Iron Dome (2020): Season 1, Episode 2 - Episode #1.2 - full transcript
The first rocket landed in Sderot
back in 2001
but it caused no damage
and nobody but Mayor Eli Moyal cared.
Imagine a town of 20-something-thousand
inhabitants,
in the middle of nowhere,
and a shell lands
without warni
Then, three years later,
the boy Afik Ohaion was killed
and everyone realized
there was a real danger here.
eyes were closed
but I saw him.
He died for no reason.
It infuriated me
that there was no solution.
But I was convinced
we could meet the task.
Danny Gold of the Defense Ministry
tried to advance the Iron Dome project
with all his might.
I went upstairs to get permission
and ran into all sorts of hierarchies.
Basically, they said no.
No one thought it was possible.
But just then, in 2006,
Amir Peretz was appointed
Defense Minister, surprisingly,
and was forced to see how,
in the Second Lebanon War,
not only Sderot
was blasted by rockets,
half of Israel was.
In wartime you can't think,
only fight.
In August 2006,
after the Second Lebanon War,
peace returned to Israel,
then people started to wonder.
What didn't we do?
Where did we go wrong?
How did we reach a point where
thousands of rockets are landing everywhere?
And the IDF has no answer.
My main realization was
that I had to have one eye
on what was happening
in Marj Ayoun,
in Bint Jbeil, in Ayta ash Shab,
in the villages where our soldiers
were fighting courageously,
and one eye on what was
happening in Haifa,
at the train station
where eight workers were killed,
or in Nahariya, where a woman
was wounded just sitting on her porch.
My attention as the Defense Minister
was divided.
Unlike the respite after the war in the north,
combat in the south never stopped.
The IDF was constantly battling
Hamas forces in Gaza.
Alongside large armored
and engineering corps units,
they entered Beit Hanoun at night.
We'll move in, do our best,
we won't lose a single man,
we'll f*** them up, it'll be fine.
We don't have to f*** them up
but we have to kill the terrorists.
In a series of incidents in Gaza,
the Palestinians report five dead,
a total of 55
since the operation began,
and today, too, the IDF continued
a series of assassinations from the air.
The rockets are fired in response
to Israeli acts.
You feel a need to show
that you're hurting us
and we're hurting you, too.
In a barrage fired at Sderot
from Beit Hanoun last night,
two citizens were mildly wounded
when the rocket landed in a private yard.
This is why Peretz,
besides his support
of the troops in southern Gaza,
states the following:
We must act
to the proper extent,
at the proper time,
and I'm sure that's what we'll do.
Amir continued to run the war
from the army base in Tel Aviv,
but at night he returned home
to Sderot.
Jabari, commander of the military arm
of Hamas, saw fhiiis as an oppsrtilinity.
He tried to hit one particular target
in Sderot.
Hamas rocket operations unit
We target rockets on Israeli cities
such as Sderot,
but we focus on military bases,
not on civilians.
Naturally, my house was
the most common target.
For Hamas, striking my house
was a strategic decision.
A picture of the Israeli
defense minister's house
being hit by a Hamas missile
would be a great victory
for them.
Red alert, red alert.
Red alert, red alert.
Red alert.
Six Qassam missiles
were fired at Sderot this morning
at intervals of a few minutes.
One day a missile landed
a few meters from my house.
A neighbor from the next street
who happened to be there
was killed
and my bodyguard,
who was patrolling at the time...
both his legs were blown off.
Fatima Slutzker, who immigrated to Israel
with her husband three years ago,
left a husband and two children.
Fatima, who was buried this afternoon
in the Sderot cemetery,
is the city's sixth Qassam victim.
Good evening. We begin with
rare footage of a Qassam strike
caught on-camera in real time.
The red alert sounded
at 8:30 this morning.
Factory workers knew it could be
a matter of seconds.
They ran straight to the fairly secure
refrigeration room.
Watch the center of the screen.
Factory worker Yaakov Yaakobov
will enter the frame
just as the missile strikes.
Yaakov Yaakobov was buried
in the Sderot cemetery this afternoon.
He left a wife
and four children.
I want you to know
that your father is a hero
of both Sderot and
the State of Israel
and we won't pass over his death
as if nothing happened.
I don't think you did
anything to prevent it.
And my heart is broken.
I have nothing else to say.
You can't remain indifferent.
You suddenly realize
that this way of life must change.
And I said: Dear friends
we must not accept it
as axiomatic
that we can't cope with
short-range missiles.
I demand that this be
the main focus of our effort.
Defense Minister Peretz understood
deeply that a solution was needed.
The question is, how long would it take
until things started moving
And how many casualties
would thieve be until then?
The IDF commanders
dismissed Peretz.
True, he was authorized to make
decisions, but he was only a citizen
and they waged the battles
so they taught him
which decisions to make.
There isn't enough money
for everything.
You have to decide
what your priorities are and aren't
and the question is whether you
invest in defensive means
or offensive means.
The political systen?T
the public system
and the military system
refused to be persuaded.
They refused to be persuaded.
I thought it made more sense
to carry on as usual
and use different equipment.
The Defense Minister thought otherwise,
which is perfectly legitimate,
and the subject was discussed.
At a certain point.
I went to the'Prime Mnistejr.
We had a very meaningful meeting.
There were representatives
from the Defense Ministry fan'd the IDF,
and everyone agreed:
"The Defense Minister
wants to do this project
but we must say we'd rather
focus on other projects."
At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister
told me he didn't intend to stop me
but at that point he had no intention
of allotting money for the project.
Peretz didn't give up. '
He insisted oh a defensive solution,
and someone from outside
the defense establishment
claimed he had exactly
what Peretz was looking for.
We told them: "Look,
the only thing we can do
is try out the laser system,"
which had been tested with extraordinary
success against exactly such threats.
Arazi, a former combat pilot
who shot down Egyptian planes in 1967,
represented the Northrop Grumman
arms megacorporation in Israel at the time,
the third-biggest
arms company in the world.
They developed the stealth aircraft,
aircraft carriers,
satellites for NASA
and one more unique thing
that, if only Israel got a hold of it,
it could stop all the rockets
flying at us,
an anti-rocket laser
by the name of Nautilus,
which had already brought down
rockets in tests.
This tactical high-energy laser
was designed, built and then installed
at the White Sands missile range.
It made history when the first
Katyusha engaged was destroyed.
Killed. -Killed.
Kill verified.
Amir Peretz was the Defense Minister
and we met with Amir Peretz twice
and even met at his house.
He decided he wanted to bring
the Nautilus to Israel.
He wanted all possible information
on the system.
They present me with the facts,
that there was an effort to develop
a system to deal with short-range missiles.
It was a joint American-Israeli project,
a laser system
which was called Nautilus,
later the name was changed to Skyguard,
but at the time they called it Nautilus.
Last week Defense Minister Amir Peretz met
with representatives of Northrop Grumman,
manufacturers of the laser cannon
now known as Skyguard.
After the meeting, he instructed
the Defense Ministry
to reexamine the matter.
"Change your way of thinking,"
he told the officials.
Remember Danny Gold,
the officer in charge of development
from fine-Defense Ministry?
The one who tried to advance a defensive
interception system against" all odds?
Well, Danny Gold
read in the newspaper
that Peretz planned to bring
the laser system to Israel,
a project he knew of
and had already considered.
Nautilus was a technological
test project
to see if a laser can intercept
mortar shells or rockets.
And it was demonstrated to work.
I don't remember the success rate.
It was demonstrated that a very large
chemical laser can do it.
When I looked into
all the technologies,
there were 24 solutions,
some laser-based,
and I rejected it out of hand.
I rejected it as a technology as well.
Not the Nautilus specifically,
since I wasn't looking at defending
just one small, particular spot.
I wanted a solution
for the whole country
and laser isn't suitable for that
for the simple reason
that it doesn't work in bad weather.
In the north the weather
is almost always bad,
you can't change that,
and in the south, occasionally.
It can't cover large areas,
it isn't classified,
and there are other limitations.
Gold and Shmulik Keren demanded
a meeting with Peretz to change his mind,
and present him with the interceptor
project, which was still on the shelf
and didn't have a name yet.
We had to name the system
and Lieutenant Colonel Z,
now Colonel Z, came to me
and suggested to me...
and we discussed names.
At first he suggested Gold Dome
which was rejected
out of hand, of course,
because it sounded too prestigious.
The idea was to protect the citizens,
more down-to-earth as they say.
And also my last name is Gold.
I should name it after myself?
People would realize right away.
I said, "Forget it, find something else."
Then he consulted his wife
and other people
and came back to me with "Iron Dome,"
which caught on right away. Great name.
I was captivated by the power
and charm of the people from Rafael,
so I decided not to look
right or left
and I will do everything necessary
to put the system into action.
