Challenges For Israel to Bomb Iranian Nuclear Facilities

by Chriss Street

	Israel is running out of time to use air power to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities and delay Iranian efforts to build and deploy nuclear weapons.  The “fighting season” in the eastern portion of the Middle East runs from March to early October, and then heavy weather sets in.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated last

week that Israel could independently attack Iran's nuclear program, but acknowledged that the attack would only delay, rather than completely destroy it. 

Israel has entered a long-term crisis as a result of the Arab Spring radicalizing the Middle East.  Under Muslim Brotherhood control, Egypt is re-militarizing the Sinai Peninsula, while Iran is becoming the most powerful entity in the Middle East.  Israel sees its military position weakening over the long-run, due to its size, despite its current military superiority.  Evolving events potentially may undermine that military superiority, and therefore Israel feels pressured to act now to preserve it. 

Israel does not have the United States’ armada of B-2 bombers, equipped with the Massive Ordnance Penetrator that could cause tremendous damage to the deep and hardened underground Iranian weapons sites.  The United States also has positioned the Enterprise and Dwight D. Eisenhower air craft carriers, and the Iwo Jima, “Big Deck Amphibious Warfare Ship”, to be within close striking distance of Iran.  But President Obama seems unwilling to order a strike, unless Iran becomes more aggressive by curtailing oil shipment through the Straits of Hormuz.  Consequently, Israel will have to rely on its own capability to confront Iran.  

Israel can field a strike force of approximately 100 Lockheed Martin F-16 and 25 Boeing F-15 Boeing F-15 fighter-bombers equipped with long range conformal fuel tanks, supported by up to ten converted Boeing 707 aerial refueling tankers.  Since the lower speed and greater vulnerability of the tankers would restrict their ability to enter Iranian airspace, the American built bombers will only have limited time over their targets.  

According to the Stratfor Reports, the Israeli air force would have to choose one of three potential air corridors to attack Iran.  Each route would “pose serious threats to Israel's aircraft and cause significant diplomatic problems with Iran -- and potentially the rest of the Islamic world -- if they allowed Israeli jets to cross unchallenged.”  The northern route would circumvent Syria's air defense network by flying between Cyprus and Syria, and then proceeding eastward along the Turkey-Syria border into northern Iraq, and then south into Iran.  The shortest route is to fly directly over Jordan and Iraq and into central Iran, but it is expected that Iraq would provide intelligence and warning to Iran, given their close defense relationship.  The third route would fly south over Saudi Arabia and across the Persian Gulf.  But this path would fly directly into Iran’s premier air defense missile systems and be seen by Iran as declaration of war by Saudi Arabia.  

Iran has been sending troops and supplies to reinforce Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army.  It seems very likely that the Free Syrian Army rebel forces would be willing to coordinate attacks on Syria’s air defense network during air strikes on Iran.  Such cooperation would allow the Israeli air force’s slow and vulnerable aerial refueling tankers to spend the maximum time loitering close to Iran. This option would allow Israel a direct line of attack to their targets and would avoid the operational and political risks of flying over Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Turkey.

With “clock running out”, there is a high probability that Israel will wield its full military strength to bomb Iran in the next six weeks.  The Arab Spring that the United States helped sponsor and funded has created tremendous instability in the region.  As stable tyrants were replaced by armed tribal and ethnic forces, chaos has ensued.  The coming confrontation between Israel and Iran is sure to heighten this turmoil.   

Chriss Street and Paul Preston Co-Host
“The American Exceptionalism Radio Talk Show”
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Obama-Backed Syrian Rebels Assassinate Christian Defence Chief

By Chriss Street

The “Syria War” took a horrific escalation today as Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, a Christian, and two other senior officials were assassinated in a suicide bombing by the United States backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels; which was immediately followed by a retaliatory Hezbollah bombing of three tour busses in Burgas, Bulgaria that wounded 32 Israelis. The FSA attack appears to have been coordinated to

occur just before today’s United Nations Security Council meeting on imposing sanctions on Syrian leaders, including Rajha. The U.N. subsequently suspended today’s sanction vote as the war went global.

