Tag Archives: Israelis

Neutralizing the Russian S-300 Air Defense System

Could Israel neutralize the S-300 missile defense system? An IAF officer suggested in 2008 that Israel was already working on neutralizing the S-300.

A top IAF officer also said this week that Israel needed to do “everything possible” to prevent the S-300 from reaching the region.

“Russia will have to think real hard before delivering this system to Iran, which is possibly on the brink of conflict with either Israel or the US, since if the system is delivered, an EW [electronic warfare] system will likely be developed to neutralize it, and if that happens it would be catastrophic not only for Iran but also for Russia,” the defense official said.

Neutralization of one of the main components of Russian air defense would be a blow to Russian national security as well as to defense exports.

[Published on 8/8/2008]

‘We’ll neutralize S-300 if they’re sold to Iran’ | JPost | Israel News

The Israelis have a record of hacking air-defense systems. Israel’s attack on Syria’s nuclear reactor in 2007 used an air-defense hacking system called Suter.

What is Suter?

Israel’s amazing attack in Syria on September 6th left just about everybody scratching their heads. How did they do that? Well, meet “Suter”.

Suter is an airborne network attack system. It hacks into enemy air defense systems so that they can be taken over. Suter includes some powerful sensors for detecting a large assortment of electronic emissions. Computer software can identify the emitters based on a database of known emitters. Based on this information potential entry points into air defense systems can be exploited. Suter can monitor enemy emitters, mislead them or shut them down.

Senior Suter is a Big Safari-managed special access program. Big Safari itself is a shadowy Air Force unit that has developed small numbers of specialized reconnaissance systems, including drones, in what are often classified programs. Big Safari is a specialized process of acquisition and contracting management process that supports 20-24 projects at any one time and includes responsibility for logistics sustainment for over 50 aircraft.

What is Suter? | 1913 Intel

Greece has the S-300 air defense system, and Israel is training with it. They were training with the S-300 back in 2008. Do you think the Israelis might have accomplished anything in the last 5 years?

Greece has the same Russian S-300 ground-to-air radar systems as Iran. A June 2008 exercise with Israel may be preparation for strike.

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.

[Published on 7/14/2008]

Greece assists Israel as war with Iran looms

It appears that Israel’s success with Suter in its 2007 strike on Syria might be replayed in the not too distant future. This will be a major embarassment for Russia and expose Russia’s vulnerabilities.

Official: Israel may not have answer to Syrian missiles – Israel News, Ynetnews

Ex-Military Intelligence senior worried Iron Dome may fail against strike on Tel Aviv. ‘Assad losing control of arsenal,’ claims Major-General (res.) Dayan. Russian long-range missiles shipment raises tensions

Israelis awoke to reports that Syrian President Bashar Assad has placed advanced surface-to-surface Tishreen missiles on standby with orders to strike at Tel Aviv if Israel launches another air strike on Syrian targets.

The report was based on reconnaissance satellite photos said to show preparations for the deployment of the missiles, which Israeli analysts say could cause extensive damage to the country.

“I’m not sure Israel has an answer to some of the missiles which the Syrians have and I’m not sure that the (anti-missile system) Iron Dome can be successful here,” Mordechai Kedar, a former senior military intelligence official and professor of Middle East Studies at Bar Ilan University told The Media Line.

Official: Israel may not have answer to Syrian missiles – Israel News, Ynetnews

What’s Israel’s Way Forward in the Region?

The sad fact is that our region has evolved into the poster child for what Nassim Nicholas Taleb (who began to shape his theories as as a youth in war-torn Lebanon) has called “fragile“: an interconnected system in which the smallest, eccentric, fanatic part—the people you don’t ordinarily encounter, the “black swan”—can do catastrophic damage to the whole. For Israelis, relying on the good faith of the Palestinian majority will invite disaster, much like an airport that assumes a security screening process fit for the average traveler.

Yes, Israeli military intervention in Lebanon in the early 1970s helped inflame what needed to be contained. Yes, the same can be said for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Yes, the occupation. But Syria? There, the factions needed only each other. Nobody knows where this will end. Goldberg may be demagogic at times, but he’s right to assume an approach that does not simply entail “pull[ing] out of territory on the West Bank.” No Israeli in his or her right mind will go for this, nor should any Palestinian. Which brings me back to the integration imperative I spoke about in my last post.

Given the scale and proximity of the states in question, no two state solution is conceivable—so I argued—apart from the confederal arrangements that would allow them grow by integrating a common (in effect,) urban infrastructure. …

Can The Peace Camp Cope With ‘Fragility’? – The Daily Beast

Iran threatens Israel: Golan will be ‘Fatahland’ – Washington Times

Iran on Wednesday issued war-like declarations against Israel, calling for volunteers to fight for Syria’s regime and vowing to turn the Golan Heights into a “Fatahland.”

The threats came via a Hezbollah newspaper that cited Iranian officials, Ynet News reported. Despite the aggressive tone, the paper reported that Iranian officials are more intent on halting future Israeli attacks on Syria, rather than declaring all-out war.

Still, one message was clear: Iran is calling for fighters to target the Golan region, dominated by Israelis.

Iran threatens Israel: Golan will be ‘Fatahland’ – Washington Times

Iran, Syria prep retaliation for Israeli airstrikes

Iran has instructed the Al Quds unit of the Revolutionary Guard to prepare a response to Israel’s reported airstrikes Sunday and Friday against Syrian targets, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The officials, speaking to WND, said Syria and Iran are determined to respond to the Israeli strikes. The officials said the retaliation may not be launched from Syrian territory but instead could come in the form of a terrorist attack against Israelis in Africa or South America.

