a conscious decision regarding L versus X for the Green Pine family. They were aware of the difference in resolution due to wavelength, but opted for better performance in scintillation (v’hameivin yavin) and lower cost, versus X-band. And, BTW, they had an architecture using interferometric phased arrays (in L-band), which got pretty good resolution.
However, now that they think they can get X-band for no money, they’re asking for it. The US has invested too much in TMD-GBR and GBX to give the technology to Israel, even for the alleged “payment” asked for (which I highly doubt).
I agree with shazam. He has a valid point. They were aware of the difference in resolution due to wavelength, but opted for better performance in scintillation and lower cost, versus X-band.