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Majority of Israelis Prefer the Trump Administration over Biden's

Majority of Israelis Prefer the Trump Administration over Biden's
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Majority of Israelis Prefer the Trump Administration over Biden's

Majority of Israelis Prefer the Trump Administration over Biden's

The majority of Israelis believe US President Joe Biden is less favorable to Israel than his predecessor, Donald Trump, according to a poll by the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies (Mitvim).

According to the Ninth Annual Public Opinion Survey on Israeli Foreign Policy, Israelis consider the United States to be the best world country for Israel.

Russia fell second, followed by Germany, Britain, China, Egypt, France and Jordan, whose rate of importance for Israelis has increased to 12 percent compared to seven percent in last year’s foreign policy index.

Meanwhile, 46 percent of the Israelis considered the European Union to be a rival rather than a friend.

About 57 percent attached great importance to Israel’s improving its relations with Jordan, and 61 percent expressed broad support for improving relations with Turkey.

Almost half of the participants in the survey said they are interested in visiting an Arab country.

The United Arab Emirates and Morocco are the Arab countries that Israelis are most interested in visiting, at 10% each, followed by Lebanon (7%), Egypt (6%), Saudi Arabia (3%) and Jordan (3%).

In another context, 38 percent said that Israel should not interfere in the Palestinian Authority’s political and economic crises, while 28 percent supported Israel’s working to strengthen the authority, and 13 percent said that Israel should work to weaken it.

As for Gaza, 31 percent said relevant parties should work to ensure the PA regains control in the enclave, while 22 percent supported resorting to the international community for a broad economic reconstruction in the Strip.

Also, 13 percent supported Israel conducting negotiations with Hamas to reach a long-lasting truce and nine percent said the situation there should remain as it is.

Thirty-two percent of Israelis considered meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials a positive step that contributes to improving bilateral ties, the poll showed, and 30 percent believed it is a symbolic move that will not affect ties, while 17 percent said these meetings harm Israeli interests.

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Global Interest in Israel's Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
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Global Interest in Israel's Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)

Israel's effective use of air-launched ballistic missiles in its airstrikes against Iran is expected to pique interest elsewhere in acquiring the weapons, which most major powers have avoided in favor of cruise missiles and glide bombs.
The Israeli Army said its Oct. 26 raid knocked out Iranian missile factories and air defenses in three waves of strikes.
Researchers said that based on satellite imagery, targets included buildings once used in Iran's nuclear program, according to Reuters.
Tehran defends such targets with “a huge variety” of anti-aircraft systems, said Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at London's Royal United Services Institute.
Cruise missiles are easier targets for dense, integrated air defenses than ballistic missiles are.
But ballistic missiles are often fired from known launch points, and most cannot change course in flight.
Experts say high-speed, highly accurate air-launched ballistic missiles such as the Israel Aerospace Industries Rampage get around problems facing ground-based ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles - weapons that use small wings to fly great distances and maintain altitude.
“The main advantage of an ALBM over an ALCM is speed to penetrate defenses,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.
“The downside - accuracy - looks to have been largely solved,” he said.
Ground-launched ballistic missiles - which Iran used to attack Israel twice this year, and which both Ukraine and Russia have used since Russia's invasion in 2022 - are common in the arsenals of many countries. So, too, are cruise missiles.
Because ALBMs are carried by aircraft, their launch points are flexible, helping strike planners.
“The advantage is that being air-launched, they can come from any direction, complicating the task of defending against them,” said Uzi Rubin, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, one of the architects of Israel's missile defenses.
The weapons are not invulnerable to air defenses. In Ukraine, Lockheed Martin Patriot PAC-3 missiles have repeatedly intercepted Russia's Khinzhals.
Many countries, including the United States and Britain, experimented with ALBMs during the Cold War. Only Israel, Russia and China are known to field the weapons now.
The US tested a hypersonic ALBM, the Lockheed Martin AGM-183, but it received no funding for the 2025 fiscal year.
Because it has a large arsenal of cruise missiles and other types of long-range strike weapons, Washington has otherwise shown little interest in ALBMs.
A US Air Force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ALBMs are not used in Air Force operations.
Raytheon's SM-6, an air-defense missile that has been repurposed for air-to-air and surface-to-surface missions, also has been tested as an air-launched anti-ship weapon, said a senior US defense technical analyst, who declined to be identified because the matter is sensitive.
In tests the missile was able to strike a small target on land representing the center of mass of a destroyer, the analyst said. Publicly, the SM-6 is not meant for air-to-ground strikes.
Because ALBMs are essentially a combination of guidance, warheads and rocket motors, many countries that have precision weapons already have the capability to pursue them, a defense industry executive said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“This is a clever way of taking a common set of technologies and components and turning it into a very interesting new weapon that gives them far more capability, and therefore options, at a reasonable price,” the executive said.