IDF TO AMERICA'S RESCUE

America's SOS to the IDF - Amir Oren
Last month, U.S. Brig.-Gen. Joseph Votel made an urgent request to an old friend, IDF Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Nuriel, chief of the foreign liaison department of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, to send him a top-secret item the IDF has developed that could be useful in combating the improvised explosive devices (IED) used against U.S. forces in Iraq. Within five days, the items in question and their manuals were on a plane headed overseas. The ability of the IDF, the Defense Ministry, and the defense industries to help the Americans thwart IED attacks in Iraq is becoming the tipping point on which the Bush administration is tottering. The most lethal factor in the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq is the IEDs planted along roadways or in booby-trapped vehicles. By the Americans' admission, the most effective aid to defeat the IEDs comes from Israel. (Ha'aretz)