Peretz yearned to advance this solution,
but he also wanted professional approval.
He decided to form a committee
which would look into everything
and tell him the facts
and what he should do.
As head of the committee, he appointed
a professional, Jacob Nagel,
Deputy Director of the ADWTI,
who knew it all from the inside,
as well as Danny Gold's development ideas.
The ADWTI Director calls me and says,
"Form a committee of experts,
take three to six months,
weigh up all the options,
analyze them and get back to me and to
the Secretary General of the Defense Ministry
with a recommendation of which system
Israel should develop."
Why six months?
What's so complicated?
While the people in the Tel Aviv skyscrapers
were""looking into it,"
the rockets kept falling
on houses and people in Sderot.
Red alert./Red alert.
Here it comes.
Yikes!
Here comes another one.
Yikes!
-Another one.
Qassams fell on the city all day.
Casualties, panic victims and lots of
fear and anger bursting out,
especially when the cameras
show up.
We're sick of it!
Sick of it!
Let's ask Nasrallah
and Ahmadinejad
to save us from Hamas!
Move!
We're sick of it, for God's sake!
But there isn't much time to complain.
A red alert siren goes off in the background.
Everyone runs for cover,
hoping to be the lucky ones.
I'm in pain! It hurts!
Move!
Wait, there are more coming.
What a life...
We're three siblings,
Oshri, my big brother,
Shelly, the middle sister,
and I'm the youngest.
He was always the protective
big brother
and we became closer
over the years.
After our dad died,
he felt the need to...
He became much more dominant
in our lives.
Every morning began with a video chat
or round of phone calls
to me, to my mom,
to my sister and grandma.
As far back as I can remember,
I admired him
and I was proud to be
his sister.
Oshri was a freelance
computer technician
and twice a week he drove to Sderot
to service'computers.
And even in the hardest of times,
he saw no other way.
He couldn't imagine
not coming to town
and he couldn't believe
the unbearable ease
with which people returned to normal
as if nothing happened.
That month there were
a lot of rocket attacks
and he still wasn't afraid
to come to town.
My mother called and
she told me,
"Oshri was wounded
in a Qassam attack in Sderot.
I'm on the way to the hospital.
"Go to Susannah," my sister-in-law.
"She's home alone."
My sister-in-law was
seven months pregnant
and all the way to Hod HaSharon
my leg twitched and my body trembled
and I knew he was wounded
but my body felt something else.
Oshri Oz, a 36-year-old computer
technician from Hod HaSharon,
went to work in Sderot this morning
despite the tense situation.
Oshri was the computer expert
for Peretz Bonei HaNegev.
At 9:15, seconds after
he entered Sderot,
a Qassam missile landed
very close to his car.
Bystander: I saw this guy lying...
on his belly, bleeding,
shrapnel had pierced his neck,
wounding him badly.
The bleeding was uncontrollable.
Reporter: The blow was fatal.
At Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon,
Oshri was pronounced dead.
You can't learn to live with it.
You're alive but not living.
It's part of your life every day, every moment,
every hour, every second.
My life is divided into
"before" and "after."
While Oshri's family's life
changed irreversibly,
the Nagel Committee's discussions
progressed and reached the final stage.
We contacted everyone relevant
who might have an idea,
we screened'the proposals,
and both Israeli and American industries
reached the final stage.
Everyone who came to the committee,
everyone who invested his time,
realized we were dealing with
a serious problem.
It wasn't a theoretical committee.
We had to develop a system
that would protect Israel.
A ferocious battle
took place in the committee.
Only one proposal could win,
a budget of billions
for development.
In the right corner
stood the Israeli corporation, Rafael,
and its partner Gold.
They proposed Iron Dome,
a system which would fire a missile
that would chase the rocket,
iron would strike iron and blow it up
before it reached the ground.
They had no system to show
and certainly no test results,
but they had a lot of paper proving that
theoretically it could work.
In the other corner, with the
glamour of the United States,
stood Northrop Grumman.
They proposed the Nautilus
laser system
which aims a laser beam
at the rocket,
striking it just after it's launched.
They actually tried'it cout
and proved that it could work,
at least in the test stage.
Northrop Grumman
put on their show.
e, as representatives
of Northrop Grumman,
weren't allowed to take part
in the show.
They made sure
that nobody who supported
the laser system
was a member of the committee.
Yossi Arazi, who represented
Northrop Grumman in Israel,
wasn't allowed into the showroom
because the Americans' solution
included certain
classified elements
which he, as an Israeli citizen,
wasn't allowed access to.
We presented our request.
They got everything they wanted
and presented their solution.
The cost of developing the laser
was much higher than that of
Iron Dome,
but the Americans promised
to install in Sderot
an experimental system right away, and to
develop the complete system within 18 months.
Rafael promised to develop
Iron Dome within three years,
but with such a complex project
there was no way of knowing
how long it would really take.
The Nagel Committee met,
discussed, weighed up and calculated,
and ended up with white smoke.
We weighed the proposals,
published our recommendations,
and said,
"The only solution
Israel should work on
is...
Iron Dome."
The Nagel Committee
supported it,
but who did the work?
My people,
who were part of the project,
they were on the work crews,
and others too,
and the industries and so on.
It was a really big job that, more or less,
reached the same conclusion.
I think ADWTI decided on principle
that they didn't want
the Americans' participation.
I don't want to call it "covering
their asses," but that's what it was.
Arazi felt cheated.
After all, Nagel works with Gold,
who works with Rafael,
and he thinks that was why
his proposal wasn't chosen.
He decided to try to change
Nagel's decision.
For that purpose, he established
the Home-Front Shield Foundation.
Arazi recruited influential people,
journalists, former Air Force officers,
scientists, and also
worried citizens from the south.
It's intolerable that
there's no solution,
they let the people there be cannon fodder
for mortar shells and rockets,
subject to the whims
of a terrorist organization,
and living 15 seconds
from a bomb shelter,
when there's an alternative that can be used
until "Iron Dome" is ready.
At least try to do something.
Why?
Dr. Oded Amichai and Yossi Arazi came to me.
Oded Amichai is a scientist
who worked for Rafael.
IDF generals who understood
the issue said,
"Yes, the laser is excellent,
it's the ultimate solution,
but don't quote me
because I work for
the Defense Ministry now
and if you quote me, the Defense Ministry
will cut off my source of income."
Foundation members
were sent to the news studios
to stir up public pressure
and sway Peretz.
Do you agree with the opinion
which seems like science fiction
that we can cover the country
with a cloak of laser beams
and wipe out the Katyusha plague
once and for all?
I've been saying so for six years.
They had a powerful
media campaign
because they recruited
the best PR firms.
In the Haaretz newspaper
one headline was:
"Iron Dome: A Foregone Failure"
Alongside the media blitz
were other attempts to persuade Peretz.
Pressure came from all sides.
Many, many IDF retirees,
mainly from the Air Force,
but a friend also came to me
and said, "Listen, Amir,
please,
just announce that you plan
to discuss the matter again.
I'm not asking you to change
your decision, God forbid,
but I'm going to get
a whole lot of money
if I can persuade you to do this."
I said to him, "Listen to me.
I know you're being used.
Get out of my office
right now.
I don't know if you'll get
your money,
but you've lost a friend."
And with all the pressure
and media brouhaha,
Peretz still didn't implement
the Nagel Committee's decision
because the existing
defense budget
didn't include over a billion shekels
that he could allocate.
Red alert. 'Red alert.
The people of the south
didn't care why everything was stuck.
The rockets just kept falling.
Red alert. Red alert.
Red alert. Red alert.
Red alert. Red alert.
Government of scumbags
Why did we come here?
Government of scumbags
In May 2007, Hamas started to confront
the security forces
that were still controlled by Fatah
and the Palestinian Authority.
It tried to implement its plan
to take over the Gaza Strip.
Hamas' special unit surrounded
a police station in Gaza.
Shouting and cursing
soon turned into exchanges of gunfire
between Hamas and Fatah agents.
Four wounded, including two policemen.
In 2007, times were very hard
and many people who worked
for the Palestinian Authority
who opposed Hamas
were in mortal danger.
Many people in the Gaza Strip
ran for their lives.
Last night, shortly after Abu Mazen announced
that he wouldn't talk to murderers,
Hamas sent thousands of protestors
onto the streets of Gaza
who burned effigies of the president
of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas' increase in strength
frightened everyone.
No one believed that Peretz,
of all people, could stand up to Hamas.
The media kept putting him down
and even members of his party
lost faith in him.
Former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak,
beat Peretz in the race for
the leadership of the Labor party
and immediately goaded Olmert to appoint him
Defense Minister instead of Peretz.
E'hud Barak, politically speaking,
took advantage of the moment.
I'd just been through
the Second Lebanon War,
which was perceived as a failure.
