" And he shall set up anensign Strongs 5251: nace; from 5264; a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token:—banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. —Isaiah 11:12
"And he will lift up anensign Strongs 5251: nace; from 5264; a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token:—banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.to the nations from far, and willhiss Strongs 8319: sharaq, shaw-rak´; a primitive root; properly, to be shrill, i.e. to whistle or hiss (as a call or in scorn):—hiss.unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: — Isaiah 5:26
" And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as anensign Strongs 5251: nace; from 5264; a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token:—banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.upon his land.” — Zechariah 9:16
Article Source: The Jerusalem Post
In the history of warfare, game-changers were not always designed to have that effect. But sometimes they had a profound impact on the course of warfare. Defense Minister Benny Gantz has commented on the latest Israeli anti-missile laser test: “energy-based weapons with a powerful laser are, in my opinion, a very significant game-changer…”
When Israel upgraded its Air Force in the 1960s, it wasn’t designed to be the decisive arm of the IDF. That was left to the armored corps and Israel’s tank units. In the Six-Day War, the exceptional performance of the Israeli Air Force, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, led many to see Israel’s Mirage fighters as a new decisive weapon. However, by 1973 a new weapon was seen as taking over the future battlefield: the ballistic missile.
General Chaim Herzog wrote the authoritative history of the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, he traced it to the supply of Soviet SCUD missiles to Egypt just before the war. The Scud had an attribute that was lacking from the Egyptian Air Force at the time: assured penetrability of Israel’s air space.
With Iron Dome, for example, each Tamir interceptor shot can cost $80,000 per missile. If the IDF wanted to save money and make its missile defense units more cost-effective, it had to find a formula for using them more sparingly, firing them only when it was determined that the destructive results of an incoming attack warranted their use. That was the technological breakthrough with Iron Dome because it could discern when a Hamas rocket would hit a populated area or would just explode in an empty part of the desert with no casualties or damage to property.
Today, when the latest-generation laser defense is used, then the military calculus of Israel can change radically.
There is another factor that needs to be taken into account. The strategic background of the last effort to develop laser defenses was the Cold War. The West recognized that the Warsaw Pact was examining how to deny NATO the ability to reinforce its armies by using ballistic missiles against them. Today, the strategic context has changed. Rockets and ballistic missiles are being employed by Iranian proxy forces like Hezbollah, Hamas, and especially the Houthis in Yemen.
The Houthis have also successfully fired armed drones at the heart of Riyadh and at Abu Dhabi. Unquestionably, Bahrain and Kuwait are next in line having faced active insurgencies in the last few years. There is a collective interest among Israel and the Gulf states to deny Iranian allies the ability to hit their most sensitive infrastructures. The Abraham Accords have created new regional possibilities for marrying up Israeli technology with the financial power of the Arab Gulf states. This is the real game-changer that is emerging now.
The writer is the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and as the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