Iran, Syria prep retaliation for Israeli airstrikes

Rumour: Assad “to declare war” on Israel following fresh airstrikes – The Commentator

Reports suggest that Syria’s embattled dictator, Bashar al-Assad, is shortly set to declare war on Israel after interventions against the regime

Rumours are surfacing online that following the latest volley of attacks on the Syrian regime, President Bashar al-Assad will soon officially declare war on Israel, with speculators pointing to 5am local time for official confirmation. This information continues to persist despite the technical state of war that currently exists between the two states.

Many however, have been quick to dismiss these reports as strictly rumour, with various commentators claiming that such a move would be sure to end Assad’s reign of terror in Syria “within a week”.

The news of an Israeli intervention in Syria has caught the Obama administration on the back foot, with the US president refusing to comment at length about the strike. Obama said, “The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.”

Assad “to declare war” on Israel following fresh airstrikes – The Commentator

Israel may face wars with Iran and Syria within two months say analysts | The Jewish Chronicle

Israeli intelligence officials say the moment is fast approaching when the country’s so-called “red line” triggers for military action in both Syria and Iran will have been crossed.

President Bashar al-Assad is already believed to have crossed the line in Syria by using chemical weapons.

And there is now a widely shared view within Israeli intelligence that Iran will have the option of a nuclear capability by the end of the year.

Analysts made clear at this week’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference at Tel Aviv University that Israel potentially faces two large-scale wars within months.

Israel may face wars with Iran and Syria within two months say analysts | The Jewish Chronicle

Ex-CIA Analyst Explains The Real Reason Israel Wants To Strike Iran Before The US Election – Business Insider

“The Israelis want to pretend the Iranians are building up their nuclear capabilities, want to zap them between now and November 6, and the chances are at least even that they will try to do that thinking the U.S. will come in with both feet,” McGovern told us.

Ex-CIA Analyst Explains The Real Reason Israel Wants To Strike Iran Before The US Election – Business Insider

Iran confirms secret nuclear ‘Quds’ site

Quds consists of three facilities:

  • The first is where the regime’s scientists are enriching uranium to weapons grade. They already have enough plutonium for several bombs and are in the last stage of putting together a nuclear warhead. This site is called “Quds” after Jerusalem, as they believe soon Israel will be destroyed and Jerusalem restored to Muslim rule.
  • The second, which makes missile warheads, is dubbed “Marty Mughniyah” after the Hezbollah terrorist who, under the command of the regime, conducted multiple terrorist acts that killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis.
  • The third facility is a vast site that houses over 380 missile depots and launching pads.

Video of satellite imagery revealing the site can be seen below:

“[The satellite images] suggest the possibility that Iran may in fact be further along in its nuclear weapons program than is generally assumed,” he said. “It is clear they have gone to great lengths to bury and protect high-value assets at this site, which also complicates the possibility of direct military action and illustrates the risks of allowing years to pass while hoping diplomacy will work.

“An accelerating train is harder to slow and takes longer to stop. These images reinforce my concern that Iranian nuclear progress is accelerating,” Trachtenberg said. “The more emphatically the U.S. declares its determination to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state, the harder it may be to ensure that outcome.”

Iran confirms secret nuclear ‘Quds’ site

How Iran can beat Israel | Full Comment | National Post

The [war game] crisis was spinning out of control.

So the [war] game ended. I believe this abrupt termination was artificial, but it was no accident. I’ve played in games that just got too intense. The design team had to break it off to prevent the animosity from getting out of hand.

Lessons were drawn, as they always are after a game. The United States needed better intelligence. Cruise missiles are a problem. The list went on with the usual items.

But there was an overarching lesson. Iran had thrown Israel into pandemonium without firing a shot. The population was terrified. The economy was in ruins. Israel’s reputation as the Prussia of the Middle East was smashed. Yes, nuclear war had been avoided. Deterrence worked. But who in Israel, the United States, or, for that matter, Iran would claim this was the real lesson? Iran had used a small nuclear force to overturn Israeli deterrence and rupture the Middle East order. Tehran was now empowered with a tremendous psychological victory. Iran had stood up to the Israelis and the Americans and had gotten away with it.

How Iran can beat Israel | Full Comment | National Post

A small Iranian nuclear force will be able to drive a crisis spinning out of control rapidly. That’s why it is in Isael’s best interest to attack Iran before it gets nuclear weapons. Even if it is only to delay the problem. Israel must change the game or else. Failure to change the game means that things will only get worse in the future.

In the above war game, does preventing nuclear war mean a happy ending, or does it mean that next time it will only be much worse? And there will be a next time.

Iranian official launches ‘Countdown to an Attack on Israel’ | Washington Free Beacon

“The Israelis and their false government must not be [allowed] to breathe,” added Forghani, whose June 2012 essay included the rallying cry, “Atomic bomb now!”

Forghani advocates for a formal Iran-Syria military operation, something Iranian government officials have been hinting at for months.

“Iran will rush to the aid of any country that attacks Israel and ends Israel’s story once and for all (with Allah’s help),” he wrote. “We must thank Israel’s senior commanders … for providing Syria, and of course Iran, with this golden opportunity to attack Israel.”

Forghani also said Russia and the terror group Hezbollah are considered Iran’s closest “allies,” referring to the Allied Forces of World War II.

“The new Allies are Iran, Russia, Syria, and the Lebanese Hizbullah—countries that, much like the Allies in World War II, are defensive and will deliver the second strike,” Forghani wrote. “That is, they will defend [themselves] only after being attacked. These countries can be abbreviated as ‘Risl’ (Russia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon).”

Iranian official launches ‘Countdown to an Attack on Israel’ | Washington Free Beacon