High-level Israeli intelligence officials flew to Moscow on Tuesday to press the Putin government to cancel plans to send sophisticated S-300 air defense systems to Syria. Those systems would be capable of intercepting Israeli fighter jets inside Israeli territory. Top officials of the Netanyahu government have threatened that they would destroy the S-300 systems before they could be installed.
In effect, Israel is threatening to take military action against Russia, given that Russian technicians will be involved in every step in the installation and manning of the SA-300 systems. Yival Steinitz, Minister of Strategic Affairs and Intelligence in the current Netanyahu government, told reporters in Jerusalem on Tuesday that "We don't want to get involved in the [Syrian] civil war, but we will defend ourselves as we always did." An unnamed Israeli diplomat interviewed by the Guardian, today, betrayed a degree of strategic insanity, telling the Guardian's Phoebe Greenwood, "I don't know how upset the Russians would be if, at some point between payment and the installation of this technology in Damascus by Russian experts, something was done to damage the weaponry. As long as no Russians were hurt and they got paid, I don't think they would care."
Yesterday, Ha'aretz reported that, last week, Netanyahu's national security advisor, Yaakov Amidror, briefed the 27 European Union ambassadors to Israel about the Israeli plans to prevent the Russian S-300s from being deployed. According to one of the participants in the closed-door briefing, Amidror made clear that Israel would take action to "prevent the S-300 missiles from becoming operational." In his own meetings with European foreign ministers, Prime Minister Netanyahu had said that "If the missiles are provided and become operational, Israel's entire airspace will become a no-fly zone. The missile transfer is a significant security challenge to Israel, and we will not be able to stand idly by."
The reality, as Lyndon LaRouche has been warning for some time, is that any such Israeli strike on Russian S-300s inside Syria could be the trigger for a global war — a war that would wind up as a thermonuclear war.
Leading military analysts have come to the same conclusion. Col. W. Patrick Lang, the former head of all DIA operations in the Middle East, who now runs a widely-read blog, wrote today about the Israeli threats to attack the S-300s.
"What a great way to start WW3 this would be. Israel attacks Russian missile deliveries, kills Russians, Russians attack Israel... Presto! The Guns of July. Guess who would lose the most in that deal. What the hell are we playing at?"
Lang also denounced the folly of the Obama Administration and Congress's bungling of the Syria mess. "And then there are the two Johns. McCain can't help himself. He has become a raving madman bent on war everywhere against anyone available. Kerry is just pathetic, a bumbling, conceited fool who thinks charm is the touchstone that will open all doors for him."
There are conflicting reports out in the Arab press that President Assad told reporters that Syria has already received the initial shipments of S-300 systems.
