Yemeni Tel Aviv Ballistic Shocks Israeli Psychology

Dr Marwan Asmar 

The Israeli government and army are in a shocked mood, Sunday morning, over the ballistic missile, all the way from Yemen – that landed in the east of Tel Aviv and just six kilometers from Ben Gurion Airport.

The defense missiles, some the best in the Israeli military, including the Iron Dome, the Arrow and David’s Sling, saw the route of the Hatem 2 ballistic missile but failed to intercept it as it crashed in the surrounding forest areas of Tel Aviv causing mass fires with its shrapnels reaching the airport and a train station on the outskirts of Modi’in in central Israel with reports of damage according to the Israeli Haaretz.

Social media video clips show a train was hit on a rail line with smoke billowing out of it with one suggesting it was a  “direct hit to Israeli infrastructure” and that “Israel on fire.”

Shock psychology

The incoming surface-to-surface missile created havoc in the psychology of Israelis, most of whom were still asleep.  

As they heard the sirens warnings triggered in all areas of the so-called Greater Tel Aviv, all Israelis – reported to be 2,365,000 by the Hadshot Bazman website – tried to get to the underground shelters as quickly as possible with nine people being injured as a result of the “stampede-like” situation and “crush” that happened for sirens started bellowing at 6 pm in the morning.

Israeli security expert Yossi Melman said the single Yemeni missile breached the entire layered defense system of Israel as the Yemen missile was able to bypass 22 defense posts and whose counter-missiles were unable to shoot the single ballistic down, and turning Israel’s top-dollars defense systems into a laughing stock.  

Israeli media reports say the military has already opened an investigation into the missile but they point also this is the third Yemeni success whose ballistic missiles targeted Tel Aviv, Eilat and now the Ben Gurion Airport.

The Houthis are saying nothing can stop us now for continually targeting Israel until the war on Gaza is stopped.  

The Yemenis are saying this is just the beginning. 

The Yemeni Defense Minister and Chief of General Staff in Sanaa issued, Saturday, a stern warning to the “enemies of the nation and the evil trio of America, Britain, and Israel,” stating what is coming will be “harsher and more severe than anything they have faced in the past,” as reported in the almayadeen website.

Israeli Army Radio reported “the ballistic missile launched from Yemen traveled a distance of approximately 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), taking around 15 minutes of flight time according to Anadolu. Yet it was not detected in time. The Israeli army says it is investigating why.

But this is surely to be a psychological blow to the Israeli military which is already under intense pressure from Hezbollah trajectories from the north to stop the war that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to.

Dr Marwan Asmar 
E-mail: marwan.asmar59@gmail.com

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Israel’s Economy Sinks as Gaza War Deepens

The Israeli economy is in the doldrums, going from bad to worse because of the country’s war on Gaza. The recent shock is the fact that the US technology giant Intel  has halted the construction of its new $25-billion factory in Israel as reported by Anadolu.

The Israeli genocide has reflected badly on its economy in the last eight months. The massive war on the Gaza Strip has basically created an economic slump and a recession. It would take years for Israel to recover from.

Economic growth has shrunk by 20 percent in all economic sectors with construction and tourism taking the lead part. Thousands of stores are closing with Israeli companies suffering hundreds of millions of dollars. The figures are likely to be higher still today in June.

Israeli products have become so ashamed with the genocide its carrying out in Gaza, that companies are reverting to hiding the Israel tagmark on their products so they can be sold in other countries.

Israel is suffering massive losses from its war on Gaza

to the tune of $750 billion dollars. Around 50 percent of Israeli companies experienced a significant drop in their revenues.

This is because 11 percent of their workforce were called up for military service. And because of this only 37 percent of the Israeli companies operated with fewer than five of their employees in the past two weeks. These figures were up to 4 November, 2023, about one month into the war on Gaza.

So one imagine the economic situation in the country with Israel starting its nine months of war and genocide on Gaza.

As the war started 764,000 workers in the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza became unemployed because they were no longer allowed to work in Israel. Palestinian workers form 18 percent of the total workforce in Israel. About 90,000 of these were working in the construction sector that is now at a standstill.

The Houthi naval blockade through Bab El Mandeb registered huge economic losses for Israeli ports. The Eilat Port in south Israel has come to a complete standstill since December 2023 when the Houthis started to target ships carrying goods to Israel.

This immediately resulted in huge economic losses to the tune of $3 billion because it effectively put an to trade with Far East that included China, Japan, South Korea and India.

Eilat was seen as a critical trade port but ships carrying goods to Israel ceased operating to the port in fear that they would be targeted by Houthi missiles.

Quickly however the war on Gaza deepend Israel’s economic crisis. In a Bloomberg report in May, it was revealed economic losses amounted to $16 billion.

The war had created a 6.6 percent deficit in the financial budget which increased by 7 percent of the GDP while spending increased by 36 percent in the first four months of 2024. This was mainly due to the fact that defense expenditure accounted for a third of Israeli spending.

The Israeli Central Bank had estimated that the cost of the Gaza war would be about $64.4 billion but now the figures could well be revised because of the determination by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue with the conflict for the foreseeable future.

Finally, the Israeli economy is suffering billions of dollars from cyberattacks. The National Cyber Directorate revealed last May that Israel loses $3.3 billion annually because of cyber attacks.

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