The hysteria over the expected arms deal between Russia and Syria should be directed elsewhere. Israel may indeed find it harder to strike Syria every time it feels like “sending a message” to Damascus. What should worry Jerusalem more, however, is the fact that it, and Syria, are now at the center of the great [...]

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An attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be far more extensive than the 1980 raid. Some of the would-be targets for the Israeli Air Force (IAF) are hardened with concrete coverings and underground rooms. Dozens of planes would have to dodge radar and antiaircraft missile batteries to deliver multiple payloads of penetrating warheads—bought from the [...]

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Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. and Israeli attack, state television reported.
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Assessing Israeli Capabilities to Destroy Iranian Nuclear Facilities
Orginally published in April 2006.
This paper will attempt to fill this gap in the existing literature by providing a rough net assessment of an Israeli strike on known Iranian nuclear facilities. It will do so by taking the strike on Osirak as a generic template for the strike [...]

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Will Israel attack Iran? I see the probability of an Israeli attack at less than 50% with the Olmert government.
Olmert knows he needs to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons, but he just doesn’t have the will to pull off an attack on Iran.
The bottom line - we need to wait for a new Israeli [...]

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Israel has just carried out a major aerial exercise, putting a hundred or so F-15s and F-16s into the skies over the eastern Mediterranean, evidently a rehearsal for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The move follows the statement earlier this month by Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s deputy prime minister, that an Israeli attack on Iran’s [...]

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Israel braced itself for conflict on two fronts against militants in Gaza and an Iranian government persisting with its nuclear programme.
Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, said the “pendulum is closer” to a large scale military operation in Gaza after another Israeli civilian was killed by a mortar fired from Gaza on Thursday.
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One of Mr Olmert’s [...]

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NHK reported on the 28th that 10 North Korean engineers who took part in the construction of the Syria nuclear facility died in the Israeli bombing of the facility in September, 2007.
NHK quoted a South Korean intelligence agent as confirming that “most of the 10 casualties were agents of the 99th Department under the Ministry [...]

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Recent events serve as a reminder of how menacing behavior from Iran and Syria keeps the Middle East on a hair trigger. On Tuesday, Israel learned that Hezbollah was rapidly rebuilding its military capabilities and preparing for renewed conflict with Israel. The next morning, a London-based Arab newspaper reported that Syria was concentrating troops and [...]

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