Israel’s High-Tech Wall Protecting It from Terror Tunnels

In its 2014 war against Israel, Hamas attempted to attack Israeli civilians through tunnels it had carefully dug in advance. But now the IDF has put into a place a sophisticated barrier to prevent such subterranean assaults. Jacob Nagel and Jonathan Schanzer describe this innovative piece of military technology:

The new border fence has three levels: a deep underground layer, an upper-fence physical layer, and an upper high-tech layer that includes detection devices like robots, drones, unmanned ground vehicles, and more. They are all equipped with visual, electronic, and intelligence equipment and powered by artificial intelligence. And they all operate through command-and-control bases along the barrier.

The underground layer includes a high-tech cement wall extending “tens of meters” beneath the ground (the exact depth is not public knowledge). It is equipped with a multidimensional sensor net to detect any activity near, at, or under the barrier. The barrier even stretches into the Mediterranean Sea to stymie Hamas naval commandos from penetrating Israel, as occurred at Zikim Beach during the 2014 conflict.

These fences have prevented unlawful entry and violence, but they are not without controversy. . . . Some in the IDF believe the construction of expensive and high-tech fences sends a message of weakness or a defensive posture. They argue that effective fences might prevent political leaders from taking decisive action during conflict, particularly if they feel the barrier might shield the country from a wider conflagration. [But others] argue that advanced fences give political leaders flexibility to decide exactly when and how to launch a military response to provocations.

Read more at RealClear Defense

More about: Hamas, IDF, Israeli Security, Israeli technology

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society