The “Syria War” took a horrific escalation today as Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, a Christian, and two other senior officials were assassinated in a suicide bombing by the United States backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels; which was immediately followed by a retaliatory Hezbollah bombing of three tour busses in Burgas, Bulgaria that wounded 32 Israelis. The FSA attack appears to have been coordinated to occur just before today’s United Nations Security Council meeting on imposing sanctions on Syrian leaders, including Rajha. The U.N. subsequently suspended today’s sanction vote as the war went global.

Since the middle of 2011, the Obama Administration, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have openly backed a Jihadist Sunni Muslim rebellion in Syria as a vehicle to bring pressure against Syria’s key ally, Shite Muslim Iran. As we reported in Obama Tries to Wag a Dog that Bites Back and other articles, the President had hoped that his Syrian adventure would rally patriotic military support just in time for the November elections, in a similar manner as his surreptitious support of the rebel movement and then aerial bombing led to the ouster Colonel Muammar Gadhafi from Libya. But as the United States has escalated equipping the FSA; Russia, China, Iran and Hezbollah have escalated their aid of Syria. Last month a U.S. made Turkish reconnaissance fighter was shot down over Syrian territorial water by a Russian missile.

Over the last twelve months, as rebels failed to take any cities or hold any territory, the Syrians have been resupplied with the most sophisticated weapons their Russian benefactors have to offer. To compliment $5 billion in purchases of highly competitive Russian armaments over the last ten years, Russia just shipped Pantsyr-S1 and Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missiles that are known to be highly effective against air or sea attacks to Syria. Brig. Gen. Itay Baron, head of the Israeli Military Intelligence, also confirmed that together Syria and Iran now have approximately 3,500 ballistic missiles, and Hezbollah has about 60,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel or any other invader. This figure has increased by 1000% in the last six years.

In April, Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary General was appointed to act as a special U.N. envoy. Shortly thereafter, he reported that the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad had agreed to a six-point peace plan, which laid out a framework for a cease-fire that did not involve the president leaving power. Syria agreed to the cease fire and allowed 300 cease-fire observers into Syria as part of the “U.N. Stabilization Mission.” According to Stratfor Global intelligence Report, the FSA used the cease fire to smuggle more weapons and foreign Jihadi fighters into the country. On June 16th Mission Head Gen. Robert Mood told the BBC that because neither the Syrian government nor the FSA was willing to seek peace, U.N. had suspended its observer mission in Syria.

Over the last three months, the United States and Russia have continuously escalated their forces in and around Syria to the largest naval confrontations since the Viet Nam War. The United States has deployed four Carrier Air Wing Strike Groups to the Middle East; including the USS Enterprise, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln and the Harry S. Truman (under way in the Atlantic Ocean). The American armada is supplemented with the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, composed of a battalion sized and heavily reinforced Marine Expedition Unit. The Russians have responded by sending their Admiral Kuznetsov Carrier Strike Force, five naval heavy cruisers, five Amphibious Ready Groups and numerous helicopter gunships to patrol the Syrian Coast as a demonstration of Russia’s willingness to fight for Syria.

In what appears to be a prelude to today’s suicide bombing, the London Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that President Barack Obama had warned America’s western allies and Syria’s opposition groups that the United States “can do nothing to intervene in the country’s crisis until after November’s presidential election.” But since May, the United States CIA officers operating out of Turkey have been actively helping smuggle arms to the Syrian opposition through the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.

It is unclear so far if the United States had any direct or indirect involvement in the suicide bombing in the Syrian capital. But the White House told the BBC immediately after the bombing that “Syrian President Bashar al Assad is losing control of Syria, and the international community must help work toward a political transition.” Shortly thereafter, the Obama Administration’s bravado was silenced by the Hezbollah retaliation in Bulgaria. But what is crystal clear, is that the Obama Administration has successfully cranked up a new Middle East war just in time for the November elections.

Chriss Street will be in Studio with Paul Preston on “The Inside Education”; Streaming Live from Monday July 23rd to Friday July 27th. Click Below to listen between 7-10 PM each night: http://www.mysytv.net/kmyclive.html