78 Years After The Shoah, Israel’s Air Defense System To Protect Germany

An Arrow-3 interceptor is launched at a test site in central Israel on Jan. 18, 2022. The United States gave the green light for selling Israeli’s Arrow 3 air defense system to Germany—the largest defense export deal in the Jewish state’s history—carries powerful historical messages. ISRAEL DEFENSE MINISTRY/HANDOUT/XINHUA

Thursday’s dramatic announcement by the Israeli Defense Ministry that the United States gave the green light for the sale of Israeli’s Arrow 3 air defense system to Germany—the largest defense export deal in the Jewish state’s history—carries powerful historical messages.

Boaz Levy, president and CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, the prime contractor of the Arrow 3 system, said during a telephone press briefing, “One final sentence as a person who has led this project for so many years and as someone whose mother survived the Holocaust, this is a very important moment for me. I believe that the fact that Israelis developed a system that can protect a population from all over the world from ballistic missiles is a very important milestone. For me personally, for IAI and for Israel in general.”