I can't be blamed
for past failures,
but good, wise people
have told me:
"That's how it is in Israel.
When it happens on your watch,
you're responsible for everything.
And the disappointment in Peretz
was matched by the expectations of Barak.
The most-decorated soldier in IDF history
returns to the Defense Ministry
and a nearly impossible situation.
A few days before the changeover,
Peretz was concerned
that his-replacement
would lead to rescinding the decision
to invest in Iron Dome.
He decided to give one final gift
to the people of Sderot.
He ordered the Director General
of his ministry, Yehiel Horev,
to find some kind of budget
for Iron Dome.
Yehiel Horev came in
as acting Director General,
who was committed to the project.
He raised the initial funds for me.
He said to me: "Is that what you want?
"We'll go for it full-force."
Horev managed to come up with
50 million shekels.
Monetarily, that's almost
insignificant
compared to the over one billion shekels
needed for the project,
but sometimes it's harder to stop a train
once it's moving.
I call in the people from Rafael
and say: "We're going to sign tonight."
There were maybe 15 of us there
and I said:
"I'll go along with your dream
that might just change
Israel's reality."
After a standstill of more than a year,
Danny Gold finally had a contract
with a signed bill of labor
with which he could start
to get Iron Dome moving.
Peretz was forced to step down
an cou on y ope t at ara
would continue to push Iron Dome,
but if Barak was the new broom
in the Defense Ministry,
for Arazi and his laser
it was an opportunity to arrange for
a sweep in their direction.
I think there was some foreign company
that tried to use people
it knew here in Israel
to market its apparatus, which was
basically an improved version of the Nautilus.
When it was announced that I was going to be
the next Director General of the Defense Ministry
I got a call from a friend who said:
"I'm leaving you two disks
in your mailbox.
What's your address?
I'd like you to take a look."
The disks were of interception tests
by the Nautilus
which was supposed to protect
the towns of the south from mortar attacks
and other rocket-based threats.
I decided to meet with the people
supporting the Nautilus
because it was the most available system,
and that's what I did.
Sderot was under constant attack
and we said: "Look, Iron Dome
doesn't even exist yet.
You have the lasers,
which have already been tested.
Why not give it a try?
Set it up outside of Sderot."
Buchris stood up and said:
"Folks, it's obvious,
we must go for the laser."
That was Buchris' immediate reaction.
And in order to find out for sure
and also reassure ourselves
that we weren't making a mistake,
I said: "Okay, Buchris,
go to America and check it out."
He brought up the idea
of seeing it in action
nstead of just taking their word for it.
While they reexamined
the options,
which cost us precious time,
in Gaza, Jabari didn't wait
for anyone.
God is great!
One after another the Fatah members
surrendered to the masked Hamas agents,
Samih Madhoun,
one of Dahlan's men,
whose head Hamas demanded as the one
responsible for the harm to their people,
was captured alive trying to escape Gaza
and executed on live television.
Fatah members start to
fly from the roofs
or undergo torture and death.
Essentially, Hamas takes over Gaza.
500 Palestinians were killed
by Hamas troops
as Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.
it was a brutal crime.
I can't stand the thought of
Palestinians killing Palestinians.
Absolutely not.
This is what Gaza looks like today.
The green flag of Islam and Hamas
is raised over the headquarters
of the Preventive Security Forces.
God is great!
Below in the courtyard,
Hamas agents pray
and thank God for the victory
over Fatah's greatest symbol.
The new boss is the Islamic enemy.
From that moment,
Hamas ruled Gaza
and Jabari, who led the troops,
became Chief of Staff
of the State of Hamas.
He invested a lot of resources
in improving his army's rocket arsenal.
With the Palestinian Authority
no longer ruling Gaza,
Hamas was able to develop missiles
unhindered
and Hamas was free to do
as it pleased in the Gaza Strip.
We're facing a new entity.
The Gaza periphery essentially
becomes the border.
The Israeli government declared Gaza
an enemy entity.
Israel imposed a hermetic seal
on the Gaza Strip.
At the time, it was justified
to close the border crossings
and change the reality
in order not to reward Hamas for...
its success, which had
nothing to do with us.
It was part of an internal conflict,
but it created a new
kind of threat for us.
In Gaza are warnings of
a growing humanitarian crisis
following the closure
of the Kami Crossing.
Shops are still closed and there's
no supply of food or necessities.
Fuel is about to run out as well.
The shutdown embittered the lives
of the Gazans, making them intolerable.
Gaza was like a powder keg
that any little match could ignite.
Roni always dreamt of
going to college.
He couldn't. When you're married,
you have to make a living,
He was a cement truck driver.
He was always on the road
until nighttime,
so it didn't work out.
In 2003, Roni underwent
a successful kidney transplant
and Social Security suggested
that he study for a degree.
And after a year
of recuperation at home,
he decided to go to college
and studied logistics
at Sapir Academic College.
He spent a year doing preparatory courses.
After all, he wasn't young.
He was 44 when he started college.
He was 44 when he started college.
He'd set off for school
happily every morning.
He had lots of younger friends,
he was their guru,
he advised couples, he was always
coming home with a new story.
Young friends came over to study.
And he was happy
for those four years.
The region is in chaos.
Siren follows siren,
Qassam follows Qassam.
We'd been used to the missiles
for years,
but that day it was a serious attack.
That morning he took me to work.
I wanted to kiss him goodbye,
but I don't know why...
Because we didn't usually kiss in public.
He's very shy.
For some reason I wanted to
I had a feeling it was goodbye.
This incident marks the beginning
of a wave of escalation.
The Gaza coastal highway
near Khan Yunes,
a van carrying several members
of the military arm of Hamas
is blown up from the air.
All the passengers were killed.
In Gaza, it's supposed that
some of the casualties
were involved in the manufacture
of Qassam missiles.
Barak kept attacking
and trying to put Hamas
on the defensive,
while Hamas wanted to be
on the offensive.
I try to see how I can thwart terrorism
on both sides
and prepare the troops
for possible confrontations
that are clearly going to happen.
Until then they were minor.
And this is the response,
Hamas launches massive Qassam fire
against Israel.
Hamas announced tonight that they fired
nine of a new type of rocket at Sderot.
If Israel attacks the Gaza Strip,
how can Gaza respond?
The missiles were a way
to balance the equation.
In Gaza, they tried to create
a mini Hezbollah.
After work,
I picked up my youngest, 9-year-old Idan,
from an after-school class.
Then I started calling around
looking for Roni.
"Is Roni at work or at school?"
Then I realized something was wrong.
I saw a mother.
I asked her: "Did something happen
in Sderot today?"
She said: "Didn't you hear?
One dead and many wounded.
I said: "What?"
Red alert.
Just after 4 p.m.,
two Qassam rockets landed
at Sapir Academic College.
Wow, they're looking for Ron
I phoned my sister-in-law and said:
"Zafnat, see what's happening.
They say there are casualties
at the college."
She says: "Don't worry,
I'll look into it.
Come over."
I went to her house, went inside
and saw her husband
pacing back and forth,
in a tizzy,
and I don't understand why.
I thought: "Maybe he's wounded."
I don't know.
Finally the medic came...
and gave us the news.
That's it, the axe fell on us.
For years, Roni worked as a truck driver
and cement mixer operator.
His friends describe him as a quiet,
modest, exemplary family man.
Everyone loved him.
A pure soul who went too soon.
Roni died at the age of 47.
He left a wife and four children.
He was buried in his village cemetery.
Attending his funeral
were relatives,
hundreds students from Sapir Academic
College and other schools, and friends.
Another death, then another
and another.
As Defense Minister, Barak had to prove
that he'd redress the balance.
If in Israel Roni had to die,
Gaza should suffer the same fate.
We won't accept even
a drizzle of rockets,
not even three per day,
fired at our towns,
or mortar shells or whatever,
without responding.
Barak decided to launch "Operation Warm Winter'
and attacked Gaza full-force.
Gaza is bleeding
The escalation that began yesterday
has worsened today, incident after incident.
By the evening, the Palestinians
reported at least 20 dead
in a long series of
aerial bombardments.
It began last night with simultaneous
bombings of Rimal and Zeitoun.
Two Hamas agents were killed,
one of whom is Khamz al-Khaye,
son of Hamas executive and parliament
member Khalil al-Khaye.
Civilians were also wounded.
The Palestinians report
that four children aged 10 to 15
were killed by the bomb
while playing soccer in Jabaliya.
The IDF states that the fire was aimed
at a Qassam-firing cell.
To the people of Gaza we can only say
that when the rocket fire ceases
and the terrorist activity coming
from Gaza into Israel ceases
will the way open for a new situation
of peace between the two sides
and neighborly relations.
During the three days
of "Operation Warm Winter,"
over 150 Palestinians were killed
and hundreds wounded.
