Friday, October 19, 2007
Muhammad Habash: The Israelis should know that the resistance emerged from the war stronger than before. Obviously, the Israelis know that Syria is stronger than Hizbullah. Therefore, if they decide to start such a war, they will pay a heavy price. I am not a military expert, of course, and I am not among the military decision-makers, but I want the world – and in particular, the Israelis – to know that the Dimona nuclear reactor itself is within the range of the weapons of the resistance and of Syria. The Israelis should know this, if they decide to embark upon a new adventure...
...The Israelis know that Syria has capabilities and expertise, and that it has real cooperation with the resistance in Lebanon, and that it is capable of inflicting pain, with which the Israelis are very familiar, if they want to wage such a war. I am not talking about the military or strategic balance of power. Syria has a regular army with all the military capabilities, but even if it comes to guerrilla warfare, we have full cooperation with Hizbullah, and the Syrians will definitely want to repeat what Hizbullah did, if the Israelis even think about committing another act of stupidity.
Not quite as much of an act of stupidity as a guy threatening to blow up an active nuclear reactor he lives within fallout range of.
I am not a military expert, of course, and I am not among the military decision-makers...
You sure aren't, buddy.
If you really saw the Israeli attack on Syrian soil as an act of war -- which it would be, if Syria weren't already at war with Israel -- then you'd go ahead and retaliate without warning. That you don't, and merely threaten to do so if Israel ever does it again, shows your rhetoric for what it is -- bluster, nothing more.
In the 1980s, Israeli pilots met Syrian pilots in aerial dogfights over Lebanon -- which Israel won, 82 to nothing. A few years ago, when Bashar Assad started getting a bit too big for his britches, IAF warplanes made a supersonic flyby over his presidential palace, and broke quite a few windows. Then, a month and a half ago, Israel vividly demonstrated that she can turn off Syrian air defenses at will.
In short, Israel owns Syria's airspace, and can pretty much do what she likes with it.
Oh, and it's a reasonable assumption that Dimona is not unprotected. Until Mr. Habash decides to test his control over Israeli air defenses, I won't lose any sleep over this.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline