this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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It cost Israel more than $1bn to activate its defence systems that intercepted Iran's massive drone and missile attack overnight, according to a former financial adviser to Israel's military.

"The defence tonight was on the order of 4-5bn shekels [$1-1.3bn] per night," estimated Brigadier General Reem Aminoach in an interview with Ynet news.

"If we're talking about ballistic missiles that need to be brought down with an Arrow system, cruise missiles that need to be brought down with other missiles, and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], which we actually bring down mainly with fighter jets," he said.

"Then add up the costs - $3.5m for an Arrow missile, $1m for a David's Sling, such and such costs for jets. An order of magnitude of 4-5bn shekels."

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[–] [email protected] 100 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The cost for one night of defence seen as significantly higher than the price Iran paid to mount its attack

That looks like it's exactly the point. Israel hitting the Iranian embassy wasn't extreme enough for Iran to seriously escalate, yet you can't just leave such a thing unanswered or they'll do it again and again, you also don't want to draw (additional) ire to yourself, meaning you don't want to have any casualties, at least not indiscriminate ones, at the most you want to give people a scare. So you shoot a couple of volleys you know Israel can intercept, maximising not for anything getting through but interception costing them a pretty penny. Now, the next time the IDF considers such a strike some politician somewhere is going to say "we don't have a billion dollars to spare right now for that BS, cut it out".

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The next war will be decided on what it will mean for the economy ... not by the danger or death it places on human life.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (3 children)

alwayshasbeen.png

...resources in general, that is. Physical, immaterial, real, imagined, actual gold and timber or actual street cred, heck even peace, but it's always resources because that's what politics are about and war is nothing but the continuation of politics by different means.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Note that a significant amount of the interceptor missiles and planes used were American and a small part British, so israel is not footing this bill by itself.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 11 months ago (39 children)

This is just one reason why the US doesn't have public health care.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

The main reason isn’t cost, it’s republicans.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I keep telling people we already spend more than other places but they don’t get it. Waiting til you’re in the ER with a preventable issue is always going to be the least cost effective

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And that’s the reason so many low-income counties are losing their hospitals.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

“Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.”

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (3 children)

That's BS the US is already spending as many federal tax payer dollars per capita on healthcare as the UK is spending on the NHS. That's not to say that the funding of the NHS is stellar but the service level is also in no way abysmal. Long story short: US taxpayers are not even close to getting their money's worth because most of it is funnelled to private profits, not actual healthcare. Military has nothing to do with it the US could double the medical budget and it wouldn't make a dent in the military budget.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

The issue has and always will be that Medicare for all takes money away from the billionaire class.

Privatization is the reason for “small government”

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The other reason being that grifters in the healthcare business gonna grift.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Enjoy your freedom potholes.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It didn't cost Israel anything. The U.S. and UK covered the cost.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago (5 children)

How much would it cost NOT to shoot them down?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A better way to put it would be: how much would it have saved to not have to shoot them down to begin with?

Israel is desperate to keep wars going to justify their annexing of Gaza and West Bank and leech off the US.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Israel is desperate to keep wars going to justify their annexing of Gaza and West Bank and leech off the US.

Ah yes, Iran who famously has nothing at all to do with Hamas and was best buds with Israel until last fall.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

What a horrible thing to write. Civilian lives were on the line.

Edit: I understand now that it was meant to suggest that it was less expensive to stop the attack than to rebuild. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, the Israeli government sees civilian lives as very valuable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Oh, I totally agree Netanyahu put them in this situation. That’s not the same thing as contemplating inaction in protecting innocent lives.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (6 children)

It's a reasonable question to ask.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Pretty sure you took that the wrong way.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I still can't believe that Israel's actual currency is called the "shekel", it really sounds like something a sci fi author would make up.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It's a reference to antiquity. A shekel was a unit of weight and later a unit of currency in the ancient Near East.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It's okay, they will just print more money, don't worry.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

More likely the US will just gift them more

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