Israel

Israel Puts the Spike Missile on its Apache Helicopters

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9335/israel-spike-missile

Excerpt: Sometimes when decisions do not work out exactly as intended, they work out just fine. In the midst of Operation Protective Edge -- Israel's response to 182 Hamas rockets and mortars fired at Israeli towns and villages in the first week of July 2014 -- the Obama administration accused Israel of "heavy handed battlefield tactics," including the use of artillery instead of precision-guided munitions. U.S. President Barack Obama halted the supply of Hellfire missiles and announced that all military equipment supplied to Israel would be vetted individually in the White House, instead of shipped, according to prior agreements, by the Pentagon to Israel. The President, it appears, had been reading wild press stories about the damage to Gaza -- which ultimately turned out to be concentrated in areas in which Hamas was stockpiling munitions and rockets and conducting command and control operations, which included firing more than 2,700 rockets and missiles during the rest of July. Israel struck an UNRWA-administered school, prompting cries of outrage, but UNRWA later admitted that it covered up that Hamas had used the school for military operations. The Hellfire decision was especially ironic because it is a precision munition, generally less broadly damaging than bombs dropped from aircraft. The Hellfire can be fired from airplanes, drones and helicopters.