US Ospreys and Air Tankers Put Iran in Israel's Reach

A KC-130J load master watches a refueling of an MV-22B Osprey during a training mission in 2012. (Cpl. Michael Petersheim/US Marine Corps)

The United States plans to give Israel weapons that would enable it to send ground forces against Iranian nuclear facilities that it can’t penetrate from the air.
The deal includes air-refueling aircraft, advanced radars for F-15 fighter jets, and up to eight V-22 Ospreys, an aircraft that can land like a helicopter and carry two dozen special operations forces with their gear over long distances at aircraft speeds.
The Osprey “is the ideal platform for sending Israeli special forces into Iran,” says Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst now at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

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Israel ranks as the world's sixth largest arms exporter in 2012

Israel's weapons sales jumped 74% since 2008, largely thanks to deals with India, according to IHS Jane's; U.S. tops the defense intelligence company's list of arms exporters, with more than $28 billion in defense deals in 2012.

 

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DM Denies Allegations of Iron Dome's Low Success Rate

Defense Ministry on Wednesday denied allegations that the Iron Dome only had a 5% success rate in intercepting rockets launched towards Israel during Operation Pillar of Defense.
"This is a theory of intelligence and not of performance of the Iron Dome," said Defense Ministry spokesman. "The residents of southern Israel and Gush Dan experienced during Operation Pillar of Defense the proven capabilities of the Iron Dome, which presented a success rate of more than 80%."
 

 

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Iran closer to nuclear 'red line': Israel

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says diplomacy has so far failed to deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear program, warning the Islamic republic is getting closer to crossing a crucial "red line".

"Iran enriches more and more uranium, it installs faster and faster centrifuges," and it is "running out the clock" on diplomatic efforts to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear capability, Netanyahu said.
"We have to stop its nuclear enrichment program before it's too late," he warned in a speech via satellite from his office in Israel to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
The Israeli prime minister warned that leaders in Tehran had opted to "just grit their teeth" through punishing international sanctions and pursue their nuclear plan, come what may.
"It's still not crossed the red line I drew with the United Nations last September," Netanyahu said, referring to the point at which Israel believes Iran would be able to build a nuclear bomb.

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Israeli-Palestinian tensions could ultimately spark a major confrontation

At some point, in the year ahead, depending on the deployment of troops on the ground and the nature of the specific trigger that is pulled, there could be a serious explosion between Palestinians and Israelis.

 

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New radar for Israeli ships

Sa'ar 4.5-class missile ships of the Israeli navy are receiving new Advanced Lightweight Phased Array Radar systems.
The Alpha units -- developed and produced by Elbit Systems Ltd. -- will be key components of the ships' weapon system, capable of simultaneously performing multiple tasks.
Among those tasks are the identification and tracking multiple airborne targets and threats and providing munitions guidance.


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IDF tank battalion practices racing to war

Photo: IDF Spokesman An IDF tank battalion stationed in the Jordan Valley held a major drill this week to practice racing to a war front during a simulated outbreak of hostilities. The drill involved reserve army companies for the first time.

The reserves joined conscripted solders on the field in an exercise not held by the battalion in a long time on such a large scale.

“We understand we will be among the first forces that respond at a war front. That’s why we’re preparing,” Col. Yohai Benhur, commander of Battalion 9, part of the IDF’s Armored Corps 401 Brigade, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. During the drill, held at the large Nabi Musa base near the Dead Sea, Merkava 4 tanks fitted with the Wind Jacket anti-rocket shield fired live ammunition.

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Hezbollah drone reportedly manufactured in Germany

The drone that penetrated deep into Israeli airspace nearly two weeks ago was manufactured in Germany by Siemens and Bockstiegel, and purchased by a fictitious Iranian company that was a front for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Lebanese newspaper Al-Jumhuriya reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, Siemens manufactured the drone’s camera and remote control parts while Bockstiegel, which produces ships, provided light metal parts.

