Thursday, September 6, 2007

Syrian Dust-Up

The Syrians claim that they have fired on some Israeli aircraft near the Syrian/Turkish frontier. The Jerusalem Post reports that Syrian radio says that some Israeli aircraft dropped attachable fuel tanks on Syrian territory and broke the sound barrier. Continuing the multiple hearsay-fest: J-Post says Israel Radio quotes unnamed "western diplomats" as saying the aircraft were "most likely" sneaking around taking photographs, and they scrammed when the Syrians ID'd them.
Official Israeli sources are not saying much of anything.
Haaretz quotes the Syrian Information Minister, Mr. Mohsen Bilal, as saying to Al Jazerra, (along with the usual pro forma vaporings about Israeli aggression and treachery), that "[t]he Syrian leadership is seriously considering its response." That is certainly wise, and no doubt fortunate for Minister Bilal and his master, because if Syria does anything intemperate, it will be the end of the Assad dynasty and Minister Bilal in short order.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

....well if chester were still around?? you would get more/better discussion regarding this report, but here goes.......

sneaking around taking photos while breaking the sound barrier & dropping external fuel tanks?????
just a sec, my order of jumbo- shrimp is ready........
ok, now where was i........
if the israelis want to take photos and sneak around use a UAV.
something else is up here.
is the IAF trying to embarass olmert?
is olmert trying to embarass the IAF?
is the IDF at odds with barack?
is barack trying to embarass olmert?
these "jets" were meant to be seen but by who and when?
did olmert orchaestrate this?
if so, why?
if the israelis wanted to see what the dumasscuns are up to, they could have asked their rich uncle in deecee to swing one of them/thar eyes in the sky around and have a look cee.

now i have first hand knowledge of what happens to people who argue/disagree with EJM I.

because if Syria does anything intemperate, it will be the end of the Assad dynasty and Minister Bilal in short order.

so this comment causes me to have a non-agreement with EJM I. now what the phrasing of this comment sounds like is an attorney from texas who grew up in a southern state where what a man said mattered. but that's just me. and what i think is if the dumasscuns were to somehow shoot down an israeli jet that olmert would hang the entire IDF out to dry. he would court martial the pilot and promise assad a box of chocolates. i just don't see what EJM I says happening. not with olmert-in-charge.
with the so-called end of the shooting war with the hezzys last summer, everyone was predicting olmert would soon be gone.
.........i'm waiting.............
not only is he not going anywhere anytime soon, no one in the knesset is eager at all to replace him. this is not about the security of isarel. this is about staying in power. if hamass shoots rockets at sderot, so what.
if the hezzys start raining little kates on the north so what.
now you made me loose count, and i'll have to start counting my shekels all over again.
israeli security is a myth, that very few in israel are concerned about. least of all olmert.

El Jefe Maximo said...

Now the sneaking around thing is second-hand x 13,000, but my guess is, if that were the case, the order of events would be (1) sneaking around; (2) Syrians belatedly get wise that the fox is in the hen house -- fire off lots of pretty rockets and shells hitting nothing but some poor goats miles away when they come down; (3) Israelis drop their long range tanks and scram, breaking said sound barrier on way out of Dodge. Just like ol' Wile E. Coyote when faced with yet another Acme Products defect.

I too think the sneak-a-peak thing is a bit of a weird explanation, but the location of the incident is interesting. The Turkish border is a relatively long run from Israeli bases.

I confess that you've been, so far, righter about Olmert than I've been, but I don't think he's out of the woods yet. Also, I'm not too convinced as to degree Olmert's a free-agent anymore as opposed to somebody all the movers and shakers there allow to hang around because they can't agree on what is to follow him.

As for the Syrians and their government -- they're something the Israelis can actually get at -- particularly their air force assets, as opposed to a nebulous guerrilla organization/state within a state spread all over south Lebanon.

Anonymous said...

my comment regarding olmert being gone soon was not directed toward KoC.
the word everyone should have read all the conservative joooish blogsites i visit.
i'm gonna blame that mis-comment on the people from shiner, texas.
yaeh, ti's al thy're falut??...

El Jefe Maximo said...

Being an all too frequent consumer of the Shiner brewery's Shiner Blonde label, and recently enjoying a few of their 98 year Ambers, I'm hardly in the position -- even if I wanted to be, which I don't, to blame anytning on Shiner. Instead, I find myself wishing it was beer time.