Greece Quietly Provides Israeli Air Force Pivotal Assistance on S-300 as Iran Nuke Strike Looms
by Edward Black, The Cutting Edge, July 14, 2008
Greece has quietly assisted the Israeli Air Force in a previously unreported fashion as the dreaded decision of a possible Israeli preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities draws closer, this reporter has learned.
A pivotal factor in Israel’s military strategy against Iran’s nuclear installations is the recent delivery to Iran of Russia’s potent S-300 Russian ground-to-air radar systems. Considered one of the world’s most versatile radar-missile systems, Russia’s S-300 batteries can simultaneous track hundreds of semi-stealth cruise missiles, long range missiles and aircraft, including airborne monitoring jets. As many as ten intruders can be simultaneously engaged by the S-300’s mobile interceptor missile batteries, military sources say. As such, the S-300 is a major threat to the long-range weapons in the Israeli arsenal. These include Israel’s long-range 1,500 km. nuclear-capable Jericho IIB missiles; unmanned missile-equipped long-range drones; Israel’s F-16s, F-15Es; long range heavy-payload F151s and F161s; and even its three new Gulfstream G550 business jets boasting a range of 6,750 nautical miles, newly outfitted with nuclear-tracking electronics and designed to loiter over or near Iranian skies for hours. The S-300 can compromise everything Israel has.
But Greece has the same Russian S-300 system.
Originally purchased by Cyprus in 1998, the Cypriot installation provoked a storm of protracted protests by Turkey because the system would make vulnerable all Turkish air movements. To resolve tensions and prevent a Turkish preemptive attack on the installations, the S-300 by international agreement was moved to Crete for safekeeping, and eventually joint-Cypriot-Greek control based on the 1993 mutual defense pact between Cyprus and Greece. On December 20, 2007, the move and installation of the S-300 was quietly completed.
In the last days of May and first week of June, 2008, Israel staged an impressive and well-reported exercise over Crete with the participation of the Greek air force. More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as Israeli rescue helicopters and mid-air refueling planes flew a massive number of mock strikes. Israeli planes reportedly never landed but were continuously refueled from airborne platforms. Israel demonstrated that a 1400 km distance could be negotiated with Israeli aircraft remaining aloft and effective. Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility is 1400 km from Israel.
While the Israeli-Greek air tactics were amply reported in the world’s media after initial reports in the New York Times, the pivotal information from Greece’s S-300 batteries has remained below the radar. By swarming its jets into the S-300’s massive electronics, Israel was able to record invaluable information about defeating, jamming and circumventing the Russian system.
Israel dubbed its exercise “Glorious Spartan.” It is recalled that 300 glorious Spartans went down in history by forestalling the massive Persian army at a tiny land passage at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The tiny Jewish State is now contemplating whether it must act unilaterally to forestall Iran’s nuclear threat.
Iranian officials complained bitterly to Athens after the exercise, but were told by Greek officials that their Russian-made radar-missile batteries were “turned off” during the exercise, according to Greek, Russian and Iranian sources. Those sources expressed incredulity that Greece would “turn off” its critical radar installations and air defense during such an exercise. Shortly after that exercise, Iran began signaling to European diplomats that Tehran might be willing to negotiate in earnest.
Iran’s S-300s are more updated than the Greek installation. Russian sources speculated that as many as five batteries were recently delivered to Iran, these having been pulled from active Russia defense units. The transaction is thought to be valued at $800 million, an easy sum for Iran whose economy is some 75 percent dependent upon oil revenues. The S-300 is integrated with Russia’s S-300PMU-2 “Favorit,” mobile missile batteries, codenamed by NATO “the Gargoyle.” Numerous Gargoyle batteries are part of the Russian arms deal with Iran, but several observers thought the batteries, although in Iran, were not yet operational.
For its part, Israel is leapfrogging its air superiority. It is in the process of acquiring the just unveiled F35B, a stealthy Joint Strike Fighter with Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) abilities. So new is the aircraft, its maiden flight was recorded only on June 11 at Lockheed Martin’s facility near Ft. Worth, Texas. The dull grey, stealthy and irregularly shaped F35B, known as “Lightning II,” would allow Israel to clandestinely preposition planes in unorthodox locations and land them closer to Iran, even in locations without runways. Featuring a swivel rear-exhaust nozzle, the state of the art fighter can switch from conventional to VTOL at the push of a button. The planes cost as much as $80 million per jet. Israel is trying to quickly purchase an entire squadron.
