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Weapons Experts Raise Doubts About Israel’s Antimissile System - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/world/middleeast/israels-iron-dome-system-is-at-center-of-debate.html?pagewanted=all

The senior Israeli official who defended Iron Dome said he understood the skepticism because the world’s first antimissile war — which erupted over Israel in 1991 during the gulf war — did produce exaggerated claims of success. But he rejected the idea that Iron Dome was missing or deflecting most of its targets. The images of online videos, he suggested, lacked the sharpness to reliably see kills within the glowing fireballs.

Enemy warheads, the official stressed, were “destroyed — not engaged — destroyed.” But as the interview unfolded, he offered examples of partial rocket destruction that seemed to contradict the portrayals of total annihilation. Falling debris, he conceded, could sometimes destroy a car or damage a house. But he dismissed reports of wide damage on the ground as rumors.

The Obama administration has cited the videos as testimonials to the system’s importance. “Everybody gets it,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently told the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, prompting thousands to break into applause. “Everybody saw.”

Obama Arrives in Israel for Two-Day Trip - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/world/middleeast/obama-arrives-in-israel-for-two-day-trip.html

Un modèle de journalisme,

President Obama landed here on Wednesday to begin a highly symbolic two-day visit to Israel, the first of his presidency, offering a wary Israeli public reassurances of the support of its American ally as Israel faces threats from Iran....

Mr. Obama was driven almost immediately to a nearby hangar to inspect a battery of the Iron Dome air-defense system. The system, built by Israeli companies but largely financed by the United States, is credited with intercepting more than 400 rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli towns.

Un modèle de président,

Mr. Obama did not mention the Palestinians by name, referring instead to Israel’s “neighbor.” (...) he invoked the Jewish people’s 3,000-year history in the area and referred to modern Israelis as “the sons of Abraham and daughters of Sarah.”

“I walk with you on the historic homeland of the Jewish people,” he said.

Mr. Obama is also expected to try to redress what some Israelis regarded as two affronts in his landmark speech to the Muslim world in 2009. In that speech, also written by Mr. Rhodes, he dwelt on the suffering of the people of Palestine and declared that the aspirations for a Jewish homeland were rooted principally in the Holocaust.