Air clashes between Israel and Syria and Iran

A dangerous escalation game has been played. An Iranian drone penetrated Israeli air space, an Israeli helicopter shot it down, Israeli warplanes destroyed the drone’s Iranian launch vehicle in Syria, Syrian air defences shot down one of the attacking planes, and finally Israel mounted a massive attack on the Syrian air defence system.

Samah Salaime and Haggai Matar, writing in +972, report on the the Israeli provocations that have preceded this exchange. Samah Salameh writes that Israel has carried out “over 100 bombing incursions deep inside Syrian territory over the past few years”. Haggai Matar points out that Israel has been “violating Lebanese sovereignty with manned and unmanned overflights and other incursions for over a decade now…”. They point out that this gets very little news coverage in the world’s media, while any attack on Israeli forces or Israeli territory gets wide coverage.

Ben Caspit, writing in Al Monitor, does not acknowledge Israel’s provocations, but he notes several disturbing facts in this exchange. It was the first time that Israeli and Iranian forces clashed openly, the first time since 1982 that an Israeli aircraft was downed by Syrian anti-aircraft fire, and the first time in 36 years that Israel launched a far-reaching attack on the Syrian air defence system. Still more disturbing is that Israel may be approaching Russia’s red line of tolerating attacks on its client states.