Israel Developing Space-Based Laser Weapon, Defense Minister Announces

Israel is developing a space-based laser weapon capable of targeting satellites, Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced.

The proposed system is intended to give Israel a capability that no other nation currently has, the cabinet member told journalists on Monday.

“As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability,” Katz said, adding that a space laser would give the Israel Defense Forces an advantage over “our enemies with large resources” – a remark national media interpreted as a reference to Iran. The possibility of renewed direct hostilities with the Islamic Republic was a major theme of the briefing.

The US, Russia, and China are all believed to possess various anti-satellite capabilities. Israel’s own Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system is understood to be capable of hitting targets in space.

The issue of such weapons, however, is highly sensitive. Since the Cold War, there has been a declared aspiration to prevent the weaponization of space, or at least stop it from becoming a battlefield.

There is also the practical concern of the Kessler effect. The feared scenario describes a kinetic strike on an enemy satellite triggering a chain reaction in increasingly crowded low Earth orbit, potentially making it unusable for decades until the debris naturally clears.

‘Jewish space lasers’

The Israeli space laser initiative, which will reportedly build on technologies used in other military projects, such as the in-development Iron Beam air defense system, echoes rumors about so-called “Jewish space lasers.”

The alleged capability drew the attention of US media in 2021 as journalists scrutinized the online footprints of several newly elected Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

In 2018, Greene shared claims that such a system could have caused wildfires in the US. She cited purported eyewitness accounts of “lasers or blue beams of light” and mentioned “Rothschild Inc” in the Facebook post, apparently referring to the business empire created by the Rothschild family. She later said she had not known at the time that the Rothschilds were Jewish.

Greene, who is now a private citizen, had a major falling out with President Donald Trump over several policies, including his decision to attack Iran in late February in a joint operation with Israel. She and other vocal supporters of the Republican leader denounced it as a betrayal of Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda and a breach of voters’ trust.