Israel is also actively seeking to finalize a purchase of America’s potent F-22 Raptor, a state of the art stealth fighter. Israel officials have stated they were willing to pay the $150 million per plane price tag in view of the Iranian threat.
Israel has demonstrated amply in the past that it can carry out precision operations thousands of miles from home. In 1976, in a Hollywood-style rescue, Israel flew a complicated air mission more than 2000 miles to Entebbe Airport in Uganda to rescue its hijacked citizens. In 1981, eight F-15s and eight F-16s, flew to Iraq for a precision strike permanently disabling Saddam Hussein’s Osirek nuclear reactor, after assassinations and sabotage of French reactor cores proved insufficient. Two F-15s circled above Saudi Arabia as a communications nexus with Tel Aviv.
In October, 1985, the Israeli Air Force executed yet another precision attack involving a 4800-km mission to Tunis where it destroyed Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters—seemingly beyond the reach of Israel.
In 2003, realizing it might have to one day face an Iranian nuclear threat, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon developed Project Daniel, with a “Long Arm” capability. Any strike by Israel against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would involve hundreds of sorties, lasting many hours and requiring ad hoc bomb damage assessment (BDA) as airplanes went back again and again to attack targets until successful. Because Natanz and other facilities are buried many feet below ground, multiple synchronized attacks with bunker busters would have to be mounted as delayed munitions burrow deeper and deeper into the crater left by the previous bomb impact. It might take up to 20 to 40 pairs of BLU-113 penetrating bombs each carrying more than 300 kg of high-explosive Tritonal warheads to destroy the Natanz underground halls housing centrifuges. Israel’s long-range, heavy-duty fighters can deliver these blows.
But if Israel attacks Iran, it will need to deliver those blows over and over again, in location after location, as well as neutralize the S-300 installations, mobile rockets, air defenses, a collection of North Korean-made Shahab3 missiles, and rescue its downed pilots.
Even if Israel is successful, the Jewish State expects a massive retaliation from Iran and its Hezbollah and Hamas proxies. Thousands of rockets are expected to be fired at Israeli cities within moments of the attack. Iran has already threatened the Strait of Hormuz, though which forty percent of the world’s seaborne oil traverses.
Israel considers itself in a no-win situation because years of sanctions and intense diplomacy have not stopped Iran’s cyclonic nuclear progress. Iran has consistently promised that Israel would “soon be wiped off the map.” More than one Israeli official has stated, the only thing worse than attacking Iran, is not attacking Iran.
Edwin Black is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of IBM and the Holocaust, and the forthcoming book, The Plan–How to Save America the Day after the Oil Stops— or Perhaps the Day Before (Dialog Press, September 2008).
Re: “Israel dubbed its exercise “Glorious Spartan.” It is recalled that 300 glorious Spartans went down in history by forestalling the massive Persian army at a tiny land passage at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.”
Greece also has been on the receiving end of Persian aggression.
The Kingdoms of Caesar, Alexander, Peter The Great, and George Washington must unite together to save Cyrus’ Persian Kingdom and treat the Persians as Cyrus treated Israel when he decreed that Israelites go home after the Babylonian exile. Iran needs good and decent leaders who help the Iranian people free themselves from Islamic fascism and terror. It is my belief that we need Russian support; European support and the support of all free nations in curbing the Iranian regime intentions. The US needs a policy to divide up the oil and petroleum profits with Russia, Europe and the new Iranian regime, sharing the resources and making sure the Iranians get a fair and just government. What we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq should now be done in Iran too! I can also see how important of a role Arabia plays too and although I don’t get along with hostile Arabs, I do get along with good and decent Arabs and would support a united front against the Iranian aspirations to destroy not just Israel, but the whole region! This is the most important year of seat changes in global government ever – if Obama becomes President, I support any move to get our troops the hell out of Iraq because there is no way he can lead such a fight, quite the way McCain will. If the US has to pull out and there is no united front against Iran, then Israel will need some NEW LEADERS to kick some Iranian butt! But Israel will have to fight against Hamas and Hizbollah, Syria and Iran on all fronts and do to them what they plan for Israel, but Israel needs to take action before action is taken against them! FIRST STRIKE a good thing – all or nothing!
Great picture.
Plus it’s not photoshopped.
peskin posted this in the wrong place
Recent comments by Canadian War Pundit, Gwynne Dyer
——————————————————————————–
Gwynne Dyer: Tehran calls Washington’s bluff in high-risk war game
Iranians have clearly concluded that all the American and Israeli threats to attack them are mere bluff. Israel could not destroy all of Iran’s nuclear facilities unless it was willing to drop several nuclear weapons on Iran.
