JERUSALEM: When Israeli jets bomb Syria to deny it or its allies “game-changer” weapons, they play according to one core rule: ensuring the Jewish state maintains the military superiority to swiftly prevail in any war.
On Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s target list are four types of advanced arms, Russian- or Iranian-supplied, whose transfer from Syria to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas next door would hinder Israel’s strategic options.
Although they outgun Syria, Hezbollah and Iran, the Israelis assume all three allied adversaries may have to be fought at once — an unprecedented scenario complicated by the probable launch of thousands of missiles into the Jewish state.
That, air force chief Major-General Amir Eshel cautioned in an unusually forthright speech last week, meant the Israeli military had to be ready to lash out “with the full spectrum of its might” almost anywhere and at a few hours’ notice.
But Eshel said this capability was challenged by Syria’s acquisition, at a time when President Bashar Al Assad is fighting a two-year-old rebellion, of “the best Russian air defence systems available”.
One such system, the SA-17, was on a convoy bound for Hezbollah when it was hit by Israel warplanes in late January, intelligence sources said. Two other air strikes near Damascus this month destroyed formidable Fateh-110 ground-to-ground missiles flown in from Iran and awaiting transit to Hezbollah.
The other two types of arms Israel says it is monitoring for any sign of handover to Hezbollah are Syria’s chemical warheads and Russian-supplied Yakhount anti-ship missiles, which could repel Israel’s navy and threaten its Mediterranean gas rigs.
Short on land, the Israelis have long relied on their hi-tech warplanes, helicopters and drones to keep any war mainly on enemy turf. But while the air force could best any Middle East adversary one-on-one, it might struggle to keep up far-flung sorties - especially if more-distant Iran were involved.
“Sustaining massive air operations far from home has not been an objective within the Israeli mission set,” said Philip Handleman, an American aviation expert and author.
The most potent Russian air defence system, the long-range S-300, is “on its way” to Syria, Eshel said. He did not say where he got his information but it could indicate that appeals by Netanyahu to Russia to scrap such a deal had not succeeded.
Russia’s foreign minister said on May 13 that it had no new plans to sell an advanced air defence system to Syria but left open the possibility of delivering such systems under an existing contract.
One senior Israeli official quoted Netanyahu as saying privately that the S-300 could “turn Israel into a no-fly zone” as well as curb its currently unrestrained Lebanese overflights.
Eeuters