And only then, finally, quiet.
Temporary quiet.
The Defense Ministry
took advantage of the quiet
to continue looking into
the best defensive solution.
A delegation headed by Buchris and Nagel
flew to White Sands in the U.S.
where the famous Nautilus stood,
waiting for someone to give the word
to pick up where they left off in 2004.
Arazi had high hopes for the visit.
Maybe when they actually see the launcher,
the Defense Ministry agents will realize
that the choice of Iron Dome
was one big mistake.
Before I left, I asked the Americans
for three things:
One, to see the system,
two, to see it in action,
and three, a price quote.
We arrive, they greet us,
we visit the test site
and see the monster.
Half a football field.
Suddenly I see this gigantic system.
uge containers the size of
big shipping containers,
and they told us the containers
contain the chemicals
that produce the laser.
And when we climbed up,
we saw that the mirror wasn't there,
which only showed that the system
wasn't being tested.
The cables were laid out on the ground,
not attached.
Buchris sees the system
and asks questions.
He can't get answers
for almost any of them.
He says: "How long will it take
to get this working?"
"How much will it cost?"
"Uh... We don't know..."
"Where's the system you offered?
You said, "Sky... Where is it?"
"It's... Uh..."
I asked: "How many interceptions
can this perform?"
They said: "10 interceptions."
I asked: "Okay, and how long does it take
to switch the containers for the next round?
"About 10 hours."
After that visit, I realized
that the Nautilus
was unsuitable for defending the towns
of the south and the north
against rocket fire.
Buchris returned
with a plain conclusion,
that salvation wouldn't come from
the chemical laser. Maybe one day,
but today it's no solution for us.
We decided to shelve it.
We didn't dismiss it.
We said it didn't cover
what we needed
and that we'd look into it again
in a few years.
Yossi Arazi, who unfortunately
wasn't invited to White Sands,
interpreted the visit
slightly differently.
spoke to someone from Northrop Grumman
who was at the meeting
and as he described it,
Buchris asked a question
in English
and before the people from
Northrop Grumman could answer,
Jacob Nagel answered him
in Hebrew
with the intention of discounting
the laser's effectivity
and its ability to solve the problem.
An inexcusable mistake was made
because they took a weapon
intended to defend the towns
from short-range attacks
at a minimal cost
and threw the whole thing away.
Yossi Arazi gave up
and walked away.
We'll never know what would've happened
if they'd chosen otherwise.
Would the laser have been
an effective defense,
the flop of the century?
Only one option remained.
Iron Dome.
But that didn't go anywhere either.
True, Amir Peretz signed an initial contract
for 50 million shekels,
but the big money that was needed
wasn't available.
I heard people from ADWTI mention
that there was something called
"Iron Dome," which had died.
They want to revive it and
bring it up for discussion again.
I brought it up for discussion
and here's what turned out:
Amir Peretz decided to invest
in Iron Dome,
but he didn't know that
within the defense establishment,
as anyone who grew up there
knows well...
any decision that doesn't end with...
At the end of each decision
are five points:
Who does what, by when, with what money
and where does it come from?
Unless all these things are clear,
nothing happens.
The Nagel Committee didn't
apply its findings either.
No decision was made.
I found the corpse laying there.
Not a corpse...
it had to be resuscitated
or revived through some
act of magic.
One suggestion was
to put the money down.
we at the Defense Ministry
would pay for it, 1.7 billion shekels.
Finally, Barak managed
to get the budget
that would enable the development
of Iron Dome.
Now if remained for Danny Gold
to make sure nobody would back down
and that the Defense Ministry
wouldn't sign with Rafael.
Now, writing a contract
for such a tremendous,
multidisciplinary project,
and it is a tremendous project,
it's an event.
And how long does an event take,
a year?
said: "Guys, we somehow succeeded
in getting the money.
We've rolled the boulder
to the edge of the cliff.
e have to sign this soon.
If we don't, they'll take
the money back."
And what happened was,
all the brains on my team
got together.
At the end I summarized
the system,
how it would work,
its architecture,
its sensors, how its missile
would be built.
And I also decided on the price.
How much the missile would cost,
how much its main component would cost,
the sensor, the radar and so on,
how much they'd cost.
I decided on everything,
and...
they signed the contract.
I don't remember if it was
two weeks or 10 days,
they signed in record time.
According to the contract,
the system would be ready within three years.
Everyone realized it was impossible.
The Arrow system took
15 years to develop.
So how would they build the whole
Iron Dome in three years?
Let's say they complete
development in three years.
How do you prevent rockets
and fatalities until then?
In a few years, Israel will be
about 90 percent safe
from all missile fire, from Qassams
to Shihabs.
It was an operational challenge,
maintaining ongoing security
along the border and building Iron Dome.
A new word was thrown around,
"Tahadiya."
No peace, no handshakes,
no ceremonies,
just a ceasefire.
Barak pushed for Tahadiya
with Hamas
and in June 2008 it was supposedjo
be instated.
Across the border
Jabari didn't want to be seen as agreeing
to Tahadiya from a place of weakness.
He wanted to convince the Gazans
that Israel begged for a ceasefire.
And so May 2008, just before
the ceasefire was to begin,
turned into a month of aggressions.
And this time, the rockets were also aimed
at the communities of the Gaza periphery.
How can you stay there?
We just finished the Red South Festival,
a month-long anemone festival
in the south, very colorful.
Life goes on.
This is our home, we have no other.
We've learned to live with the fear.
Fear is a healthy instinct
and we do our best
to overcome it,
not vice-versa.
didn't feel threatened.
I didn't feel anything, really.
Everything was...
normal.
And* while the' Kedoshim family
in Gaza Village didn't feel threatened,
the^Katz family in Kibbutz Gvaram,
just a few kilometers away,
felt the same.
The fear wasn't tangible.
There was a threat from the air,
that shells might fly
here or there sometimes, but...
chances of getting hit on the head
were very slim.
That Friday,
we were expecting guests from France.
mmy went to take a nap
and he said: "Anna, you know what?
Wake me up two hours early
and we'll do a little gardening."
That day, my mother
went with my brother Yariv
to visit my aunt
who'd arrived from America.
It was an intense period,
there were shellings all over,
and my aunt was afraid
to come to us at the kibbutz.
She was afraid to be on the road.
She went to visit a friend
at Yesha Village,
so my mother and Yariv
drove there that afternoon.
My mother was glad to get out
and go somewhere,
to look around Yesha Village.
There's also a big nursery there.
They arrived to Yesha.
'They v^e're’n't sure they'd found
the right house,
so my mother waited in the car
while Yariv got out.
He'd just passed a concrete wall
and entered their property,
and just then the siren went off.
Red alert. Red alert.
Red alert.
Jimmy was working in the garden
and I was just sitting there.
He wanted me with him.
I went to get the trash can
for the clippings
and started collecting
what he'd pruned.
The first time I went
to empty the trash can,
I heard a whistle.
And we know that if you hear
a whistle it's a good sign,
it means it's flying past.
I heard a whistle, looked up,
and saw the Qassam land
in the field across the way.
I threw out the clippings,
then looked over at Gaza.
I'm standing there,
looking at Gaza and I say:
"My God, why are you doing this?"
Within a few seconds,
a missile fell, a Qassam,
on the other side of the wall,
right by my mother,
and she was killed on the spot.
Yariv came home.
He was just a few meters away,
just beyond the wall,
and he was totally unscathed.
Then he saw her dead on the ground.
I heard a boom,
a louder explosion
than I'd ever heard before.
A powerful .explosion.
I hadn't figured out
where it landed’
because I heard the windows shake.
turn to meet Jimmy
and I don't see him.
see a huge mushroom cloud.
All the soil flew into the air
and all I remember was screaming
his name to the depths of my soul,
and whenever I called Jimmy
he answered.
Always.
I screamed his name,
in a horrified voice
I didn't even know I had,
and people came out
and took me away.
They didn't want me to see.
I knew deep inside
that he was dead.
Parachuting was Jimmy's
greatest love.
Here he's seen photographing
the region of Gaza Village,
the kibbutz where he lived
for 30 years until yesterday,
when he was working in his garden
and a mortar shell
struck him directly.
This afternoon, Shuli Katz
was laid to rest in Kibbutz Gvaram,
the second victim of Qassam fire
in three days.
It shouldn't have happened.
It was sheer bad luck.
The whole situation,
all those missiles
and the war.
Our number came up.
People were killed,
defense ministers came and went and continued
to attend funerals and console the bereaved,
but what good did it do?
It couldn't bring back
Jimmy Kedoshim and Shuli Katz.
Meanwhile, Hamas troops
grew stronger,
they dug tunnels and smuggled in
lots of Iranian rockets.