Last week, Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah confirmed responsibility for launching the aircraft, which he claimed was made in Iran.

The Lebanese newspaper’s report also stated that Hezbollah possessed a large arsenal of similar UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) whose main purpose was to spy, not attack.

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Hezbollah’s CFO flees to Israel carrying stolen money, classified documents say amid Israeli denial

Hezbollah’s CFO has fled to Israel taking with him large sum of stolen money, classified documents, maps and local news media reported on Friday.

The news website, Now Lebanon, cited Hezbollah officials saying that the 29-year old telecommunication engineer, Hussein Fahs, has crossed to Israel carrying with him $5 million in embezzled money from the group. Fahs is also head of Hezbollah’s operational communications network.

However, Jerusalem Post said that Israeli officials have denied the reports on Saturday. According to Israel Radio, Israeli officials said that the report was false. It said that the Israeli denial was followed by a similar denial by Hezbollah

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'Hezbollah drone photographed secret IDF bases'

Photo: IDF Spokesman's Office
The Hezbollah drone that infiltrated the Negev last week beamed back live images of secret Israeli military bases, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
According to the report, the drone was airborne for three hours before being intercepted by an F-16I jet. It is believed to have transmitted pictures of preparations for Israel's joint military exercise with the US, as well as ballistic missile sites, airfields and, perhaps, the nuclear reactor in Dimona, the Sunday Times reported.


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US and Israel to launch massive air defense drill

The U.S. and Israeli militaries are engaged in final preparations for the largest-ever joint missile defense drill in the allies’ history.
The three-week exercise, dubbed Austere Challenge 12 (AC12), will start on Oct. 21, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday, citing an army source.
American officers are reportedly already in Israel to supervise the arrival of hundreds of troops and hi-tech weapon platforms on Oct. 14, according to local media.

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Israel shoots down intruder drone: What it teaches us about “modern” air combat

Photo: U.S. Air Force F-15s fire missiles over the Pacific Ocean in an exercise. (USAF File Photo)

WASHINGTON D.C., October 6, 2012 – The Israeli Air Force released a video today which shows a missile homing in and destroying a small aerial object, presumably a drone, and another aircraft which appears to be an F-16 breaking away from the kill. According to Israeli authorities, the interception occurred around 10 am IST and was brought down around the northern Negev region after breaching Israeli airspace.

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IDF shoots down drone that penetrated deep into Israel

The IDF shot down a foreign drone that had penetrated deep into Israeli airspace on Saturday afternoon, flying for half an hour before it was intercepted.

After an initial investigation, military officials said the unmanned aerial vehicle, which was taken down north of Beersheba, did not come from the Gaza Strip, leading the army to consider the possibility that it originated in Lebanon. Hezbollah has flown drones into Israeli airspace a few times in the past, though not for several years.

IDF Spokesperson Yoav Mordechai said that the Israeli Air Force was able to identify the unmanned aerial vehicle while it was flying over the Mediterranean, and that the IAF stayed close to the drone throughout its flight over Israel until the decision was made to shoot it down in the northern Negev desert.

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Top Iranian Official: Iran Needs “24 Hours And An Excuse” To Annihilate Israel

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — A top Iranian official says that Iran will be able to annihilate Israel within a day.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, representative to Iran’s Qods Force for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claims that all they need is “24 hours and an excuse” to attack the Jewish state.
“If such a war does happen, it would not be a long war, and it would benefit the entire Islamic umma [the global community of Muslims],” Shirazi said, according to the Post. “We have expertise in fighting wars of attrition and Israel cannot fight a war of attrition.”

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Azerbaijan eyes aiding Israel against Iran

(Reuters) - Israel's "go-it-alone" option to attack Iran's nuclear sites has set the Middle East on edge and unsettled its main ally at the height of a U.S. presidential election campaign.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exudes impatience, saying Tehran is barely a year from a "red line" for atomic capacity. Many fellow Israelis, however, fear a unilateral strike, lacking U.S. forces, would fail against such a large and distant enemy.
But what if, even without Washington, Israel were not alone?
Azerbaijan, the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic on Iran's far northern border, has, say local sources with knowledge of its military policy, explored with Israel how Azeri air bases and spy drones might help Israeli jets pull off a long-range attack.


