Israel Def. Min. Dismisses Lasers, C-RAM

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's Defense Ministry has determined that two new
U.S.-origin missile and rocket defense systems were unsuited to protect
the Jewish state.
The Defense Ministry has conducted a series of examinations of
U.S.-origin systems meant to protect against short-range missiles and
rockets, some of them already deployed in Iraq. The ministry was said to
have concluded that the systems were meant for the defense of military
facilities rather than for civilian communities.
"Requirements for populated areas are fundamentally different," Avi
Weinreb, head of the missile and rocket division at the Defense Ministry,
said.