In response, we began to develop Iron Dome
in preparation for the next battle
which nobody from either side
put thought into
whether or how to prevent.
back in 2001
but it caused no damage
and nobody but Mayor Eli Moyal cared.
Imagine a town of 20-something-thousand
inhabitants,
in the middle of nowhere,
and a shell lands
without warni
Then, three years later,
the boy Afik Ohaion was killed
and everyone realized
there was a real danger here.
eyes were closed
but I saw him.
He died for no reason.
It infuriated me
that there was no solution.
But I was convinced
we could meet the task.
Danny Gold of the Defense Ministry
tried to advance the Iron Dome project
with all his might.
I went upstairs to get permission
and ran into all sorts of hierarchies.
Basically, they said no.
No one thought it was possible.
But just then, in 2006,
Amir Peretz was appointed
Defense Minister, surprisingly,
and was forced to see how,
in the Second Lebanon War,
not only Sderot
was blasted by rockets,
half of Israel was.
In wartime you can't think,
only fight.
In August 2006,
after the Second Lebanon War,
peace returned to Israel,
then people started to wonder.
What didn't we do?
Where did we go wrong?
How did we reach a point where
thousands of rockets are landing everywhere?
And the IDF has no answer.
My main realization was
that I had to have one eye
on what was happening
in Marj Ayoun,
in Bint Jbeil, in Ayta ash Shab,
in the villages where our soldiers
were fighting courageously,
and one eye on what was
happening in Haifa,
at the train station
where eight workers were killed,
or in Nahariya, where a woman
was wounded just sitting on her porch.
My attention as the Defense Minister
was divided.
Unlike the respite after the war in the north,
combat in the south never stopped.
The IDF was constantly battling
Hamas forces in Gaza.
Alongside large armored
and engineering corps units,
they entered Beit Hanoun at night.
We'll move in, do our best,
we won't lose a single man,
we'll f*** them up, it'll be fine.
We don't have to f*** them up
but we have to kill the terrorists.
In a series of incidents in Gaza,
the Palestinians report five dead,
a total of 55
since the operation began,
and today, too, the IDF continued
a series of assassinations from the air.
The rockets are fired in response
to Israeli acts.
You feel a need to show
that you're hurting us
and we're hurting you, too.
In a barrage fired at Sderot
from Beit Hanoun last night,
two citizens were mildly wounded
when the rocket landed in a private yard.
This is why Peretz,
besides his support
of the troops in southern Gaza,
states the following:
We must act
to the proper extent,
at the proper time,
and I'm sure that's what we'll do.
Amir continued to run the war
from the army base in Tel Aviv,
but at night he returned home
to Sderot.
Jabari, commander of the military arm
of Hamas, saw fhiiis as an oppsrtilinity.
He tried to hit one particular target
in Sderot.
Hamas rocket operations unit
We target rockets on Israeli cities
such as Sderot,
but we focus on military bases,
not on civilians.
Naturally, my house was
the most common target.
For Hamas, striking my house
was a strategic decision.
A picture of the Israeli
defense minister's house
being hit by a Hamas missile
would be a great victory
for them.
Red alert, red alert.
Red alert, red alert.
Red alert.
Six Qassam missiles
were fired at Sderot this morning
at intervals of a few minutes.
One day a missile landed
a few meters from my house.
A neighbor from the next street
who happened to be there
was killed
and my bodyguard,
who was patrolling at the time...
both his legs were blown off.
Fatima Slutzker, who immigrated to Israel
with her husband three years ago,
left a husband and two children.
Fatima, who was buried this afternoon
in the Sderot cemetery,
is the city's sixth Qassam victim.
Good evening. We begin with
rare footage of a Qassam strike
caught on-camera in real time.
The red alert sounded
at 8:30 this morning.
Factory workers knew it could be
a matter of seconds.
They ran straight to the fairly secure
refrigeration room.
Watch the center of the screen.
Factory worker Yaakov Yaakobov
will enter the frame
just as the missile strikes.
Yaakov Yaakobov was buried
in the Sderot cemetery this afternoon.
He left a wife
and four children.
I want you to know
that your father is a hero
of both Sderot and
the State of Israel
and we won't pass over his death
as if nothing happened.
I don't think you did
anything to prevent it.
And my heart is broken.
I have nothing else to say.
You can't remain indifferent.
You suddenly realize
that this way of life must change.
And I said: Dear friends
we must not accept it
as axiomatic
that we can't cope with
short-range missiles.
I demand that this be
the main focus of our effort.
Defense Minister Peretz understood
deeply that a solution was needed.
The question is, how long would it take
until things started moving
And how many casualties
would thieve be until then?
The IDF commanders
dismissed Peretz.
True, he was authorized to make
decisions, but he was only a citizen
and they waged the battles
so they taught him
which decisions to make.
There isn't enough money
for everything.
You have to decide
what your priorities are and aren't
and the question is whether you
invest in defensive means
or offensive means.
The political systen?T
the public system
and the military system
refused to be persuaded.
They refused to be persuaded.
I thought it made more sense
to carry on as usual
and use different equipment.
The Defense Minister thought otherwise,
which is perfectly legitimate,
and the subject was discussed.
At a certain point.
I went to the'Prime Mnistejr.
We had a very meaningful meeting.
There were representatives
from the Defense Ministry fan'd the IDF,
and everyone agreed:
"The Defense Minister
wants to do this project
but we must say we'd rather
focus on other projects."
At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister
told me he didn't intend to stop me
but at that point he had no intention
of allotting money for the project.
Peretz didn't give up. '
He insisted oh a defensive solution,
and someone from outside
the defense establishment
claimed he had exactly
what Peretz was looking for.
We told them: "Look,
the only thing we can do
is try out the laser system,"
which had been tested with extraordinary
success against exactly such threats.
Arazi, a former combat pilot
who shot down Egyptian planes in 1967,
represented the Northrop Grumman
arms megacorporation in Israel at the time,
the third-biggest
arms company in the world.
They developed the stealth aircraft,
aircraft carriers,
satellites for NASA
and one more unique thing
that, if only Israel got a hold of it,
it could stop all the rockets
flying at us,
an anti-rocket laser
by the name of Nautilus,
which had already brought down
rockets in tests.
This tactical high-energy laser
was designed, built and then installed
at the White Sands missile range.
It made history when the first
Katyusha engaged was destroyed.
Killed. -Killed.
Kill verified.
Amir Peretz was the Defense Minister
and we met with Amir Peretz twice
and even met at his house.
He decided he wanted to bring
the Nautilus to Israel.
He wanted all possible information
on the system.
They present me with the facts,
that there was an effort to develop
a system to deal with short-range missiles.
It was a joint American-Israeli project,
a laser system
which was called Nautilus,
later the name was changed to Skyguard,
but at the time they called it Nautilus.
Last week Defense Minister Amir Peretz met
with representatives of Northrop Grumman,
manufacturers of the laser cannon
now known as Skyguard.
After the meeting, he instructed
the Defense Ministry
to reexamine the matter.
"Change your way of thinking,"
he told the officials.
Remember Danny Gold,
the officer in charge of development
from fine-Defense Ministry?
The one who tried to advance a defensive
interception system against" all odds?
Well, Danny Gold
read in the newspaper
that Peretz planned to bring
the laser system to Israel,
a project he knew of
and had already considered.
Nautilus was a technological
test project
to see if a laser can intercept
mortar shells or rockets.
And it was demonstrated to work.
I don't remember the success rate.
It was demonstrated that a very large
chemical laser can do it.
When I looked into
all the technologies,
there were 24 solutions,
some laser-based,
and I rejected it out of hand.
I rejected it as a technology as well.
Not the Nautilus specifically,
since I wasn't looking at defending
just one small, particular spot.
I wanted a solution
for the whole country
and laser isn't suitable for that
for the simple reason
that it doesn't work in bad weather.
In the north the weather
is almost always bad,
you can't change that,
and in the south, occasionally.
It can't cover large areas,
it isn't classified,
and there are other limitations.
Gold and Shmulik Keren demanded
a meeting with Peretz to change his mind,
and present him with the interceptor
project, which was still on the shelf
and didn't have a name yet.
We had to name the system
and Lieutenant Colonel Z,
now Colonel Z, came to me
and suggested to me...
and we discussed names.
At first he suggested Gold Dome
which was rejected
out of hand, of course,
because it sounded too prestigious.
The idea was to protect the citizens,
more down-to-earth as they say.
And also my last name is Gold.
I should name it after myself?
People would realize right away.
I said, "Forget it, find something else."
Then he consulted his wife
and other people
and came back to me with "Iron Dome,"
which caught on right away. Great name.
I was captivated by the power
and charm of the people from Rafael,
so I decided not to look
right or left
and I will do everything necessary
to put the system into action.
Peretz yearned to advance this solution,
but he also wanted professional approval.
