ISRAEL - Iron Beam Laser Defense

There is something deeply Israeli about the road that led here. Israel did not decide in the abstract to dominate an arms race; it was dragged into one. From the first crude rockets fired out of Gaza to the mass barrages launched by Hamas and Hezbollah, by the Houthis in Yemen, and by Iran itself, the country has been forced to innovate or absorb intolerable levels of civilian harm.

As Defense Minister Israel Katz has explained, the Iron Beam is a ground-based, high-power laser system designed to counter short- to mid-range aerial threats, including rockets, mortars, and drones, which is moving from development into full operational status by the end of this year.

Behind this breakthrough stand the same quiet professionals who turned the Iron Dome from an improbable concept into a lifesaving routine. They are scientists, engineers, programmers, physicists, and defense planners at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Elbit Systems, the IDF, and Israel’s Defense Ministry.

The Jewish state, born in the shadow of history’s worst vulnerability, is now defending itself with light. This laser does not seize territory. It intercepts trajectories. It does not occupy. It neutralizes. At its core, it is a technology devoted to stopping death, not causing it.

-www.jpost.com, 3 December 2025

Commentary: What a statement, “The Jewish state, born in the shadow of history’s worst vulnerability.” This is something incomprehensible. When the State was declared in 1948, it was all but impossible for the virtually non-existent military force to defend itself against the overwhelming power of the neighboring Arab nations … and yet it did!

Apparently, Israel’s neighbors have learned not to get involved militarily with Israel. From the past, whether 1948, 1956, 1967, or 1973, all the odds stacked against the Jewish State failed to materialize.

This points back to the blessing of Jacob-Israel on his last son: “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). Later in Israel’s history, the distinction between light and darkness was made when unprecedented darkness fell over the land and the Egyptians. Something amazing! “And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt… They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (Exodus 10:21, 23).

When Israel came out of bondage from Egypt, we read in Exodus 13:21: “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.”

It is of interest that the main creator of this “Iron Beam” is a company called Raphael, which means “God has healed.” The name is a combination of two Hebrew words: rapha, which means “to heal,” and el, which means “God.”

At the present day, however, this small country—geographically located between more or less hostile nations—is literally forced to defend itself with any and all means to protect its citizens.

This opens a great door of opportunity for the rest of the world; namely, defense, particularly in view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But that’s not all: Israel has a future. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed over 2,700 years ago: “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).