Israel Iron Dome system not that great - Paul Larudee

Press TV has interviewed Paul Larudee, Free Palestine Movement from Berkeley, to discuss the Israeli regime’s deployment of a US-made Patriot missile battery in southern occupied Palestinian territories.

Press TV: How could we possibly interpret this missile installation?

Larudee: It’s really a matter of speculation on our part. There’s no obvious correlation with anything, but there are a few things we can learn.

First of all, they have deployed the US Patriot missiles even though they have the Iron Dome system in and around Eilat. What that says is how effective really is the Iron Dome Israeli missile system if they have to bring out Patriots in order to cover it. The Iron Dome system has worked recently well, not perfectly, against fairly primitive rockets from Gaza but that’s it. It means that the Iron Dome system is not that great.

The other thing we can speculate on is that perhaps they have some intelligence on some kind of perceived threats that they have in the region such as, for example, the Hezbollah drone that came across Gaza a few months ago, and perhaps they’re expecting a Russian, or Syrian or even another Hezbollah drone to come across. Maybe that’s what they’re after there. It’s really hard to interpret this.

The timing may be in part because of the editorial of Kamel Abu Jaber, the Foreign Minister of Jordan, in the Jordan Times. They’re considered to be very anti-Israeli. And I suppose it was in a very real sense, but it was very critical of Israel.

Another thing is of course the Nakba celebration or I should say commemoration in the West Bank and in Palestinian areas and in Gaza as well. Maybe this is just kind of saber rattling with respect to that. Those are the things that come to mind.

Press TV: What do Israeli people think about the military aggression their government is implementing against the Palestinians?

Larudee: Well, we have to think that they approve of it. They have voted in favor of it time and time again, which is not to say that a lot of the Israeli people are perhaps also brainwashed.

Their government has a very effective propaganda system and denies them full information. But nevertheless in what’s called a democracy at least, we expect the people to take responsibility for the government that they lack.

Unfortunately, the Israeli people, for whatever reason, even if they are brainwashed, they are approving of the policies against the Palestinians.