He decided to form a committee
which would look into everything
and tell him the facts
and what he should do.
As head of the committee, he appointed
a professional, Jacob Nagel,
Deputy Director of the ADWTI,
who knew it all from the inside,
as well as Danny Gold's development ideas.
The ADWTI Director calls me and says,
"Form a committee of experts,
take three to six months,
weigh up all the options,
analyze them and get back to me and to
the Secretary General of the Defense Ministry
with a recommendation of which system
Israel should develop."
Why six months?
What's so complicated?
While the people in the Tel Aviv skyscrapers
were""looking into it,"
the rockets kept falling
on houses and people in Sderot.
Red alert./Red alert.
Here it comes.
Yikes!
Here comes another one.
Yikes!
-Another one.
Qassams fell on the city all day.
Casualties, panic victims and lots of
fear and anger bursting out,
especially when the cameras
show up.
We're sick of it!
Sick of it!
Let's ask Nasrallah
and Ahmadinejad
to save us from Hamas!
Move!
We're sick of it, for God's sake!
But there isn't much time to complain.
A red alert siren goes off in the background.
Everyone runs for cover,
hoping to be the lucky ones.
I'm in pain! It hurts!
Move!
Wait, there are more coming.
What a life...
We're three siblings,
Oshri, my big brother,
Shelly, the middle sister,
and I'm the youngest.
He was always the protective
big brother
and we became closer
over the years.
After our dad died,
he felt the need to...
He became much more dominant
in our lives.
Every morning began with a video chat
or round of phone calls
to me, to my mom,
to my sister and grandma.
As far back as I can remember,
I admired him
and I was proud to be
his sister.
Oshri was a freelance
computer technician
and twice a week he drove to Sderot
to service'computers.
And even in the hardest of times,
he saw no other way.
He couldn't imagine
not coming to town
and he couldn't believe
the unbearable ease
with which people returned to normal
as if nothing happened.
That month there were
a lot of rocket attacks
and he still wasn't afraid
to come to town.
My mother called and
she told me,
"Oshri was wounded
in a Qassam attack in Sderot.
I'm on the way to the hospital.
"Go to Susannah," my sister-in-law.
"She's home alone."
My sister-in-law was
seven months pregnant
and all the way to Hod HaSharon
my leg twitched and my body trembled
and I knew he was wounded
but my body felt something else.
Oshri Oz, a 36-year-old computer
technician from Hod HaSharon,
went to work in Sderot this morning
despite the tense situation.
Oshri was the computer expert
for Peretz Bonei HaNegev.
At 9:15, seconds after
he entered Sderot,
a Qassam missile landed
very close to his car.
Bystander: I saw this guy lying...
on his belly, bleeding,
shrapnel had pierced his neck,
wounding him badly.
The bleeding was uncontrollable.
Reporter: The blow was fatal.
At Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon,
Oshri was pronounced dead.
You can't learn to live with it.
You're alive but not living.
It's part of your life every day, every moment,
every hour, every second.
My life is divided into
"before" and "after."
While Oshri's family's life
changed irreversibly,
the Nagel Committee's discussions
progressed and reached the final stage.
We contacted everyone relevant
who might have an idea,
we screened'the proposals,
and both Israeli and American industries
reached the final stage.
Everyone who came to the committee,
everyone who invested his time,
realized we were dealing with
a serious problem.
It wasn't a theoretical committee.
We had to develop a system
that would protect Israel.
A ferocious battle
took place in the committee.
Only one proposal could win,
a budget of billions
for development.
In the right corner
stood the Israeli corporation, Rafael,
and its partner Gold.
They proposed Iron Dome,
a system which would fire a missile
that would chase the rocket,
iron would strike iron and blow it up
before it reached the ground.
They had no system to show
and certainly no test results,
but they had a lot of paper proving that
theoretically it could work.
In the other corner, with the
glamour of the United States,
stood Northrop Grumman.
They proposed the Nautilus
laser system
which aims a laser beam
at the rocket,
striking it just after it's launched.
They actually tried'it cout
and proved that it could work,
at least in the test stage.
Northrop Grumman
put on their show.
e, as representatives
of Northrop Grumman,
weren't allowed to take part
in the show.
They made sure
that nobody who supported
the laser system
was a member of the committee.
Yossi Arazi, who represented
Northrop Grumman in Israel,
wasn't allowed into the showroom
because the Americans' solution
included certain
classified elements
which he, as an Israeli citizen,
wasn't allowed access to.
We presented our request.
They got everything they wanted
and presented their solution.
The cost of developing the laser
was much higher than that of
Iron Dome,
but the Americans promised
to install in Sderot
an experimental system right away, and to
develop the complete system within 18 months.
Rafael promised to develop
Iron Dome within three years,
but with such a complex project
there was no way of knowing
how long it would really take.
The Nagel Committee met,
discussed, weighed up and calculated,
and ended up with white smoke.
We weighed the proposals,
published our recommendations,
and said,
"The only solution
Israel should work on
is...
Iron Dome."
The Nagel Committee
supported it,
but who did the work?
My people,
who were part of the project,
they were on the work crews,
and others too,
and the industries and so on.
It was a really big job that, more or less,
reached the same conclusion.
I think ADWTI decided on principle
that they didn't want
the Americans' participation.
I don't want to call it "covering
their asses," but that's what it was.
Arazi felt cheated.
After all, Nagel works with Gold,
who works with Rafael,
and he thinks that was why
his proposal wasn't chosen.
He decided to try to change
Nagel's decision.
For that purpose, he established
the Home-Front Shield Foundation.
Arazi recruited influential people,
journalists, former Air Force officers,
scientists, and also
worried citizens from the south.
It's intolerable that
there's no solution,
they let the people there be cannon fodder
for mortar shells and rockets,
subject to the whims
of a terrorist organization,
and living 15 seconds
from a bomb shelter,
when there's an alternative that can be used
until "Iron Dome" is ready.
At least try to do something.
Why?
Dr. Oded Amichai and Yossi Arazi came to me.
Oded Amichai is a scientist
who worked for Rafael.
IDF generals who understood
the issue said,
"Yes, the laser is excellent,
it's the ultimate solution,
but don't quote me
because I work for
the Defense Ministry now
and if you quote me, the Defense Ministry
will cut off my source of income."
Foundation members
were sent to the news studios
to stir up public pressure
and sway Peretz.
Do you agree with the opinion
which seems like science fiction
that we can cover the country
with a cloak of laser beams
and wipe out the Katyusha plague
once and for all?
I've been saying so for six years.
They had a powerful
media campaign
because they recruited
the best PR firms.
In the Haaretz newspaper
one headline was:
"Iron Dome: A Foregone Failure"
Alongside the media blitz
were other attempts to persuade Peretz.
Pressure came from all sides.
Many, many IDF retirees,
mainly from the Air Force,
but a friend also came to me
and said, "Listen, Amir,
please,
just announce that you plan
to discuss the matter again.
I'm not asking you to change
your decision, God forbid,
but I'm going to get
a whole lot of money
if I can persuade you to do this."
I said to him, "Listen to me.
I know you're being used.
Get out of my office
right now.
I don't know if you'll get
your money,
but you've lost a friend."
And with all the pressure
and media brouhaha,
Peretz still didn't implement
the Nagel Committee's decision
because the existing
defense budget
didn't include over a billion shekels
that he could allocate.
Red alert. 'Red alert.
The people of the south
didn't care why everything was stuck.
The rockets just kept falling.
Red alert. Red alert.
Red alert. Red alert.
Red alert. Red alert.
Government of scumbags
Why did we come here?
Government of scumbags
In May 2007, Hamas started to confront
the security forces
that were still controlled by Fatah
and the Palestinian Authority.
It tried to implement its plan
to take over the Gaza Strip.
Hamas' special unit surrounded
a police station in Gaza.
Shouting and cursing
soon turned into exchanges of gunfire
between Hamas and Fatah agents.
Four wounded, including two policemen.
In 2007, times were very hard
and many people who worked
for the Palestinian Authority
who opposed Hamas
were in mortal danger.
Many people in the Gaza Strip
ran for their lives.
Last night, shortly after Abu Mazen announced
that he wouldn't talk to murderers,
Hamas sent thousands of protestors
onto the streets of Gaza
who burned effigies of the president
of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas' increase in strength
frightened everyone.
No one believed that Peretz,
of all people, could stand up to Hamas.
The media kept putting him down
and even members of his party
lost faith in him.
Former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak,
beat Peretz in the race for
the leadership of the Labor party
and immediately goaded Olmert to appoint him
Defense Minister instead of Peretz.
E'hud Barak, politically speaking,
took advantage of the moment.
I'd just been through
the Second Lebanon War,
which was perceived as a failure.
I can't be blamed
for past failures,
but good, wise people
have told me:
"That's how it is in Israel.
