Israeli Advanced Armor Systems Protect U.S. Soldiers

(February 2012)

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Work being done at Kibbutz Sasa, a small village nestled in the forested hills of northern Israel, helps to save the lives of countless American troops currently fighting overseas.

In late January 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro visited the kibbutz and saw first hand the amazing advances made by the Plasan company in advanced armor technologies. To date, Plasan has delivered more than 8,000 armor kits to U.S units on active duty in Iraq and now Afghanistan. These kits contain all the essential armors from reactive armor to purpose-built vehicle and body armor that immensely help to protect servicemen from the threat of roadside bombs, IEDs and RPG attacks.

Ambassador Shapiro was not hesitant in his praise of the equipment. "These armor kits were critical in saving the lives of thousands of US soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen when they faced the threat of IEDs and RPG attacks," the Ambassador noted. "It's no exaggeration to say that thousands of American service members' lives have been saved by the work and the technology that's been developed here."

(The end of the video highlights Kibbutz Sasa's unique theater program called Bereshit l'Shalom which brings young people together from all sectors of Israeli society and helps forget connections between them. Jews, Arabs, Druze, or Circassian, all use the art of theater and dance to express the importance of working across society's boundaries to interact with others based on similarities, not differences. This successful program has performed throughout Israel and Europe.)