The United States could do the job using only conventional weapons, but in reply Iran could close the Gulf to tanker traffic and cause a global economic crisis. So the US and Israel must be bluffing, unless they are crazy.
This explains the bravado of Iran’s little propaganda show on July 9, when it test-launched several ballistic missiles, including one that has the ability to carry a nuclear weapon and the range to strike Israel.
This elicited veiled threats of an attack on Iran from Washington and Jerusalem, but the Iranians don’t believe them any more.
The Shahab-3 missile that the Iranians tested has flown before, and it could indeed reach Israel. But it lacks a proper guidance system, and probably could not penetrate Israel’s anti-ballistic missile defences. More importantly, as the US National Intelligence Estimate of last December affirmed, Iran has no nuclear weapons, and closed down its programme to develop a nuclear weapons capability in 2003.
The main purpose of the tests was to strengthen the hard-liners in domestic Iranian politics. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the organisation that carried them out, wants to keep the confrontation with the United States and its allies alive because it fears that other elements in the regime might bargain away Iran’s right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian use.
If neither the United States nor Israel intends to attack Iran, this is a cost-free strategy – you win the domestic political struggle and nothing bad happens to you internationally. If you miscalculate, however, you get a war out of it.
What are the odds that the Iranians are miscalculating?
Many institutions try to analyse this question. But all of them are essentially guessing what goes on in the minds of the US President and/or the Israeli Prime Minister – two men in a hurry.
President George W. Bush leaves office in January, and Ehud Olmert may be gone by September as the result of a corruption scandal.
Bush seems to have convinced himself that something must be done about the “Iranian threat” before he goes. But he faces the almost unanimous opposition of the US military and intelligence establishment, who are horrified by the prospect of an unwinnable war against Iran.
Last December’s National Intelligence Estimate was a deliberate attempt to undercut the Bush Administration’s relentless propaganda about the “Iranian nuclear threat”.
Olmert’s coalition government in Israel might collapse if he chose to attack Iran alone. Besides, Israel could not do such a thing without Washington’s approval so it all comes back to what Bush decides. He probably doesn’t know himself yet.
In circumstances like these, I generally consult the International Institute for Discussing Current Affairs Over Dinner.
Membership is limited to myself, my wife and my many talented children. Like me, they are experts in everything, and one of our most effective analytical tools is an exercise called Setting the Odds.
A quorum of the institute’s membership is currently on holiday in southern Morocco, and we deployed this technique at dinner last night. I offered my colleagues two-to-one odds that neither the United States nor Israel would attack Iran this year, and they laughed in my face.
Their response was the same at odds of four-to-one. At six-to-one one showed mild interest, but still declined the offer. From which I deduce that an actual attack on Iran this year is extremely unlikely.
The Revolutionary Guards are right. You may object that this technique lacks scientific rigour. But we have a good track record, because we assume that while individual leaders may lose the plot, large institutions like governments and armed forces are generally more rational in their choices.
There are occasions when whole countries are so traumatised by some shock that truly bizarre decisions become possible – the United States after 9/11 was like that for a while – but this is not one of those times. Six-to-one says that there will be no US or Israeli attack on Iran this year.
From someone who doesn’t analyze foreign policy at the dinner table with the wife and kiddies:
Israel, Iran and the Bomb, by JOHN R. BOLTON
Bush ok’s Israeli attack on Iran
British paper The Sunday Times, an official mouthpiece for military leaks, quotes Pentagon officials who confirm that Bush gave Israel a green light for the attack.
The US won’t get involved. As usual, Israel is on her own, but at least America doesn’t twist our arms as usual.
Iran threatens massive retaliation, which it technically cannot carry out. Given the threat of an all-out escalation, Iran might not retaliate at all. Few towns in Israel are covered with missile defence. The safest places during the Iranian retaliatory strike would be Jerusalem and small settlements.
Olmert has to strike at Iran before the September 25 Kadima primaries. Barak would also prefer to have Kadima headed by weak Olmert during the next elections rather than by a popular Livni who would win the primaries.
I’ll put up $10,000 if either Dyer (an anti-semitic hack) or peskin will give me the above odds.
Ted can hold the pool.
