JUSTIN AMLER: Think Iran is just an ‘Israel problem’? Think again

It looks like a sequence from a high-budget sci-fi movie: a silent flash in the black void of space, followed by a blooming explosion of light. But for the people of Israel, this isn’t entertainment. It is the nightly reality of survival.

Since the direct conflict with the Iranian regime escalated on February 28, the skies over the Middle East have become among the most contested airspace on Earth. Iran has unleashed hundreds of rockets, suicide drones, and ballistic missiles upon predominantly civilians not just in Israel, but across the region, threatening Arab states like the UAE and Qatar, attacking US bases and even seeking to hit EU member state Cyprus and NATO member Turkey. And Hezbollah has been firing rockets and missiles at Israeli cities in the north. On March 28, the Houthis also rejoined the conflict when they launched a small salvo of ballistic missiles towards Israel.

Perhaps the most chilling development came on March 20. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, Iran fired a long-range ballistic missile targeting the joint UK-US military base at Diego Garcia — a staggering 4000 kilometres away.

This was not just another missile attack. This one mattered even more, because as recently as February, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi repeated in an interview Iran’s long-standing claim that it had purposely limited the range of its missiles to under 2000km, rejecting claims it was developing long-range weapons like the ones used on March 20.

So what does this mean?

It means Iran deceives. It means that, as Israel has been saying for decades, Iran is not just an “Israeli problem” — it’s a world problem. Iran’s already in possession of a warhead that can travel 4000km making it already a direct threat to the heart of Europe, capable of reaching capitals like London, Paris, Rome and others, and it is working on being able to hit targets even further afield, including the US (and of course Australia).

For a terror regime to hold this much power should scare every peace-loving democracy in Europe and the world.

This is why Israel has built one of the most advanced missile defence systems in the world. Of course, even so, there have been grim reminders that no defensive shield is impenetrable.

Several ballistic missiles aimed at civilian population centres managed to evade interception, causing devastating damage.

One of the worst examples came on March 21, when the small southern city of Arad took a direct hit when a missile reportedly carrying a 450-kilogram explosive warhead tore through a residential neighbourhood, and another struck nearby Dimona. The human cost was more than 100 people injured, many in critical condition. Among them were a five-year-old girl in Arad and a 12-year-old boy in Dimona, both struck by shrapnel.

Meanwhile, Israeli civilians have also been killed in Hezbollah barrages, like 27-year-old Nuriel Dubin, killed at Mahanayim Junction in Israel’s north.

And just this past weekend, four members of the Gershovitz family were killed when an Iranian ballistic missile hit their apartment building in Haifa.

These scenes are heartbreaking. Yet the reality is that without Israel’s multi-layered defence architecture, the casualties would not be in the hundreds — they would be in the tens of thousands.

Israel’s advanced integrated defence system is designed to neutralise threats from the edge of space down to the street level.

At the highest tier, Arrow-3 and Arrow-2 provide a dual-guard against ballistic missiles, intercepting them both outside and as they re-enter the atmosphere.

Below them, David’s Sling serves as the workhorse against sophisticated medium-range threats such as those from Hezbollah, while the world-famous Iron Dome uses selective targeting to down rockets and drones headed for populated areas, used primarily against rocket launches from Gaza.

The most revolutionary addition is the Iron Beam. Yes, the “Jewish Space Laser” is now a reality. It uses high-energy directed beams to incinerate short-range threats for only a few dollars per pulse. This is a staggering economic shift from the $100,000 cost of a traditional Iron Dome interceptor.

As incredible as these high-tech solutions are, the final layer of defence is the simplest: the more than a million bomb shelters built into homes, schools, and public buildings across the country.

This highlights the fundamental difference in philosophy between the two sides of this conflict. While the Iranian regime and its proxies invest billions in “martyrdom” and the technology of death, Israel invests its genius into technology to preserve life.

No system is perfect, but in a region surrounded by regimes that openly call for the destruction of an entire people, these systems are nothing short of a modern miracle, a miracle that saves lives.

While other countries have demonstrated defensive capability, Israel is currently the leader in the world’s missile defensive shield, having recognised the dangers early on.

As Iran’s shadow stretches beyond 4000km, the question is no longer whether this threat will reach the West — but how prepared the West will be when it does.

Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).