First US-Made Iron Dome Interceptors Delivered from Arkansas Facility

Good Morning, Israel · Friday, October 9, 2026 · 8:08

Episode 12 · Friday, October 9, 2026 · 8:08

First US-Made Iron Dome Interceptors Delivered from Arkansas Facility

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0:008:08

1. First US-Made Iron Dome Interceptors Delivered from Arkansas Facility
2. Pharmacy Student Accused of Terror Plot; Friend Testifies Against Him
3. IDF Soldier Killed, Three Injured in Lebanon Humvee Rollover
4. Grief at October 7th Memorial Tears Through Observer
5. Likud Party Demands Legal Action Against MK Ofer Cassif Following Assault Conviction
6. NYC Mayor Mamdani Proud to Attend Oct. 7 Vigil Amid Protester Outcry

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Maya

An Israeli officer has been killed in southern Lebanon, and three soldiers were wounded when their Humvee overturned.

Daniel

And the first Iron Dome interceptors built on American soil are on their way to Israel.

Maya

This is Good Morning, Israel from baba News. It's Friday, October ninth. I'm Maya.

Daniel

And I'm Daniel.

Maya

Start with Lebanon. What happened?

Daniel

On Thursday, during operational activity in southern Lebanon, an I D F Humvee rolled over. One soldier was killed and three others were wounded.

Maya

Do we know who he was?

Daniel

The army named him as Captain Eliav Haim Tzapalamus. He was twenty-one.

Maya

Twenty-one, and already a captain.

Daniel

Right. It wasn't enemy fire, but it happened in the middle of ongoing hostilities with the terrorist organization Hezbollah. His death brings the number of I D F soldiers killed in southern Lebanon to forty-one.

Maya

Forty-one. That's the hidden cost of these operations. Not every loss comes from the enemy.

Daniel

Exactly. Vehicles, rough terrain, long deployments. The danger is constant even when nobody's shooting.

Maya

There's a diplomatic thread here too, out of Brussels.

Daniel

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign policy chief, wants the mandate of UNIFIL extended. That's the U N peacekeeping force that's been stationed in southern Lebanon for decades.

Maya

Her reasoning?

Daniel

She's worried about a security vacuum if it leaves.

Maya

Which is a strange argument to hear in Israel, since a vacuum is pretty much what Hezbollah built under those peacekeepers' noses.

Daniel

That's the core Israeli frustration. Hezbollah dug in right along the border while UNIFIL was there. So for Israel, the real question is who actually keeps the terrorists away from the border.

Maya

Now, Arkansas. Not a place we mention often.

Daniel

Camden, Arkansas. A new plant there run by R two S, a joint venture between the American company Raytheon and Israel's Rafael, has delivered its first Tamir interceptors.

Maya

Tamir being?

Daniel

The missile Iron Dome fires. Iron Dome is the system that shoots down rockets heading for Israeli towns, and Tamir is what actually hits them.

Maya

So the shield and the arrow, so to speak.

Daniel

Right. The plant has been operating since November twenty twenty-five, and the timing of the first delivery was deliberate. It came on the third anniversary of October seventh.

Maya

Why does it matter where they're made?

Daniel

Supply. Israel has fired a huge number of interceptors over three years. A second production line in the U S means more of them, and deeper defense ties with Washington.

Maya

And the Americans get something out of it too.

Daniel

They do. The same plant will build an American version called SkyHunter for the U S Marine Corps.

Maya

An Israeli missile, protecting American Marines. Nice return on investment.

Daniel

That's the pitch.

Maya

To Jerusalem, and an indictment that reads like a thriller.

Daniel

A twenty-two year old pharmacy student, Mohammed Shalabi, has been indicted in Jerusalem for planning terror attacks with poisons and explosives.

Maya

A pharmacy student. With poisons.

Daniel

That's the part that chills people. According to the indictment, he admitted to surveilling police and planning to use remote-controlled devices and deadly poisons.

Maya

And someone close to him testified?

Daniel

His friend, Tal Sabag. He told investigators Shalabi held extreme views, and that he was willing to die carrying out a revenge attack.

