Iron Dome Redux

The House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to mark up the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill today. Included in that legislation is $680 million in funding for the Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket and -artillery system, according to a statement released yesterday afternoon by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). As Berman says in the statement:

Only weeks ago, a massive barrage of rockets was fired from Gaza at Israeli population centers by Islamic Jihad and other terrorists. But unlike previous incidents where terrorists targeted Israel, the Iron Dome anti-missile system -- funded in part by the United States -- changed the rules of the game. In fact, Iron Dome intercepted a remarkable 90 percent of incoming rockets aimed at once-defenseless population centers.

Israel has three operational Iron Dome batteries in Israel, "but more are needed to protect all of Israel's citizens," according to Berman's statement.

On March 5, Berman and Reps. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) introduced a bill that would "express the sense of Congress regarding the United States-Israel strategic relationship, to direct the president to submit to Congress reports on United States actions to enhance this relationship and to assist in the defense of Israel, and for other purposes." The legislation will be introduced on the House floor today, according to Berman.