Steinitz: 'Arrow' keeps Israel ahead of Iran, Syria

Head of Homa Missile Defense Agency: "The Arrow's success proves that Israel is prepared to deal with a nuclear missile attack."

By YAAKOV KATZ, AP
arrow launch 298.88 (photo credit: Channel 1)
arrow launch 298.88
(photo credit: Channel 1)
"The Arrow's success proves that Israel is prepared to deal with a nuclear missile attack," Col. Moshe Petael, head of the Defense Ministry's Homa Missile Defense Agency, said Monday, a day after the IAF successfully tested the Arrow missile defense system for the 15th time in the first nighttime exercise against a missile mocking an Iranian Shihab-3. "The missile can counter all of the future Iranian and Syrian threats against Israel," Petael said. "I think the people of Israel can sleep peacefully since we again proved that we are capable of countering all future threats to the State of Israel." Israel's latest test of its Arrow missile defense system proves it has a jump on its fiercest enemies, Iran and Syria, a leading member of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said Monday. "The test yesterday was exceptional," Likud lawmaker Yuval Steinitz, a former head of the powerful panel, told The Associated Press. "It proved it (the Arrow) can bring down any kind of ballistic missile, a capability no power in the world possesses. "Even if Iran or Syria were to develop more sophisticated missiles than they now have, Israel is one step ahead," Steinitz added.