Daily Alert Archives

Israel Expert Discusses Cyberweapons and Missile Defense

(Bloomberg) Zev Chafets - Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, former Director of Defense R&D and current Chairman of the Israel Space Agency, said in an interview that if he had to rank countries according to offensive and defensive cyberweapons capacities, "I would say that the U.S. and Russia are first, followed by Israel, Great Britain and China, in that order. There's a second tier, composed of countries like France, Germany and other modern democracies. North Korea, and Iran, by the way, are strictly third tier." "In 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged me with creating a five-year national cyberdefense plan....I delivered 13 recommendations for creating an ecosystem" which were accepted and implemented. "Israel's share of the global market in cyber products and services has reached 10% - a fivefold increase over the past five years." With regard to defense against short-range missiles, "We have solved that technological problem with the Iron Dome. In Israel's 2006 Lebanon War, Hizbullah fired 4,200 missiles at Israel. They killed some 80 people. We didn't then have the Iron Dome. Nine years later, Hamas in Gaza fired 4,500, same type of rockets, and there was not a single casualty. That's the meaning of 'battle-tested.'" Asked about Russia possibly providing Iran with an advanced S-400 anti-aircraft system, Ben-Israel said, "It won't make a big difference. We have the technology to deal with it."
2017-10-23 00:00:00
Full Article