Anti-aircraft missiles for Hezbollah? .. Israel worries about its gallivanting in Lebanon's skies ...

in IMRA, here

Excerpts from article by Yediot Ahronot correspondent Alex Fishman published in today's edition (translation by IMRA):

"...While Prime Minister Olmert publicly pats the Syrians on the back in order to advance the achievements of the Syrian contacts in Turkey, Barak blames the Syrians in America for being responsible for the delicate situation today on the northern front.

The monitoring of Hezbollah activities isn't like collecting intelligence on a conventional army subject to a government like the Syrian army. This is an organization a large part of which operates in secret and targets that are not purely military targets, like weapons dumps within villages. The collection of intelligence about Hezbollah has to be very tight - both for the purposes of surveillance after the building of its force and also for
preparing a bank of targets, daily surveillance of particular individuals and more.

A considerable part of this activity is carried out from the sky. If Hezbollah succeeds in bringing anti-aircraft batteries into Lebanon, beyond the shoulder fired missiles they already have, then any government, cabinet or general staff that has to approve an activity in Lebanon requiring air cover - like an incursion, targeted killing, kidnapping or retrieval - will hesitate to take the risk.

It isn't a matter of years and not even months. If Hezbollah wants to cause an antiaircraft missile crisis, it could do it within a very short period of time. And then the ball will be on Israel's side.

Should Israel wait until the first anti-aircraft systems are in Lebanon? Should it wait until these devices lock onto Air Force aircraft? And what is to be done if a missile downs an unmanned craft? Is this grounds for an
attack? The government has to give the military clear answers to these questions, as any such action may have long term consequences.

Someone has to make clear to the Syrians the significance of their cooperation with Hezbollah. The Iranians have nothing to lose. The Syrians do. The government should be dealing with all of this now. It cannot wait
for the next government."