When it happens on your watch,
you're responsible for everything.
And the disappointment in Peretz
was matched by the expectations of Barak.
The most-decorated soldier in IDF history
returns to the Defense Ministry
and a nearly impossible situation.
A few days before the changeover,
Peretz was concerned
that his-replacement
would lead to rescinding the decision
to invest in Iron Dome.
He decided to give one final gift
to the people of Sderot.
He ordered the Director General
of his ministry, Yehiel Horev,
to find some kind of budget
for Iron Dome.
Yehiel Horev came in
as acting Director General,
who was committed to the project.
He raised the initial funds for me.
He said to me: "Is that what you want?
"We'll go for it full-force."
Horev managed to come up with
50 million shekels.
Monetarily, that's almost
insignificant
compared to the over one billion shekels
needed for the project,
but sometimes it's harder to stop a train
once it's moving.
I call in the people from Rafael
and say: "We're going to sign tonight."
There were maybe 15 of us there
and I said:
"I'll go along with your dream
that might just change
Israel's reality."
After a standstill of more than a year,
Danny Gold finally had a contract
with a signed bill of labor
with which he could start
to get Iron Dome moving.
Peretz was forced to step down
an cou on y ope t at ara
would continue to push Iron Dome,
but if Barak was the new broom
in the Defense Ministry,
for Arazi and his laser
it was an opportunity to arrange for
a sweep in their direction.
I think there was some foreign company
that tried to use people
it knew here in Israel
to market its apparatus, which was
basically an improved version of the Nautilus.
When it was announced that I was going to be
the next Director General of the Defense Ministry
I got a call from a friend who said:
"I'm leaving you two disks
in your mailbox.
What's your address?
I'd like you to take a look."
The disks were of interception tests
by the Nautilus
which was supposed to protect
the towns of the south from mortar attacks
and other rocket-based threats.
I decided to meet with the people
supporting the Nautilus
because it was the most available system,
and that's what I did.
Sderot was under constant attack
and we said: "Look, Iron Dome
doesn't even exist yet.
You have the lasers,
which have already been tested.
Why not give it a try?
Set it up outside of Sderot."
Buchris stood up and said:
"Folks, it's obvious,
we must go for the laser."
That was Buchris' immediate reaction.
And in order to find out for sure
and also reassure ourselves
that we weren't making a mistake,
I said: "Okay, Buchris,
go to America and check it out."
He brought up the idea
of seeing it in action
nstead of just taking their word for it.
While they reexamined
the options,
which cost us precious time,
in Gaza, Jabari didn't wait
for anyone.
God is great!
One after another the Fatah members
surrendered to the masked Hamas agents,
Samih Madhoun,
one of Dahlan's men,
whose head Hamas demanded as the one
responsible for the harm to their people,
was captured alive trying to escape Gaza
and executed on live television.
Fatah members start to
fly from the roofs
or undergo torture and death.
Essentially, Hamas takes over Gaza.
500 Palestinians were killed
by Hamas troops
as Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.
it was a brutal crime.
I can't stand the thought of
Palestinians killing Palestinians.
Absolutely not.
This is what Gaza looks like today.
The green flag of Islam and Hamas
is raised over the headquarters
of the Preventive Security Forces.
God is great!
Below in the courtyard,
Hamas agents pray
and thank God for the victory
over Fatah's greatest symbol.
The new boss is the Islamic enemy.
From that moment,
Hamas ruled Gaza
and Jabari, who led the troops,
became Chief of Staff
of the State of Hamas.
He invested a lot of resources
in improving his army's rocket arsenal.
With the Palestinian Authority
no longer ruling Gaza,
Hamas was able to develop missiles
unhindered
and Hamas was free to do
as it pleased in the Gaza Strip.
We're facing a new entity.
The Gaza periphery essentially
becomes the border.
The Israeli government declared Gaza
an enemy entity.
Israel imposed a hermetic seal
on the Gaza Strip.
At the time, it was justified
to close the border crossings
and change the reality
in order not to reward Hamas for...
its success, which had
nothing to do with us.
It was part of an internal conflict,
but it created a new
kind of threat for us.
In Gaza are warnings of
a growing humanitarian crisis
following the closure
of the Kami Crossing.
Shops are still closed and there's
no supply of food or necessities.
Fuel is about to run out as well.
The shutdown embittered the lives
of the Gazans, making them intolerable.
Gaza was like a powder keg
that any little match could ignite.
Roni always dreamt of
going to college.
He couldn't. When you're married,
you have to make a living,
He was a cement truck driver.
He was always on the road
until nighttime,
so it didn't work out.
In 2003, Roni underwent
a successful kidney transplant
and Social Security suggested
that he study for a degree.
And after a year
of recuperation at home,
he decided to go to college
and studied logistics
at Sapir Academic College.
He spent a year doing preparatory courses.
After all, he wasn't young.
He was 44 when he started college.
He was 44 when he started college.
He'd set off for school
happily every morning.
He had lots of younger friends,
he was their guru,
he advised couples, he was always
coming home with a new story.
Young friends came over to study.
And he was happy
for those four years.
The region is in chaos.
Siren follows siren,
Qassam follows Qassam.
We'd been used to the missiles
for years,
but that day it was a serious attack.
That morning he took me to work.
I wanted to kiss him goodbye,
but I don't know why...
Because we didn't usually kiss in public.
He's very shy.
For some reason I wanted to
I had a feeling it was goodbye.
This incident marks the beginning
of a wave of escalation.
The Gaza coastal highway
near Khan Yunes,
a van carrying several members
of the military arm of Hamas
is blown up from the air.
All the passengers were killed.
In Gaza, it's supposed that
some of the casualties
were involved in the manufacture
of Qassam missiles.
Barak kept attacking
and trying to put Hamas
on the defensive,
while Hamas wanted to be
on the offensive.
I try to see how I can thwart terrorism
on both sides
and prepare the troops
for possible confrontations
that are clearly going to happen.
Until then they were minor.
And this is the response,
Hamas launches massive Qassam fire
against Israel.
Hamas announced tonight that they fired
nine of a new type of rocket at Sderot.
If Israel attacks the Gaza Strip,
how can Gaza respond?
The missiles were a way
to balance the equation.
In Gaza, they tried to create
a mini Hezbollah.
After work,
I picked up my youngest, 9-year-old Idan,
from an after-school class.
Then I started calling around
looking for Roni.
"Is Roni at work or at school?"
Then I realized something was wrong.
I saw a mother.
I asked her: "Did something happen
in Sderot today?"
She said: "Didn't you hear?
One dead and many wounded.
I said: "What?"
Red alert.
Just after 4 p.m.,
two Qassam rockets landed
at Sapir Academic College.
Wow, they're looking for Ron
I phoned my sister-in-law and said:
"Zafnat, see what's happening.
They say there are casualties
at the college."
She says: "Don't worry,
I'll look into it.
Come over."
I went to her house, went inside
and saw her husband
pacing back and forth,
in a tizzy,
and I don't understand why.
I thought: "Maybe he's wounded."
I don't know.
Finally the medic came...
and gave us the news.
That's it, the axe fell on us.
For years, Roni worked as a truck driver
and cement mixer operator.
His friends describe him as a quiet,
modest, exemplary family man.
Everyone loved him.
A pure soul who went too soon.
Roni died at the age of 47.
He left a wife and four children.
He was buried in his village cemetery.
Attending his funeral
were relatives,
hundreds students from Sapir Academic
College and other schools, and friends.
Another death, then another
and another.
As Defense Minister, Barak had to prove
that he'd redress the balance.
If in Israel Roni had to die,
Gaza should suffer the same fate.
We won't accept even
a drizzle of rockets,
not even three per day,
fired at our towns,
or mortar shells or whatever,
without responding.
Barak decided to launch "Operation Warm Winter'
and attacked Gaza full-force.
Gaza is bleeding
The escalation that began yesterday
has worsened today, incident after incident.
By the evening, the Palestinians
reported at least 20 dead
in a long series of
aerial bombardments.
It began last night with simultaneous
bombings of Rimal and Zeitoun.
Two Hamas agents were killed,
one of whom is Khamz al-Khaye,
son of Hamas executive and parliament
member Khalil al-Khaye.
Civilians were also wounded.
The Palestinians report
that four children aged 10 to 15
were killed by the bomb
while playing soccer in Jabaliya.
The IDF states that the fire was aimed
at a Qassam-firing cell.
To the people of Gaza we can only say
that when the rocket fire ceases
and the terrorist activity coming
from Gaza into Israel ceases
will the way open for a new situation
of peace between the two sides
and neighborly relations.
During the three days
of "Operation Warm Winter,"
over 150 Palestinians were killed
and hundreds wounded.
And only then, finally, quiet.
Temporary quiet.
