(Update below: Israel deploys Patriot missiles in Haifa after drone breaches Israeli airspace)
Two days ago, Israel downed a drone invading its airspace. Yesterday, in blatant contravention of Resolution 1701 and Lebanon’s sovereignty, Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace by staging mock raids over villages in southern Lebanon, breaking the sound barrier.
AP:
Lebanon’s state news agency says Israeli warplanes have staged mock raids over villages in southern Lebanon, breaking the sound barrier.
The National News Agency says the planes flew low over the market town of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages on Sunday.
The sortie appeared to be in response to the infiltration of Israeli air space Saturday by a drone Israeli officials suspect was launched by the Lebanon-based terror organization Hezbollah.
The booms were audible Sunday in several locations in Lebanon, according to the report from Lebanon’s official National News Agency.
……
Officials reportedly believe the drone may have been launched by Hezbollah, in an Iranian-ordered spying operation.
Slightly OT, but notice how the Times of Israel segued into “Iran’s nuclear drive” in their coverage of the drone yesterday:
(my bold)
It’s not clear if the drone was operating by pre-programmed instructions or if it was controlled remotely from Lebanon. If remote-controlled, the drone would show a level of sophistication the IDF has not believed Hezbollah possesses, according to a report in Ynet.
Hezbollah and Iran both refrained from immediately commenting on the drone’s downing. However a retired Lebanese general told Iran’s state-run Press-TV that the drone could have been an American aircraft accidentally shot down by Israel.
“It is impossible [that it] came from Lebanon and the only possibility [if it came] from the sea is that it was from an American aircraft carrier or from Saudi Arabia, [which also has] American bases,” Maj. Gen. Hisham Jaber told the news outlet.
In an address in August, Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his group has a list of Israeli targets that it can hit with very few rockets. He said a small number of precisely fired missiles on carefully selected targets could “transform the lives of millions of Zionists in occupied Palestine to a real hell,” and spoke of tens of thousands of Israeli fatalities.
Israel has been seeking to encourage the international community to act with more urgency to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive, and has indicated that it might seek to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities if all else fails. Iranian officials have vowed that any Israeli attack would prompt a counter-strike that would be catastrophic for Israel.
Recall the Israeli drone that went missing over Lebanon last year? No mention whether it was remote controlled, like the one the U.S. lost to Iran less than a month later.
Update: Israel deploys Patriot missiles in Haifa after drone breaches Israeli airspace
Patriot missile systems deployed in Haifa during the Second Lebanon War. Photo by Ancho Gosh
A Patriot surface-to-air missile battery was deployed in Haifa on Monday, two days after an unmanned aerial vehicle breached Israeli airspace from the west.
Israel Defense Forces officials said that the deployment was not an emergency measure, and such systems are deployed to the area from time to time.
Moreover, IDF officials refused to comment on the possible connection between the drone, which was intercepted on Saturday, and the Patriot missile system deployed to Haifa.
The Patriot missile system is a part of Israel’s air defense capabilities, and is meant to defend against enemy warplanes, and intercept missiles.
…….
The deployment of the battery comes shortly before the beginning of a joint comprehensive drill between the IDF and United States Military commands, which has been called AC12. The AC12 drill entails testing the active defense capabilities of the two military organizations.
due to…life, this post from yesterday got up a little late and as it turns out there is already a robust conversation about the mock raid still going on in the Israeli air force shoots down unidentified drone over Negev thread which began right after the raid was announced yesterday.
just in case you’re interested.
answering denis’s questions: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/10/israeli-air-force-shoots-down-unidentified-drone-over-negev.html/comment-page-1#comment-506157
@-Annie Robbins: no shit sherlock! not necessarily.
hi watson, first of all my sherlock comment was intended to infuse a tad of humor and directed solely at the part i italiced above it “Either it was a foreign drone in that IAF video, or it wasn’t”, meaning who could argue with that. merging my two comments ( the “not necessarily”) isn’t clarifying.
moving right along, no more confusing jokes.
you now seem to be arguing that even if this were a foreign drone and IAF had control of it, which means, by definition, they were able to land it, they would not have done so.
no, i am not arguing if they were “able to land it, they would not have done so”. i am arguing they might not necessarily have chosen to take that route and “used it for propaganda purposes just like Iran did.”
first of all i could check the record but off the top of my head, unlike israel, iran didn’t run out and brag/advertise they took down a drone (by remote control or otherwise) right off the bat. they revealed that only after the US made several statements making the US look more the fool. and if hezbollah did bring down the drone inside lebanon last year (which seems very likely in my book because last i heard drones do not dematerialize and i am not really buying silverstein’s source this time) they too were silent about their achievement.
i think it is likely if they could have brought it down remotely they would have. and if they were smart about it, they would have garnered lots of info about hezbollahs technological advancement and been quiet. so let’s review what i said again:
but they were anything but silent. the odd thing about this story is how it got advertised all over the internet within hours, as if it was a huge story (it isn’t) and then the iof publishing a video of themselves blowing up the drone ……..iow, they are heavily advertising this one intel drone. why?…….they’re seeking mass milage. why?
so yes, i did leave you hanging a little bit. you asked what PR advantage do you get with a video of it being blasted out of the sky….that you wouldn’t get from a video of it on the ground with Hezbollah/Iranian fingerprints, for instance, all over it?
very little, which is why i don’t think, if the drone was foreign, israel could bring it down remotely. i think one of the most interesting features about the story is how it was plastered all over the media within moments. i was watching the feeds come in yesterday morning, in fact i mentioned it here @- 8 am my time: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/10/israeli-air-force-shoots-down-unidentified-drone-over-negev.html/comment-page-1#comment-506005
now this is sunday morning which is rather hot media real estate during an election cycle. we’ve already seen how israel media responds when they are in surprise mode (all over the map). but their message was fairly unified. (other than the info about where it came from, first stories said they didn’t know, ma’an broke the ‘over Mediterranean/gaza’ response from the iof shortly after most news sources first reported they didn’t know where it came from).
so, what does this mean as far as my conclusion. the main value of the propaganda was to redirect attention towards hezbollah and “israel under threat” and brag about their awesome aiming skills AND to develop a pretext to stage mock raids over lebanon. definitely enough of a reason to stage a false flag which offered no threat whatsoever to israel but offers big splashy headlines. on the other hand, if it was foreign (which i would not rule out) blasting it out of the sky also offered the same pretext. i’m still not sure if israel could bring it down remotely, i would be more certain they couldn’t if i was convinced it wasn’t a false flag. there’s also that little incidence from last week demonstrating how useful false operations can be wrt the audience factor. https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/09/winep-director-of-research-suggests-a-covert-attack-to-get-a-war-on-with-iran.html
More on that dratted drone. It flew over Israewl for 20 minutwes, over people and towns! Yikes. And wasn’t shot down for the longeest time. Oi Vey.
More here: http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2012/10/08/idf-failure-involving-hezbollah-iranian-drone/
Armaments in civilian areas? WOW! One rule for Israel another for Israel’s enemies. Anyone surprised?
I don’t see any propaganda value in staging a false flag drone shoot-down over Israel. Maybe somebody can enlighten me. This isn’t the first Hezbollah drone to be shot down over Israel. It’s happened previously, and I’m sure we’ll see the Iranian terrorist cell launch more drones in the future. I agree with Denis though, as regards the reported detection time and the fact that it took the IAF 20 minutes to scramble after a potentially hostile aicraft penetrated Israeli air space. That seems to be cutting it awfully close.