A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

October 19, 2010 Ahmedinejad a Week Later, 15th Anniversary of Rabin Assassination, Update on Arrow

Now that Ahmedinejad has come and gone from Lebanon, it is clear his visit strengthened the perception that it is the Shiites and Hezbollah who control Lebanon. This fact is alarming the Sunni Lebanese more and more. They Sunnis seem to have been behind a supposed threat to attack the Iranian leader when he visited last week. The threat was enough to force Ahmedinejad to fly to the South, instead of riding. He returned from the South directly to the Iranian Consulate, where he did not emerge until he left for the airport the next day. A recording of an interview with Nasrallah done 20 years ago was aired today. In the interview Nasrallah stated that the goal of his movement is to bring Islamic law to all of Lebanon.

Today was the 15th Hebrew anniversary of the assassination of Yitzahk Rabin. Special attention was given this year to try to educate the members of the IDF as to what happened to Rabin. The current new recruits were less than 4 years old when Rabin was assassinated. Needless to say, some right wingers have opposed the education and instead suggested educating about the ills of the Oslo Accords.

The Israeli political right seems to be single handedly trying to destroy Israel’s image. The newest act, an attempt to make it illegal for non-Israelis (read primarily East Jerusalemites, who have not become citizens) to be tour guides. Whether you agree or disagree with the legistlation itself, why they think Israel needs additional bad PR is beyond me.

There was an interesting article in last week's "Aviation and Space Weekly" on Israel's Arrow anti-Missile Defense system. Israel is currently in the final stages of development of the Arrow 3. This system is designed to destroy an enemy missile while its still outside of the atmosphere. The Arrow 3 is an extremely fast interceptor and, so far, it has been successful in tests. It is scheduled to be fully deployed by 2013. Once the Arrow 3 is deployed it will have a chance to intercept incoming missiles. If the Arrow 3 fails, the Arrow 2, with its shorter range, will have two chances to intercept the missile. Israel Defense planners believe that with this two-tiered system the Arrow will be 100% successful in destroying incoming missiles.