Israel shields vaunted Iron Dome air defense system from Ukraine

LONDON: Ukraine is unlikely to receive one of the world’s most effective air defense systems even as Russia subjects it to a daily barrage of missiles, according to The Washington Post.
Israel’s Iron Dome air defense, which boasts a 90 percent success rate against incoming rockets, will stay out of Ukraine’s reach, experts said, as Jerusalem seeks to maintain strategic relations with Russia in Syria and other hot spots.
“Israel has great experience with air defense and Iron Dome, and we need exactly the same system in our city,” said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. “We have been talking with them a long time about it. Those discussions have not been successful.”
Iron Dome uses radar-directed interceptors to blow hostile projectiles from the sky. Israel depends on it to shield civilians from rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip, with striking success.
Iron Dome is not designed to intercept the type of large, guided missile used in most of the barrages that killed at least 20 people in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and other cities on Monday, according to military experts in Israel and Washington.
But Ukrainians say the network could help to protect residents from Grad and other smaller rockets that have destroyed apartment buildings, shopping centers and train stations along the shifting front.
“It will definitely be helpful because the Russians also send the drones, they send different kinds of rockets,” Klitchko said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Tuesday that Moscow was deploying almost 2,500 attack drones bought from Iran.
“Air defense is currently the No. 1 priority in our defense cooperation,” Zelensky said in a tweet.
Israel’s reluctance to change its stance on Iron Dome has drawn the ire of Ukrainian officials, including its ambassador to Israel and, repeatedly, Zelensky.
“Everybody knows that your missile defense systems are the best,” Zelensky said while pleading with the Israeli parliament for aid in the spring.
“I don’t know what happened to Israel,” he said in an interview with French TV5 channel on Sept. 23. “I am in shock, because I don’t understand why they couldn’t give us air defenses.”
Most analysts say the decision is driven by a perception that Israel cannot arm Ukraine directly without shattering its strategic cooperation with Russia in Syria and other trouble spots that are a top priority for Israel.
“It’s just fear of Putin,” said Yossi Melman, a longtime intelligence analyst and commentator who has denounced Israel’s refusal to provide Iron Dome and other material aid as “morally oblivious.”
“It’s a shame,” Melman said. “We preach to the world about humanity, and right and wrong, but when it comes to our international positions it’s only our narrowest security concerns that are considered.”
Israel has come under fire for its response to Russia’s invasion from the beginning, when then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stood aside from the global condemnation showering down on Putin and, instead, put himself forward, briefly, as a neutral mediator.
Israel has recently become more critical of Russian actions, particularly since Prime Minister Yair Lapid assumed the top job.
“I strongly condemn the Russian attacks on the civilian population in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine,” Lapid tweeted after Monday’s attacks. “I send our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and the Ukrainian people.”