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Israel Disappointed at Argentina Talks With Iran

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Israel said on Friday it was greatly disappointed by Argentina's decision to meet Iranian officials to discuss the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that Argentine courts accuse Tehran of sponsoring.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez ordered her foreign minister to accept Iran's request for talks in New York this week, marking a sharp change in diplomatic policy and drawing criticism from Jewish leaders in Buenos Aires. 

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Israel V/s Iran

Iranian General Feel Israel Will Strike His Country

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Saturday that war with Israel will “eventually happen,” and that the Islamic Republic would “destroy the Jewish state.”

Speaking at a news conference in Tehran, Jafari said, “The war will eventually happen but it is not clear when and where it will take place,” according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

“This cancerous tumor Israel seeks to launch a war against us,” he said, and added, “right now they see war as the only method of confrontation.”

“If [Israelis] start something, they will be destroyed and it will be the end of the story for them,” Jafari said, according to ISNA.

An Al Arabiya report on Friday said that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the powerful IRGC to stop its operations around the world, particularly those in Africa and Latin America, according to a senior army official.

The official told Al Arabiya that Khamenei wants the IRGC to focus its efforts on countries in the region, and that he fears a possible Israeli strike. Khamenei is also worried about the effect of crushing international sanctions, particularly on the Islamic Republic’s funding of its military forces, according to the report.

The IRGC has been accused of involvement in numerous acts of terrorism worldwide, and its Al-Quds force has focused on attacks on Israeli targets. Most recently, Israel blamed Iran for a series of attempts to hit Israeli targets in India, Georgia, Thailand and other countries last spring. India’s police reported IRGC involvement in one of these attacks, in which the wife of an Israeli diplomat was injured in a bombing in February in New Delhi.

Also on Friday, Iran held a massive parade where it unveiled a new air defense system, Raad. At the parade, the air force commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, warned that Israel “would cease to exist” if it launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“If a conflict breaks out, the Zionist regime would be able to manage the beginning of the war, but the response and end would be in our hands, in which case the Zionist entity would cease to exist,” said Hajizadeh. “The number of missiles launched would be more than the Zionists could imagine,” he added, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the event to lash out at the West over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States and the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by a French satirical weekly.

Ahmadinejad said that ”in return for (allowing) the ugliest insults to the divine messenger, they — the West — raise the slogan of respect for freedom of speech.” He asserted that this shows a double standard and “is clearly a deception.” Ahmadinejad called the film a plot conceived by Zionists to cause discord among Muslims.

The parade marked the anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war 32 years ago.

According to Fars, Raad, or Thunder, is more advanced than its Russian predecessor and is designed to confront fighter jets, cruise missiles, smart bombs, helicopters and drones.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

4 Killed Including 3 Militant And One Israeli Solider

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Three armed militant killed when they try to slim into Israel from Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Clashed claimed life of one Israeli soldier and wounded another.
"A big terror attack was thwarted," Israeli army spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich said of Friday's violence.
It was at least the fourth cross-border attack in just over a year - violence that has persisted despite an Egyptian army and police crackdown on Sinai militants begun last month.
Israeli officials say one attacker's explosives detonated during the clash, which they described as a terrorist attack.  The incident took place in the Har Harif region.

Arrow 3 Test May Get Postpone

Israel's anti missile defense system may get postpone due to unexplained reasons, according to US Weekly Space News .

Two stage Anti Missile defense system is very crucial for Israel as Zionist country is having ongoing dispute with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
According to the "Space News' report, the flight trial that had been planned for this month has now been postponed until the end of the year.
According to UPI, Itzhak Kaya, who heads the Arrow program, said that recent testing involved simulated interceptions to evaluate Arrow-3's detection capabilities.