Abbas congratulates Kuntar’s family; Haniyeh: Israel will pay more
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3568977,00.html
Hamas’ prime minister in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, congratulated Kuntar and Hizbullah for “the great victory of the resistance, which proved the rightness of our way.”
He said Hamas would not abandon the Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
Haniyeh arrived at the home of a Palestinian woman who adopted Kuntar in Gaza’s al-Bureij refugee camp, where he held a press conference shortly before the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbullah was executed.
“Today we stress again that we won’t give up our prisoners. We won’t be able to waive these heroes without an honorable deal for our prisoners in Israel. The Israelis must pay a price. They must know that they will pay a price in return for an exchange deal. We cannot accept having these prisoners remain in jail.”
He mentioned the negotiations for a deal between Israel and Hamas, which would secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
“There is a captive Israeli solder and thousands of prisoners on our side. We are interested in finalizing this issue as soon as possible, but they must accept the Palestinian demands. They must accept the demands of the Palestinian resistance sentenced to long jail terms, parliament members, sick people, women, etc.
“Second, from the al-Bureij camp, the camp of strong standing, I once against congratulate Lebanon. We tell them that this operation is the best lesson that can be achieved – a victory over the occupation, liberating lands and liberating prisoners.”
The Hamas prime minister said that the deal with Hizbullah, which included the return of the bodies of kidnapped soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, gave him hope. “This is a precedent,” he said.
He added that “this is a victory for the culture of steadfast standing and refusal to concede. Today is a great day in the days of this nation, which has marked a victory in the release of prisoners and the return of the bodies of Lebanese, Palestinians, Yemenis and Pakistanis.
“Today Palestinian embarks on a new era. Samir Kuntar, this huge hero, who sacrificed 30 years of his life for the Palestinian issue, for Palestine – is a legend due to the agony he suffered in the Israeli jail.
Candy handed out in Gaza
Shortly after the implementation of the Israel-Hizbullah prisoner exchange deal, candy was handed out to residents in Gaza.
Ziad abu al-Enain, director-general of the Ministry for Prisoner Affairs of the Salam Fayyad government and one of Fatah’s senior members in the territories, said Wednesday morning, “The Palestinians congratulate Hizbullah and its leader and send their best wishes to all the Lebanese people and to all the Palestinians upon the completion of the deal and the release of heroes, headed by the prisoners’ leader, Samir Kuntar.”
He added that processions would be held in the territories Wednesday to express the Palestinians’ solidarity following the completion of the deal.
Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, told Ynet that the completion of the deal “even after the images of the Israeli soldiers’ coffins, proves that kidnapping soldiers will continue to be the most efficient, favored and ideal way to release Palestinian prisoners, particularly those defined by the enemy as having blood on their hands.”
According to Abu Mujehad, the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance will continue to work to kidnap soldiers in order to release prisoners “and in order to retrieve our rights, after it has been proved beyond any doubt that no diplomatic negotiations can release prisoners or return rights.”
Security prisoners jailed in Israel were recently disappointed to hear estimations and leaks that the number of Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal with Hizbullah will not cross 150. It is also unclear when they will be released.
Kuntar’s mother sends ’1,000 greetings’ to Nasrallah
Samir Kuntar’s mother joined the cries of joy on Wednesday afternoon, praising Hizbullah leader Nasrallah for “the huge achievement.”
In an interview with the al-Manar network, Kuntar’s mother, also known as Um Jabar, said that “there is no limit to my joy today. I cannot express my feelings. This is complete liberty. For three days I have been getting phone calls from residents of Palestine, Yemen, Morocco and other countries, who congratulate me and I congratulate them.”
Um Jabar mentioned Nasrallah’s activity, adding, “I congratulate Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah a thousand times for the huge achievement he accomplished through his efforts, wisdom and honor. I also congratulate Lebanon and the village of Aabey, where Samir was born.”
Roee Nahmias contributed to this report
The Mother of the Tel Aviv suicide bomber says, “It was necessary,”
BBC VIDEO HERE.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/04/mother-defends-her-sons-decision-to.html
The World Should Know What He Did to My Family
By Smadar Haran Kaiser
Sunday, May 18, 2003; Page B02
NAHARIYA, Israel
Abu Abbas, the former head of a Palestinian terrorist group who was captured in Iraq on April 15, is infamous for masterminding the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. But there are probably few who remember why Abbas’s terrorists held the ship and its 400-plus passengers hostage for two days. It was to gain the release of a Lebanese terrorist named Samir Kuntar, who is locked up in an Israeli prison for life. Kuntar’s name is all but unknown to the world. But I know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family.
