The Land of Israel is the safest place in the world. The Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach SHLITA repeatedly spoke about this, especially just before the First Gulf War in 1991. In fact, even prior to the Six Day War, the Rebbe promised that a great victory was coming, noting that “there should be neither fear nor intimidation.”
Precisely the same was also true about the Yom Kippur War, in relation to which, as soon as it began, the Rebbe promised that it would end in victory and that the miracles that would occur during that war would be greater than the miracles of the Six-Day War. And, indeed, it is well known that the Egyptian and Syrian armies, having initially broken through our defensive lines, stopped and did not continue their offensive.
Very often the Almighty`s care and blessing are “wrapped in natural causes”, fulfilled through the natural order of events. In other words, the Almighty`s spiritual light of blessing, coming from higher and holier spiritual levels, descends into our physical world and “takes the form” of natural causes and events.
For example, when it comes to work and income, the blessing of the Almighty enters this world and is “covered” as success in the workplace and receiving full and on-time salary (for salaried workers) or as success in business (for owners of their own businesses).
As for security, the spiritual blessing is also sometimes “wrapped in natural causes” — e.g., in effective and successful systems of protection-such as those that are being developed in Israel. Appearing as the fulfillment of an amazing miracle, they often become the best in the world in their domain.
Among the examples are the “Iron Dome”, designed to shoot down missiles at relatively short distances, the “David’s Sling”, already developed to shoot down cruise missiles, and finally the “Arrow”, designed to shoot down heavy and long-range ballistic missiles... And, of course, many other similar Israeli weapons systems.
Another special system and a blessing “wrapped in natural causes” in the IDF’s arsenal that provides, in my opinion, a high level of security for our country is the “Tammuz” missile, which has been one of Israel’s top military secrets for many years. In fact, even in the army itself, very few people knew about it.
It was developed in order to eliminate the terrible threat that the Yom Kippur War represented, as it became later well known, with thousands of enemy tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery moving in great masses, rapidly breaking through our defense lines and potentially, God forbid, could get Israel’s rear — the populated areas of the country.
One of the suggested approaches was the development of a guided missile that could be used by ground forces instead of the air force. Actually, during the Yom Kippur War the Israeli Air Force was severely hit, therefore it was decided not to rely solely on aviation as it was before. So the missile was designed to hit targets tens of kilometers away from the launch site.
This project became, indisputably, completely unique on a global scale.
The developed missile was intended primarily for use by small units that could deploy quickly in the field and launch missiles from protected, camouflaged positions, far from the front lines. In this way, the missiles could strike enemy armored columns quite unexpectedly.
“Tammuz” was developed by the Israeli company “Rafael” and deployed in the 1980s in two top secret special units — “Meitar” and “Moran”.
The missile mantaines such characteristics, that make it capable to hit targets both during the day and at night, which, combined with its relatively long range — about 20-30 km and incredible accuracy, repeatedly verified in experiments and combat launches, made “Tammuz” an exceptional weapon from all points of view.
The missile’s development was kept strictly confidential — the military leadership planned to activate it only in case of a large and serious war. That is why “Tammuz” was not used in major IDF military operations in Lebanon in the 1990s — neither during Operation Accountability in 1993 nor during Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996 — and it still remained one of Israel’s major weapons secrets, expected to be a strategic surprise for the enemy — especially Syria.
When it was developed, the “Tammuz” was the longest-range anti-tank missile in the world!
Its range was 8 km. The second generation of the missile, which had, with thermal systems, also the possibility to function perfectly in the nighttime, had a range of 12 km. Later the range increased to 20 km, and today it reaches 30 km.
In comparison, the range of the American heavy anti-tank missile “BGM-71 TOW”, installed on the U.S. attack helicopters “Cobra” is only 4 km. The range of American Hellfire air-to-ground missiles “AGM-114”, which are used in the American attack helicopters Apache, is 8 km (and 11 km in the latest model).
As a result, combat helicopters of the Israeli Air Force also began to use “Tammuz” missiles, which have, as already mentioned, an exceptional range and accuracy. At first they were equipped in Israel in “Cobra” helicopters, and then, when they were out of service, in “Apache” helicopters as well. Moreover, the “Tammuz” missile was also installed in Israeli Navy ships.
In order to expand its combat capabilities, the missile was modified to be launched from armored personnel carriers and then from specially equipped “Pereh” tanks. Disguised as ordinary tanks, these missile launchers actually carried the deadly “Tammuz” launchers, designed to destroy whole tank columns from a long distance, without the enemy even having a chance to guess where the trouble came from...
It should be noted that the “Tammuz” missile has the ability to independently follow the target to which it was “aimed”. At the same time, the missile’s operator has the ability to change the target during the flight and direct the “Tammuz” to another target. This capability gives the missile great operational flexibility and a wide range of functions.
Over the years, as Syria weakened and details about the missile began to gradually leak out and be revealed, it was decided to use it in limited engagements. It was therefore used extensively in the Second Lebanon War.
About 600 of those missiles were launched at that time and managed to hit individual terrorists as well as launchers, terrorist rocket squads, Hizbullah infrastructure and many other targets with very high accuracy. The missile was later also used in Operation Cast Lead (2009) in the Gaza Strip. At present it is regularly used to attack targets in the Gaza Strip and Syria.
The missile was finally declassified and revealed to the public only 10 years ago, after decades during which its existence was kept completely secret. Finally, a few weeks ago, the Israeli Artillery Forces organized a celebration event where pictures of the experiments with the “Tammuz” missile were presented for the first time.
All in all, many additional models of the “Tammuz” missile have been developed and are now in the IDF service, and they are also exported to 35 countries around the world.
The Land of Israel is the safest and most secure place in the world!