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Israel Just Hasn’t Got the Air Force for a War with Iran
Last weekend, Iran covered Israel with 330 drones and missiles. These were sent from various points inside Iran, some 1,000-2,500 km away from Israel, depending on each location. Iran immediately threatened to make a 10 times larger attack – that would be around 3,500 missiles against Israel – if Israel made even a hiccup to hit back at Iran.
Israel simply hasn’t got an air force capable of fighting Iran over these long distances.
Israel hasn’t got B-52 strategic bombers like the US has.
Israel hasn’t got a long range missile force even nearly comparable to Iran’s.
What Israel has got is a large air force of medium-range multi-role aircraft like F-35I, F-16I, and F-15I all of which have limited range and comparably small payload, necessitating many-many missions in order to achieve sizeable results.
The Israeli air force is perfectly designed to kill endless numbers of people in nearby Beirut or kill a few people in a consulate in Damascus – but next to useless if talking about a massive air campaign against Tehran or any big number of other targets in Iran.
Israel can attack Iran by using aerial refueling for its mid-range aircraft like the über-expensive F-35I when they are underway to Iran (or back).
Where should Israel be able to carry out such an aerial refueling its attack aircraft en route to or from Iran?
It can’t be over Syria or Iraq, because Iranian militias and allies have received the capable Russian air defense which can shoot them down. It may be, that US and Israel believe that F-35 is “invisible” (stealth) on radar, but big aircraft tankers are slow and inviting targets, and definitely not visible. The only route which Israeli waves of air attacks on Iran could take which would enable aerial refueling would be via Saudi Arabia.
That would bring Saudi Arabia directly in war on Israel’s side against Iran, and there is next to no chance that Saudi Arabia will allow that.
Israel’s problem is limited capabilities to strike Iran have been studied for decades and are well-documented.
Israel’s need for aerial refueling is even recently confirmed by one of Israel’s top air force commanders:
Brig. General (ret) Relik Shafir – former IAF commander, took down Iraq’s Osirak reactor. Gen. Shafir says:
Israel’s air force cannot attack Iran without aerial refueling
What he doesn’t say, but means, is that aerial tankers will get shot down, and the attack bombers will not return
The result is that Israel is lost.
Once again: The result is that Israel is lost. Israel’s conventional options are limited – useless.
Another Israeli top military describes how limited Israel’s options are – in essence, Israel has NO relevant military options to counter Iran’s capability to destroy Israel with massive and long-time waves of missiles attacks:
Brig. General (ret) Dr. Amnon Sofrin – former Mossad Intelligence Directorate chief, Gen. Sofrin says:
Israel and Iran are now fighting each other directly, in the open. If Israel strikes Iran very hard, Iran is going to pay back, and it will be an ongoing “dispute” (read: escalation) that will get us to another area (read: nuclear) where we don’t want to go.
Israel cannot altogether fight Gaza, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran. Israel has to calibrate (= diminish) its response.
Still, the former intelligence general opines that Israel “has to pay back” – but what small options are left for Israel?
Option 1 – undercover activities, Israel terror action which “doesn’t leave a sign” and without huge damage.
Option 2 – Israel can use the air force (which it hasn’t got for the purpose) which in the end, if Israel doesn’t calculate very well, will drag the whole area into a huge conflict. As we saw above, using Israel’s air force is a very limited or even impossible option.
Option 3 – Israel can retaliate on some of Iran’s friends (so-called “proxies”) outside Iran’s territory. Also here, Iran has made it clear, that Iran will strike Israel again, if Israel retaliates on Iran’s friends and allies.
After Iran’s massive drone-missile assault on Israel last weekend, Israel has already decided to hit back at Iran. And Iran has made it clear, that ANY Israeli attack on Iran, no matter how small, will trigger a much larger Iranian response. So Israel might as well decide to go all-in against Iran – right from the beginning. Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has pressed for an enormous Israeli attack on Iran, one which Iran “will never forget”. In the twisted sense of the situation, what Bezalel Smotrich says makes… well, in its own logic, sense. See this.
Nuclear Only Option for Israel
But there is a catch: And that is, that Israel does simply not possess the capability, the air power to hit back hard at Iran – EXCEPT if Israel goes nuclear.
But while Israel hasn’t got the thousands of drones and missiles for a long-range air campaign which Iran has, Israel does possess a smaller number of long range of nuclear capable missiles (some on submarines) which can hit anywhere.
And that is undoubtedly what Bezalel Smotrich wants – an Israeli nuclear attacks all over Iran.
The Middle East is about to become the nuclear focus of the world.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
“Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War”
by Michel Chossudovsky
Available to order from Global Research!
ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
Pages: 102
PDF Edition: $6.50 (sent directly to your email account!)
Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which hosts the critically acclaimed website www.globalresearch.ca . He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Reviews
“This book is a ‘must’ resource – a richly documented and systematic diagnosis of the supremely pathological geo-strategic planning of US wars since ‘9-11’ against non-nuclear countries to seize their oil fields and resources under cover of ‘freedom and democracy’.”
–John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy, Guelph University
“In a world where engineered, pre-emptive, or more fashionably “humanitarian” wars of aggression have become the norm, this challenging book may be our final wake-up call.”
-Denis Halliday, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations
Michel Chossudovsky exposes the insanity of our privatized war machine. Iran is being targeted with nuclear weapons as part of a war agenda built on distortions and lies for the purpose of private profit. The real aims are oil, financial hegemony and global control. The price could be nuclear holocaust. When weapons become the hottest export of the world’s only superpower, and diplomats work as salesmen for the defense industry, the whole world is recklessly endangered. If we must have a military, it belongs entirely in the public sector. No one should profit from mass death and destruction.
–Ellen Brown, author of ‘Web of Debt’ and president of the Public Banking Institute
