When Benjamin Netanyahu called for an enforcement of a red line in regards to Iran’s nuclear project, he didn’t think the line could be as close to him as 25km, or indeed this close to Dimona nuclear site. The downing of the unidentified drone over Israel last Saturday marked that red line. It occurred less than two weeks after Iran’s announcement of the deployment of a domestic-built reconnaissance drone with a 24-hour flight capability.
The general consensus by media and analysts has reasonably pointed the finger towards Iran or Hezbollah for launching the drone, as well as to the failure of the Israeli air defense and surveillance systems.
It also showed complete unpreparedness by a country publicly pushing for war with another; who knew Israel didn’t already have Patriot missile batteries near Haifa, and would have to wait for a breach to relocate them?
Although Hezbollah has attempted to fly balloons or other drones over Israel before, this is by far the most far-reaching and serious attempt. The owner of the drone knew that flying through Gaza would be the best way to enter Israel. It also managed to fly for 20 minutes inside Israeli airspace, and had to be shot down to be stopped.
Israel is not at a loss as to how to respond; after all, there has been a tangible breach of its “sovereignty,” but from an unknown source—something it has not seen before.
Many fear that the worst damage of the incident is that it shows that the Israelis are less sophisticated than their enemies in Iran, who are better at recycling these products, as shown by their attempt to build a copy of a recently captured US drone. Iran did not have to smash a hostile drone into pieces to stop it; they can manage that without a scratch.
This post was first published on NOW Lebanon Blog on 10th October 2012 (excluding the photo). Cartoon by Khaldoun Gharaiba.
Zak, you usually publish good articles, but this time you’ve disappointed. There are at least 3 mistakes in this article, plus one speculation:
1. Benjamin Netanyahu is not the President, he is the Prime Minister. The role of President in Israel is mostly ceremonial, similar to that of the Queen of England. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, is the one who makes the decisions.
2. Netanyahu does not sit in Tel Aviv, he is in Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel, where the government ministries and the Knesset are.
3. Dimona is a lot farther than 25 km from Tel Aviv.
4. The reasons stated in this post for when and how the UAV was downed are pure speculation. According to an article published yesterday, the reason the UAV was allowed to stay in Israeli airspace for 20 minutes was in order for it to be downed in an unpopulated area. Furthermore, Israel does not need an Iranian UAV for recycling purposes, it has its own…
Apologies to you and to all my readers.
I pasted here the edited version which was published on NOW Lebanon, obviously it contained some errors including removing of some of my hidden sarcasm.
My answer to you is:
1. True. I already know that. It’s NOW’s editor mistake.
2. There was no mention of Tel Aviv in my copy. This has been removed.
3. The crash was 25km from Dimona
4. Your answer is the one that’s full of speculation. Israeli government can say whatever they want now after 5 days of the event.
I completely agree with your last point- whatever reason cited for not downing the UAV earlier would be speculation, whether we say it is an Israeli failure or that the IDF wanted to avert casualties from downing it in populated areas. Why speculate about what we don’t know, and will probably never know?
Speculate about what? When they get caught by a drone, then deploy missiles afterwards to Haifa, do they seem to you prepared?
The claim was that the IDF failed to identify the UAV, not that it had no means to down it, so I am quite ready to believe that the deploying of the Patriot missiles in Haifa had nothing to do with the UAV (as the IDF claimed) and more to do about calming the population.
Either way, neither of us know what really happened, so that whatever either of us says will be speculation.
Yes, no one is sure, but if they could down it over the sea, they would have.