Israel asserts credible threat vs Iran; US warns of Lebanese ‘horror story’ – TV7 Israel News 02.09

11 Comments / 11 Comments

1. They may or may not be.

   Yes, @Bear, as I noted, we may be more certain of things with the presence or absence of Syrian responses in future attacks on Syria.

2. @Peloni you could very well be correct that this intentional, to show that Israel will be responded when they attack within Syria. Since these are anti-Aircraft missiles that have a very small explosive (as they are designed to destroy airplanes and not large structures) luckily they are unlikely to harm Israel as they will be neither accurate nor have much effective destructive ability.

   Much different than a surface to surface missile design.

   You are making an assumption that they are not just firing blindly into the air to try and hit an Israeli plane or missile. They may or may not be.

3. No, Bear. Just fragments. Additionally, they are now reporting that the explosions heard around Tel Aviv that place literally 5 min. after the attack on Demascus. But the missiles fired by Syria were aimed directly at Israel, while the Isreali attack came from off the coast of Lebanon.
   Also, Debkafiles is now reporting this:

   DEBKAfile’s military sources say a Syrian air defense missile would have been aimed at the airspace of central Israel in three circumstances:

   In response to an alleged Israeli strike over Syria.
   An attempt to hit Israeli planes on their return flight home from a purported air strike over Syria.
   In either case, the missile explosion near the Tel Aviv coastline was a calculated act by Damascus – no errant missile

   It is funny that they note three circumstances but only list two. Regardless, should this report be more than imagined sourcing, I suspect the 5min. between the Israeli strike and the explosion around Tel Aviv would suggest that it was not attempting to hit the returning planes. In anycase, as I noted before, we will know more with the coming attacks on Syria, which will not stop.

4. Israel military policy is to destroy any missile battery that shoots at Israeli planes.

5. @Peloni, this article attached is the best article English I could get on the subject. Explosion over the Med in the air.

   https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-airstrikes-said-to-target-syria-explosions-heard-near-tel-aviv/

6. @Peloni do have information that the missile hit the ground? I was under the impression that fragments of a missile landed on the ground and in the Mediterranean.

   If a complete missile hit in Tel Aviv, your conjecture could be correct. If just fragments from an exploded anti aircraft missile hit that is different.

7. @Peloni the Syrians shoot wildly and miss. It need not be tracking to go up and eventually come down.

8. @Bear
   I know that a rocket trailed an attack aircraft back to central Israel last year for about 250km near Dimona. But the attack on Syria is being reported as a missile attack. If that is true there would be no attacking aircraft to trail back towards Tel Aviv.

   Also I found this on the Debkafiles:

   A second communique, this one from the police, said that a Syrian SA-5 anti-air missile (see picture) had exploded opposite the western Sharon region north of Tel Aviv. Falling shrapnel had dropped in the sea and a Tel Aviv back yard. The communique added that the |DF would be questioning why no warning siren was activated. This appeared to be the focus of the inquiry rather than the broad range and multiplicity of the explosions.

   In the meantime, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, residents of Rishon Letzion south of Tel Aviv came up with an explanation. They testified to hearing two explosions – not one. It turned out that a second missile had been fired from Syria, this one a surface-to-surface Russian-made Scud. Our sources have learned that this one was intercepted in time by a David’s Sling, the missile system designed for protection against intermediate missile attack as part of Israel’s multi-tier shield.

   This has not been confirmed by the military or the police. However, if that is how the purported Israeli raid over Damascus unfolded, it seems to indicate that the Syrians have decided to finally retaliate for each reported Israeli attack. On Aug. 20, a Syria anti-air rocket fired from Damascus exploded in the Dead Sea region of southern Israel. Rather than a stray rocket, as claimed at the time, that may have been the first harbinger of a new Syrian policy to raise the stakes and confront Israel directly over its long campaign to root the Iranian military presence from its borders. The Assad regime would have gained the nod of its supporters, Iran and Russia, before embarking on this course.

   All unconfirmed “by the military or the police” but what report these days ever has a legitimately confirmed source in any case. Regardless, the IDF took the next step and attacked and demolished the missile battery that launched the rocket laying outside Tel Aviv. Also it does seem coincidental that the rocket just happened to make its way to Tel Aviv…Interesting reporting @Adam. I am sure, though, if this is a new policy of Syrian response to the attacks, we will soon see proof of it, as these attacks in Syria are not likely to stop.

9. @Adam, the Syrian missiles (anti-aircraft) can easily get to central Israel it is not that far.

10. We should have a report in Israpundit about the Syrian missile that hit Tel Aviv yesterday. It does not seem (at least according to the most recent newspaper reports) to have caused any casualties or damage, but remnants of the rocket were found in Tel Aviv, and a loud explosion and flash in the sky was heard and seen throughout the Gush Dan region. The missile appears to have been fired from Syria, according to the IDF. It was shortly after the IDF struck several targets in Syria. The Syrians claimed that their anti-aircraft missiles intercepted “most” of the bombs and air-to-surface missiles fired by the IDF planes, and that the Israeli bombings created only some property damage, but no casualties.

    The IDF is attempting to ‘spin” the rocket attack on Tel Aviv as a
    Syrian anti-aircraft rocket fired at Israeli aircraft that went astray. But it seems to me that this is unlikely. How would a ground-to -air antaircraft missile find its way all the way to Gush Dan? And why would it just happen to land in and around Israel’s most populous city? More likely it was a “Shot over the bow” by Syria, warning Israel that if they continue to bomb Syrian, Hesbollah and Iranian targets in Syria, the Syrians have the long-range ground-to-ground missiles to hit back hard at Israel’s population centers.

11. More talk on Iran. Talk. Talk. Talk. Threats. Warnings. No consequences. No action. Do they think the fundamentalist Shia dictators take any interest in this endless chatter. I look forward for the cool, savvy silence that will precede the use of military action. Such a silence might actually cause the Iranians more concern than this daily chit-chat about what they haven’t done.