It was a murder of unimaginable cruelty, crueler even than the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist who was shot on the Achille Lauro and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Kuntar’s mission against my family, which never made world headlines, was also masterminded by Abu Abbas. And my wish now is that this terrorist leader should be prosecuted in the United States, so that the world may know of all his terrorist acts, not the least of which is what he did to my family on April 22, 1979.
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It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.
Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “This is just like what happened to my mother,” I thought.
As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl’s skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.
By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.
The next day, Abu Abbas announced from Beirut that the terrorist attack in Nahariya had been carried out “to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty” at Camp David the previous year. Abbas seems to have a gift for charming journalists, but imagine the character of a man who protests an act of peace by committing an act of slaughter.
Two of Abbas’s terrorists had been killed by police on the beach. The other two were captured, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Despite my protests, one was released in a prisoner exchange for Israeli POWs several months before the Achille Lauro hijacking. Abu Abbas was determined to find a way to free Kuntar as well. So he engineered the hijacking of the Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt and demanded the release of 50 Arab terrorists from Israeli jails. The only one of those prisoners actually named was Samir Kuntar. The plight of hundreds held hostage on a cruise ship for two days at sea lent itself to massive international media coverage. The attack on Nahariya, by contrast, had taken less than an hour in the middle of the night. So what happened then was hardly noticed outside of Israel.
One hears the terrorists and their excusers say that they are driven to kill out of desperation. But there is always a choice. Even when you have suffered, you can choose whether to kill and ruin another’s life, or whether to go on and rebuild. Even after my family was murdered, I never dreamed of taking revenge on any Arab. But I am determined that Samir Kuntar should never be released from prison. In 1984, I had to fight my own government not to release him as part of an exchange for several Israeli soldiers who were POWs in Lebanon. I understood, of course, that the families of those POWs would gladly have agreed to the release of an Arab terrorist to get their sons back. But I told Yitzhak Rabin, then defense minister, that the blood of my family was as red as that of the POWs. Israel had always taken a position of refusing to negotiate with terrorists. If they were going to make an exception, let it be for a terrorist who was not as cruel as Kuntar. “Your job is not to be emotional,” I told Rabin, “but to act rationally.” And he did.
So Kuntar remains in prison. I have been shocked to learn that he has married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of terrorist prisoners. As the wife of a prisoner, she gets a monthly stipend from the government. I’m not too happy about that.
In recent years, Abu Abbas started telling journalists that he had renounced terrorism and that killing Leon Klinghoffer had been a mistake. But he has never said that killing my family was a mistake. He was a terrorist once, and a terrorist, I believe, he remains. Why else did he spend these last years, as the Israeli press has reported, free as a bird in Baghdad, passing rewards of $25,000 from Saddam Hussein to families of Palestinian suicide bombers? More than words, that kind of cash prize, which is a fortune to poor families, was a way of urging more suicide bombers. The fortunate thing about Abbas’s attaching himself to Hussein is that it set him up for capture.
Some say that Italy should have first crack at Abbas. It had already convicted him of the Achille Lauro hijacking in absentia in 1986. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now wants Abbas handed over so that he can begin serving his life sentence. But it’s also true that in 1985, the Italians had Abbas in their hands after U.S. fighter jets forced his plane to land in Sicily. And yet they let him go. So while I trust Berlusconi, who knows if a future Italian government might not again wash its hands of Abbas?
In 1995, Rabin, then our prime minister, asked me to join him on his trip to the White House, where he was to sign a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat, which I supported. I believe that he wanted me to represent all Israeli victims of terrorism. Rabin dreaded shaking hands with Arafat, knowing that those hands were bloody. At first, I agreed to make the trip, but at the last minute, I declined. As prime minister, Rabin had to shake hands with Arafat for political reasons. As a private person, I did not. So I stayed here.
Now I am ready and willing to come to the United States to testify against Abu Abbas if he is tried for terrorism. The daughters of Leon Klinghoffer have said they are ready to do the same. Unlike Klinghoffer, Danny, Einat and Yael were not American citizens. But Klinghoffer was killed on an Italian ship in Abbas’s attempt to free the killer of my family in Israel. We are all connected by the international web of terrorism woven by Abbas. Let the truth come out in a new and public trial. And let it be in the United States, the leader in the struggle against terrorism.
Smadar Haran Kaiser is a social worker. She is remarried and has two daughters.
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