While the establishment media has not mentioned it, the Israelis have deployed a second high-tech defense system in their war against Hamas. There have been many media articles about the Israeli Iron Dome defense system which shoots down the rockets and missiles fired by Hamas with incredible accuracy. Given that Hamas has fired 1000s of rockets at Israel, the Iron Dome system has surely saved many Israeli lives. However, there has been virtually no mention that the Israelis have also deployed a tank-protection system called “Trophy” which intercepts all kinds of projectiles fired by Hamas’ soldiers or anyone else at Israeli tanks.
The first two links [1, 2] describe this almost Science Fiction-like, tank-defense system. Many readers will recall that when Israel last fought Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israelis lost a lot of tanks to Hezbollah anti-tank weapons used in close-quarters situations. Israel has now developed a new tank-defense system that negates almost all anti-tank threats from any kind of projectile fired at Israeli tanks. The new system immediately detects a projectile fired at a tank and fires a pod of ball bearings which explode the enemy’s projectile when it nears the target. This entire process can happen within a fraction of a second, and it is truly a remarkable tank-defense system. The Trophy system is reportedly effective against RPGs, recoilless rifles, infantry-fired anti-tank weapons, tank shells fired by Russian-type tanks, and even anti-tank missiles fired from aircraft. The inability of an enemy to destroy an Israeli tank under combat conditions is an incredible “force multiplier” for the entire Israeli armored forces.
This tank-defense system has been used successfully in the current war with Hamas in Gaza. Have you noticed that there hasn’t been a single report that any Israeli tank has been destroyed or even damaged despite any Hamas effort to attack them? In using this system in the current war with Hamas in Gaza, I think Israel is sending a message to Hezbollah and all its potential enemies that the Israeli armored forces are now being equipped with a high-tech defense system which negates their anti-tank weaponry. This should provide a heightened measure of deterrence against Hezbollah provoking a war in the north of Israel as Hezbollah will now know much of its anti-tank arsenal has been rendered useless. It also makes Israel more attractive as a military ally to other nations in the Mideast and, indeed, throughout the world.
According to the second link, the USA is working to deploy a similar US system called “Bright Arrow” for US armored forces. Readers may have noticed that before the US Congress went on vacation, it approved a measure to sell a large number of Iron Dome missiles to Israel to replenish their inventories given how many missiles are currently being fired by Israeli launchers at Hamas rockets. This begs a question in my mind. It has been reported that the Iron Dome missile-defense system was jointly developed and funded by the USA and Israel. If Israel has to ask the USA for a new supply of quickly delivered Iron Dome missiles, it surely infers that the USA also has the Iron Dome anti-missile system. If the USA makes and inventories the Iron Dome missiles and Israel can request to the USA for a quick inventory replenishment for its inventory, it indicates to me that the USA also must have the Iron Dome anti-missile system deployed in undisclosed locations all over the world. Would the USA make Iron Dome missiles in large numbers and forget to make the launchers? I doubt it.
Biblically, God decreed that the tribe of Judah would again have a nation in the latter days of this current age just before Divine intervention (the “day of the Lord”) in the world’s affairs (Zephaniah 2:1-9). Verses 6-7 specifically prophesied that the Jewish nation founded in the latter days would be on the “coast” of the old Promised Land and that the city of Ashkelon would be within the Jewish state. That was precisely fulfilled when the Israeli nation was born in 1948. It possessed the coastland of the old Promised Land and it included the city of Ashkelon. That a prophecy written circa 26 centuries ago came to pass precisely as it was originally written, in our time proves conclusively that the Bible is the word of a Creator God/Elohim who can make his word come to pass–just as he claimed he could (Isaiah 41:21-26). It also powerfully confirms that we are living in the biblical “latter days” (please read my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days? which examines the many evidences that we are living in the latter days.)
Zephaniah’s prophecy also foretells the Jewish Israeli nation in the latter days would be protected by God and he would make them victorious over neighboring enemies. Zechariah 12 and 14 also foretell that the Israeli nation will be protected by God and that he will intervene in its behalf at the very end of this age when World War III occurs. We Christians clearly see Zechariah 12:8-14 as prophesying that Jesus Christ (“me whom they have pierced” in verse 10) has to be the Messiah/Savior prophesied in Zephaniah 12 who will save the nation of Judah. It is also significant that both Zechariah 12 and 14 link the city of Jerusalem as being inexplicably a part of the latter-day nation of Judah–the Israeli nation. Jerusalem became the capitol of the Israeli nation when it was taken by the IDF in the 1967 war. The fact that the Israelis took control of Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecies in Zechariah 12 and 14 that Judah (the Israelis) would control Jerusalem in the latter days. That did not immediately take place in 1948, but was fulfilled 19 years after the founding of the Israeli nation.
God has prophesied that he will protect the Israeli nation in the latter days. It will never cease to exist. One way that God can fulfill his prophecies is to inspire the Israeli technicians and engineers to develop such systems as Iron Dome and Trophy. God does not need to hurl lightning bolts from heaven to fulfill his prophecies. Biblical accounts indicate God often works through human beings to accomplish and fulfill his will. God states that, if necessary, he will control the decisions of national leaders to make sure his prophecies get fulfilled (Proverbs 21:1).
As an aside, the third link records a media story that the famous statesman, Henry Kissinger, has reportedly predicted the end of the state of Israel in the Mideast within ten years. Kissinger’s prophecy will fail. The Bible’s prophecies will be fulfilled. The Israeli nation will not be extinguished.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PUusycx3Xc
- http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/watch-an-active-protection-system-destroy-an-rpg-fired-1609196170
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/07/27/flashback-kissinger-israels-coming-demise-senile-prophetic-merely-pragmatic/
