Is AOC's deplorable Iron Dome move a shift for the Democrats? - opinion

• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Author: EPHRAIM SNEH
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

This move followed Ocasio-Cortez's introduction last week of an amendment to the US defense budget bill which would suspend the transfer of $735 million worth of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) to Israel. JDAMs are kits that convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions.

Practically, even if the JDAM amendment is approved, it has no significance. Israel has precise air-to-ground munitions, produced by its own defense industry (Rafael's SPICE, Elbit's Rampage and more). These weapons, with all modesty, are not inferior to JDAM. If needed, we'll manage without JDAM, not only in Gaza.

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Morally, the basis for this amendment is dubious. The reason for AOC's move, she explained in a tweet, was "over the bombing of Palestinian civilians [and] media centers" in Gaza by the Israel Air Force.

She submitted it in the same week that the Pentagon admitted that 10 Afghani civilians were killed by a US drone. They had been mistakenly identified as a terrorist group. When terrorists are targeted, to our grave sorrow, innocent civilians can be killed and wounded. It can happen even when Americans are doing the bombing. The IDF makes an enormous, unparalleled effort to minimize damage to innocent civilians in air attacks. I personally am familiar with these efforts.

In our region, terrorists deploy stockpiles of missiles and their launchers in the middle of civilian population, near schools and hospitals (in Gaza), and in the basements of private homes (in Lebanon). Among other measures, before bombardment the IDF sends phone messages, warning inhabitants of buildings that host terrorist facilities and weapons. This happened before the flattening of the communications tower in Gaza that Ocasio-Cortez apparently referred to in her tweet. It housed the offices of the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, and the electronic warfare facility of Hamas, which is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US. Not a single civilian was wounded in this bombing.

During last May's military conflict between the IDF and Hamas, which controls Gaza, about 5,000 missiles, rockets and mortar bombs were launched toward Israeli towns and villages. No sovereign state can accept this. Does Ocasio-Cortez expect us to avoid targeting launchers of Hamas and Islamic Jihad deployed along our border?

The severe implication of the proposed JDAM...