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Iran Is Playing with Fire by Testing Israel in Syria

(Foreign Policy) Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin and Ari Heistein - Iran is seeking to rewrite the "rules of the game" governing Israel's actions in Syria. By launching a sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicle into Israeli airspace on Saturday, Iran set off a chain reaction which led the Israeli Air Force to strike Iranian and Assad regime positions in Syria, including the Iranian command center from which the drone was remotely piloted. The loss of one Israeli jet should not be exaggerated; it is not a watershed moment that will alter the strategic balance in the Middle East. Because Israel's enemies have succeeded in bringing down only a single plane over the past 30 years despite that fact that it has launched over 100 strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war, there is little basis for questioning Israel's air superiority. By causing heavy damage to Syrian defense infrastructure but not completely decimating all of its air defenses, Israel demonstrated that it could demolish all Syrian forces if necessary, but by not doing so it gave Damascus an incentive to avoid future conflict. Israel also conducted its first-ever direct strikes on manned Iranian fixtures in Syria. Iranian forces stationed in Damascus are 800 miles from Tehran and only a few dozen miles from Israel, which leaves them extremely vulnerable to Israeli aerial attacks. Amos Yadlin, former head of IDF Military Intelligence, is director of the Institute for National Security Studies, where Ari Heistein is his special assistant.
2018-02-15 00:00:00
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