Anything else would be unthinkable.īut the very readiness, the cynical scheming to target Iron Dome, of all things, is despicable and unforgivable. Leading Democrats are assuring Israel and Israel’s supporters in the US that the capitulation to the progressive legislators is a short-term setback that will be swiftly reversed. In other words, far from protecting Palestinian civilians, hobbling Iron Dome would probably have the opposite effect.įor some legislators, obsessed by a loathing for a small state in a toxic region, absolutely no avenue is off-limits Without the protection afforded by Iron Dome, it is worth stressing, the Israeli military would likely be forced to resort to greater use of firepower when the homefront comes under rocket attack, in order to limit the duration of conflict and minimize Israeli civilian deaths - likely leading to greater civilian casualties in the terrorists’ home territory. They are opposing Israeli civilians’ right to a shield against murderous terrorism.Īn Iron Dome anti-rocket battery deployed in the northern city of Haifa, August 30, 2013. Those US legislators doing their utmost to deprive Israel of its protection are attempting to abandon Israelis to that deadly fire. It is the vital first line of defense against the war crime of indiscriminate rocket fire directed at civilians.įar from protecting Palestinian civilians, hobbling Iron Dome would likely have the opposite effect It keeps people alive despite terrorists’ best attempts to kill them. This is a military system whose sole purpose and capability is defensive. That Democratic members of Congress today would even wish to prevent, never mind succeed in preventing, the smooth approval of funding for Iron Dome dismally underlines the immorality taking hold in small but now self-evidently potent areas of that party when it comes to Israel.įor seeking to deny funds to Israel for Iron Dome is indeed immoral. US President Joe Biden shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Aug. While simultaneously protesting to a gullible world the Israeli security blockade on Gaza that prevents a more rapid development of its capacity to wreak destruction in Israel, Hamas works feverishly to outwit Iron Dome - altering the range of its rockets, modifying their warheads, attempting to overwhelm the system with multiple launches, and, most recently, by utilizing drones to carry its warheads across the border. In the little more than a decade since the system was first rushed into service, it has stopped thousands of the terror groups’ indiscriminate rocket launches from killing and maiming Israelis, with an intercept rate somewhere between 85 and 90 percent. In excess of 1,400 of them were knocked out of the sky by Iron Dome interceptors. In this past May’s 11-day conflict alone, an estimated 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza were heading directly into Israeli civilian neighborhoods. It would also have condemned Israel to international isolation: A single rocket from Gaza that evaded Iron Dome and fell near Ben Gurion Airport in 2014 prompted most foreign airlines to suspend their flights to Israel. In April, at least 13 Covid-19 patients were killed at a Mumbai clinic, which came just days after another hospital blaze in the city that left 22 dead.Were it not for the astonishing Iron Dome missile defense system, the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group would have been able to reduce Israel’s residential areas to rubble in recent years, rendering much of the country unliveable.
A police investigation blamed a short-circuit in the hospital’s ICU.
But a number of Covid-19 hospitals were hit by fire tragedies.Īt least 16 Covid-19 patients and two nurses were killed in a blaze at a hospital in Gujarat state in May. India’s underfunded public health system was pushed to breaking point by a coronavirus surge in April-May. Maharashtra state chief minister Udhav Thackeray ordered a formal investigation into the blaze and safety conditions at the hospital 250 kilometres (185 miles) from the regional capital Mumbai. The hospital ward, which was left a charred wreck, had been newly built for coronavirus patients. There were about two dozen patients at the intensive care unit in the hospital in Ahmadnagar district, Maharashtra state, when the fire broke out, officials said. The blaze was the latest to hit pandemic wards across India. Mumbai (AFP), Nov 6 – Fire tore through a hospital in western India on Saturday killing at least 11 coronavirus patients, officials said.