The Defense Ministry
took advantage of the quiet
to continue looking into
the best defensive solution.
A delegation headed by Buchris and Nagel
flew to White Sands in the U.S.
where the famous Nautilus stood,
waiting for someone to give the word
to pick up where they left off in 2004.
Arazi had high hopes for the visit.
Maybe when they actually see the launcher,
the Defense Ministry agents will realize
that the choice of Iron Dome
was one big mistake.
Before I left, I asked the Americans
for three things:
One, to see the system,
two, to see it in action,
and three, a price quote.
We arrive, they greet us,
we visit the test site
and see the monster.
Half a football field.
Suddenly I see this gigantic system.
uge containers the size of
big shipping containers,
and they told us the containers
contain the chemicals
that produce the laser.
And when we climbed up,
we saw that the mirror wasn't there,
which only showed that the system
wasn't being tested.
The cables were laid out on the ground,
not attached.
Buchris sees the system
and asks questions.
He can't get answers
for almost any of them.
He says: "How long will it take
to get this working?"
"How much will it cost?"
"Uh... We don't know..."
"Where's the system you offered?
You said, "Sky... Where is it?"
"It's... Uh..."
I asked: "How many interceptions
can this perform?"
They said: "10 interceptions."
I asked: "Okay, and how long does it take
to switch the containers for the next round?
"About 10 hours."
After that visit, I realized
that the Nautilus
was unsuitable for defending the towns
of the south and the north
against rocket fire.
Buchris returned
with a plain conclusion,
that salvation wouldn't come from
the chemical laser. Maybe one day,
but today it's no solution for us.
We decided to shelve it.
We didn't dismiss it.
We said it didn't cover
what we needed
and that we'd look into it again
in a few years.
Yossi Arazi, who unfortunately
wasn't invited to White Sands,
interpreted the visit
slightly differently.
spoke to someone from Northrop Grumman
who was at the meeting
and as he described it,
Buchris asked a question
in English
and before the people from
Northrop Grumman could answer,
Jacob Nagel answered him
in Hebrew
with the intention of discounting
the laser's effectivity
and its ability to solve the problem.
An inexcusable mistake was made
because they took a weapon
intended to defend the towns
from short-range attacks
at a minimal cost
and threw the whole thing away.
Yossi Arazi gave up
and walked away.
We'll never know what would've happened
if they'd chosen otherwise.
Would the laser have been
an effective defense,
the flop of the century?
Only one option remained.
Iron Dome.
But that didn't go anywhere either.
True, Amir Peretz signed an initial contract
for 50 million shekels,
but the big money that was needed
wasn't available.
I heard people from ADWTI mention
that there was something called
"Iron Dome," which had died.
They want to revive it and
bring it up for discussion again.
I brought it up for discussion
and here's what turned out:
Amir Peretz decided to invest
in Iron Dome,
but he didn't know that
within the defense establishment,
as anyone who grew up there
knows well...
any decision that doesn't end with...
At the end of each decision
are five points:
Who does what, by when, with what money
and where does it come from?
Unless all these things are clear,
nothing happens.
The Nagel Committee didn't
apply its findings either.
No decision was made.
I found the corpse laying there.
Not a corpse...
it had to be resuscitated
or revived through some
act of magic.
One suggestion was
to put the money down.
we at the Defense Ministry
would pay for it, 1.7 billion shekels.
Finally, Barak managed
to get the budget
that would enable the development
of Iron Dome.
Now if remained for Danny Gold
to make sure nobody would back down
and that the Defense Ministry
wouldn't sign with Rafael.
Now, writing a contract
for such a tremendous,
multidisciplinary project,
and it is a tremendous project,
it's an event.
And how long does an event take,
a year?
said: "Guys, we somehow succeeded
in getting the money.
We've rolled the boulder
to the edge of the cliff.
e have to sign this soon.
If we don't, they'll take
the money back."
And what happened was,
all the brains on my team
got together.
At the end I summarized
the system,
how it would work,
its architecture,
its sensors, how its missile
would be built.
And I also decided on the price.
How much the missile would cost,
how much its main component would cost,
the sensor, the radar and so on,
how much they'd cost.
I decided on everything,
and...
they signed the contract.
I don't remember if it was
two weeks or 10 days,
they signed in record time.
According to the contract,
the system would be ready within three years.
Everyone realized it was impossible.
The Arrow system took
15 years to develop.
So how would they build the whole
Iron Dome in three years?
Let's say they complete
development in three years.
How do you prevent rockets
and fatalities until then?
In a few years, Israel will be
about 90 percent safe
from all missile fire, from Qassams
to Shihabs.
It was an operational challenge,
maintaining ongoing security
along the border and building Iron Dome.
A new word was thrown around,
"Tahadiya."
No peace, no handshakes,
no ceremonies,
just a ceasefire.
Barak pushed for Tahadiya
with Hamas
and in June 2008 it was supposedjo
be instated.
Across the border
Jabari didn't want to be seen as agreeing
to Tahadiya from a place of weakness.
He wanted to convince the Gazans
that Israel begged for a ceasefire.
And so May 2008, just before
the ceasefire was to begin,
turned into a month of aggressions.
And this time, the rockets were also aimed
at the communities of the Gaza periphery.
How can you stay there?
We just finished the Red South Festival,
a month-long anemone festival
in the south, very colorful.
Life goes on.
This is our home, we have no other.
We've learned to live with the fear.
Fear is a healthy instinct
and we do our best
to overcome it,
not vice-versa.
didn't feel threatened.
I didn't feel anything, really.
Everything was...
normal.
And* while the' Kedoshim family
in Gaza Village didn't feel threatened,
the^Katz family in Kibbutz Gvaram,
just a few kilometers away,
felt the same.
The fear wasn't tangible.
There was a threat from the air,
that shells might fly
here or there sometimes, but...
chances of getting hit on the head
were very slim.
That Friday,
we were expecting guests from France.
mmy went to take a nap
and he said: "Anna, you know what?
Wake me up two hours early
and we'll do a little gardening."
That day, my mother
went with my brother Yariv
to visit my aunt
who'd arrived from America.
It was an intense period,
there were shellings all over,
and my aunt was afraid
to come to us at the kibbutz.
She was afraid to be on the road.
She went to visit a friend
at Yesha Village,
so my mother and Yariv
drove there that afternoon.
My mother was glad to get out
and go somewhere,
to look around Yesha Village.
There's also a big nursery there.
They arrived to Yesha.
'They v^e're’n't sure they'd found
the right house,
so my mother waited in the car
while Yariv got out.
He'd just passed a concrete wall
and entered their property,
and just then the siren went off.
Red alert. Red alert.
Red alert.
Jimmy was working in the garden
and I was just sitting there.
He wanted me with him.
I went to get the trash can
for the clippings
and started collecting
what he'd pruned.
The first time I went
to empty the trash can,
I heard a whistle.
And we know that if you hear
a whistle it's a good sign,
it means it's flying past.
I heard a whistle, looked up,
and saw the Qassam land
in the field across the way.
I threw out the clippings,
then looked over at Gaza.
I'm standing there,
looking at Gaza and I say:
"My God, why are you doing this?"
Within a few seconds,
a missile fell, a Qassam,
on the other side of the wall,
right by my mother,
and she was killed on the spot.
Yariv came home.
He was just a few meters away,
just beyond the wall,
and he was totally unscathed.
Then he saw her dead on the ground.
I heard a boom,
a louder explosion
than I'd ever heard before.
A powerful .explosion.
I hadn't figured out
where it landed’
because I heard the windows shake.
turn to meet Jimmy
and I don't see him.
see a huge mushroom cloud.
All the soil flew into the air
and all I remember was screaming
his name to the depths of my soul,
and whenever I called Jimmy
he answered.
Always.
I screamed his name,
in a horrified voice
I didn't even know I had,
and people came out
and took me away.
They didn't want me to see.
I knew deep inside
that he was dead.
Parachuting was Jimmy's
greatest love.
Here he's seen photographing
the region of Gaza Village,
the kibbutz where he lived
for 30 years until yesterday,
when he was working in his garden
and a mortar shell
struck him directly.
This afternoon, Shuli Katz
was laid to rest in Kibbutz Gvaram,
the second victim of Qassam fire
in three days.
It shouldn't have happened.
It was sheer bad luck.
The whole situation,
all those missiles
and the war.
Our number came up.
People were killed,
defense ministers came and went and continued
to attend funerals and console the bereaved,
but what good did it do?
It couldn't bring back
Jimmy Kedoshim and Shuli Katz.
Meanwhile, Hamas troops
grew stronger,
they dug tunnels and smuggled in
lots of Iranian rockets.
In response, we began to develop Iron Dome
in preparation for the next battle
which nobody from either side
put thought into
whether or how to prevent.