In an episode of the latest season of the Netflix series Lupin, a flashback scene shows the
main character, Assane Diop, and a friend planning their first burglary as teenagers. Diop
chooses as the pair’s target a house overflowing with the trappings of wealth—and with
expensive security mechanisms. His friend is hesitant, but Diop is undeterred, reminding his
cautious accomplice of a fundamental truth.
“Feeling safe isn’t the same as being safe.”
Diop proved the prescience of those words by outsmarting the intricate web of security. Over
the weekend, Hamas militants proved it by overwhelming one of the most advanced and
interconnected air defense systems in the world: Israel’s Iron Dome.
Massing against Iron Dome
When Hamas launched its massive and coordinated attack on the morning of October 7, it
initiated it with a barrage of rocket fire from inside Gaza. This is precisely the type of attack
Iron Dome exists to defend against. Initially deployed in 2011, it recorded its first successful
intercept of a rocket fired from Gaza just days later. The system of mobile batteries has since
been expanded to cover population centers across southern and central Israel, and its
effectiveness has steadily improved. During a period of attacks in March 2012, Iron Dome