Maya

So a friend saw where this was going.

Daniel

That's what the testimony suggests. The prosecution wants him kept in custody until the case is over.

Maya

What should people take from it?

Daniel

That not every threat comes with a rocket launcher. Sometimes it's someone with specialized knowledge planning quietly, and the security services have to find him before he acts.

Maya

Diplomacy now. On Tuesday we told you Britain was weighing the expulsion of twenty-seven Israeli diplomats over the planned closure of its consulate in Jerusalem.

Daniel

And now Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has gone further. He announced Israel will retaliate against countries that take hostile diplomatic steps against it.

Maya

Starting with Britain.

Daniel

Yes. Israel is closing the British consulate in Jerusalem, in response to British sanctions. And Saar warned that Britain risks losing its influence in the region.

Maya

That's not the kind of thing you usually say to an old ally.

Daniel

It isn't. The message is that hostile measures have a price. And at the same time, Saar is showing that other countries are heading the opposite way.

Maya

Meaning Jerusalem.

Daniel

Right. He says Colombia will open an embassy in Jerusalem next week, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will open a mission there soon.

Maya

How many does that make?

Daniel

According to Saar, eleven.

Maya

So Britain leaves, Colombia arrives. Somebody's counting.

Daniel

The Foreign Ministry definitely is.

Maya

Domestic politics. A Member of Knesset has been convicted.

Daniel

Ofer Cassif, a member of Israel's parliament, was convicted of assaulting a police officer at a protest in twenty twenty-two. It happened in Masafer Yatta, an area in the hills south of Hebron.

Maya

And Likud wants more than a conviction.

Daniel

Likud is the Prime Minister's party. It's asking the government's legal advisor to attach a stigma to the conviction. That's a legal label for crimes considered morally disgraceful.

Maya

Which matters because?

Daniel

Because it could lead to his disqualification from the Knesset.

Maya

And Cassif?

Daniel

He denies the charges, calls the case political persecution, and says he'll appeal.

Maya

With an election on October twenty-seventh, that fight won't stay quiet.

Daniel

Not a chance.

Maya

New York. Yesterday we covered Mayor Zohran Mamdani's anniversary remarks. There's more since then.

Daniel

Mamdani attended a vigil for October seventh victims, organized by a group called Israelis for Peace. Brad Lander, a nominee for Congress, spoke there too.

Maya

And it was disrupted.

Daniel

Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted it and called Mamdani a traitor. He says he's proud he attended.

Maya

Heckling people at a memorial. Not a high point.

Daniel

Governor Kathy Hochul called the protest despicable. She said Jewish New Yorkers should be allowed to mourn without intimidation.

Maya

A quick round now. Some travel news, finally.

Daniel

British Airways is coming back to Tel Aviv on October twenty-fifth, with daily flights from London Heathrow.

Maya

How long has it been gone?

Daniel

Nearly six months. It suspended the route because of the war with Iran. Several other airlines have already returned.

Maya

So the British government closes doors while British Airways opens them.

Daniel

Two very different departures.

Maya

And Morocco.

Daniel

Israel has its first official national pavilion at the Marrakech Airshow. Eight Israeli companies are showing advanced defense systems there.

Maya

A first since the Abraham Accords?

Daniel

Yes. The Abraham Accords are the normalization agreements Israel signed with several Arab countries, Morocco among them. It's also the first national pavilion set up by SIBAT, the Defense Ministry's export directorate.

Maya

Business meetings included, I assume.

Daniel

The delegation is meeting foreign representatives. The aim is more exports and more cooperation.

Maya

And one more from the anniversary. A writer at the main memorial in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park, where thousands gathered, described three women weeping and holding each other.

Daniel

He wrote that after three years of seeing so much suffering, he'd never seen pain like theirs.

Maya

Three years on, and it still finds new ways to break people.

Daniel

It does.

Maya

Something to watch. Keep an eye on London over the weekend, for any British answer to the consulate closure and Saar's warning.

Daniel

And whether that talk of twenty-seven expulsions turns into action. Follow Good Morning, Israel so tomorrow's episode is waiting for you.

Maya

See you tomorrow morning.