Congress Asked to Give More For Iron Dome

The Pentagon is asking the US Congress to allow more funding to help Israel build more Iron Dome batteries. Last year $205 million was targeted specifically for it. This year's request would be for at least $500 million, or enough for ten of the batteries.

Iron Dome is a state of the art missile defense system, that has been over ninety percent effective in defending Israel from incoming rockets. Batteries cost about $50 million a piece.

So far three other batteries are all that protects a small part of southern Israel. Monday saw the spread of the batteries, so that one covers Tel Aviv now as well. More are in the production stages. South Korea, NATO, and the US Army have all expressed interest in buying future batteries.

President Obama has taken lots of heat lately for not supporting Israel as much as other Presidents have. This is a clear sign that he doesn't want to be looked at in that way, and so is rushing to plug that hole in his reelection campaign.