The American M48 Patton tank upgraded by the IDF was captured by Syrian forces with its three-man crew in the Sultan Yaakov battle in the Lebanon war of 1982. The three-man crew was lost. To this day the fate of Zacharia Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman has never been determined.
After the battle President Hafez Assad, father of the incumbent Bashar Assad, who established in the the1960s the first Russian-Syrian alliance the, agreed to let the Russian have the tank. They were keen to study the reactive armor the IDF had installed. Special teams of the Engineering Corps flew the tank from Sultan Yaakov battle field to Moscow.
Thirty four years later, the “Magach” (battering ram) tank arrived home after spending years in the Kubinka Tank Museum near Moscow, as a result of a gesture by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Israel PM Binyamin Netanyahu.
It is safe to assume that Putin consulted Assad before making this gesture and both had their own reasons for making it. It is also possible that the Syrian ruler may also decide to disclose what happened to the three missing Israeli soldiers and perhaps even return their remains.
DEBKAfile sources in Moscow and Jerusalem probed to find out the motives of Putin and Assad, allies of Iran and Hizballah, in making this gesture. They find an answer in Putin’s broader designs for the Middle East alongside his military actions in Syria. In every recent conference between high ranking Russian and Israeli officials, the key issue of South Syria has come up in order to bridge their different objectives.
Moscow holds that all of South Syria must come under the Assad regime rule, as the key to its stability. Israel, along with the US, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, anxious to keep South Syria under the control of their respective Syrian rebel militias. Israel regards their presence as vital for preventing Iranian and Hizballah forces moving into the Syrian Golan up to the Israeli border. Putin offers Jerusalem an alternative. If Israel agrees to withdraw its support from the Syrian rebels to help Assad reclaim the region Moscow is willing to vouch that the Russian army stationed in Syria will prevent Iranian and Hizballah fighters from infiltrating or getting near the Israeli border.
The Russian president aims to restore the status quo prevailing in the Israeli-Syrian border region for 42 years since the 1974 Yom Kippur War. He envisages this situation producing three developments:
The beginning of political exchanges between Israel and Syria, as a first step towards peace negotiations.
This process would distance Damascus from Tehran and Beirut.
It would also further distance Israel from the United States.
Putin appreciates that sending the tank back to Israel will not spark this entire process, but he thinks it might be a good token beginning.
Everybody in the world wants a piece of “Jewish brain” (to enslave/control for their own benefit). It is a worthwhile asset!!!
@ ArnoldHarris:Arnold your go it to with Russia strategy is most unique and does not pass the 1+1=2 test.
Israel needs to be more independent but relying on the Russians is not wise at all. Bibi by the way is visiting Russia again this week I believe. However, we have not told the USA to take a hike. Nor will we anytime soon.
Israel certainly should include Russia (and does know) in its equations and broaden out in political, diplomatic and business dealings to Asia. Which we are with India and China to a large extent.
@ Bear Klein:
Israel’s interest is to break free of the West and work toward close relations with Eurasia. Eurasia means the Russian Empire.
That’s because the West makes a pretense of scruples in international relations. Russian leaders could not care less about that, and neither do I.
In the long game, Israel can survive only by extending its power. The Jewish nation needs more lands, on which to grow an expanding population, and from which to extract more resources.
Everything in this world is about power. Without it, you are always someone else’s slave, or if not that, maybe their toy to play with until you no longer amuse them. Ancient Israel was destroyed and the Jews scattered because they were too small and therefore insignificant.
Russians understand these principles, and that’s precisely why they have come to dominate everything from Eastern Europe to the Bering Straits. Jewish friendship with them should be the most important focus of all Israeli governments.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
Putin’s word on this stuff is not what you can hang your future on. He also said the Hezis would not get certain weapons from Syria or Iran. Untrue.
Israel needs to what is in Israel’s interest. Also Putin will not separate Syria from the Hezis and Iran. They are now more joined than ever.
1) The status quo for the Golan Heights was not bad from the standpoint of Israel’s interests. If the Russian military-industrial investigators found something interesting about Israel’s reactive tank armor, circa 1982, that would help firm up Russian opinion that the Jews of Israel are indeed clever, and therefore useful for Russia’s interests.
2) Russia’s long game is to encircle Turkey and get ultimate control of a year-around port on the Indian Ocean. Both these goals are in fact achievable, and in order to make them happen, Russia must one day take and annex land that is under present control of Iran.
3) The Jewish state and the Jewish nation are no threat to Russia. Islam as a religion and Islamism as a Jihadist thrust for universal empire, are indeed threats to Russia.
4) Israel is geographically very far from the Western Hemisphere in general and from the USA in particular. But Russia and the Russian Empire now being re-assembled one careful step at a time, are in fact part of Israel’s vast back yard. Do the political geography, then do the math.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
No, the FOUR-man crew of the tank was lost. The commander, Zohar Lipschitz, was identified dead, and his body was recovered.
What will be significant for the IDF in getting the tank back is the ability to identify any battle damage it received, and the forensic analysis that may, even after all these years, identify who else was injured inside the tank.
The eyewitness at the time reported the area under artillery barrage, and the vehicle burning, so if the commander was killed from a direct hit on the tank, it is very probable the entire crew was killed immediatelly, perhaps from a combination of artillery round detonation and internal tank round detonation.
And yes, it a welcome change that the Russian Administration is helping to identify what happened to the MIAs, including Guy Hever who went missing in the Golan Heights in 97.