An interesting article appeared in today’s Daily Star:
Israel has reportedly passed a message to the Lebanese government, through United Nations envoy Michael Williams, that any Hizbullah-led efforts to shoot down Israeli aircraft violating Lebanese airspace or Lebanon-based attack on Israel would be met with a firm response.
This originally appeared in an article in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, though there hasn’t been an official confirmation of this issue from Israel, Lebanon or the United Nations.
If true, I like the part where Israel would retaliate if Hezbollah shot down one of their war planes over Lebanon. That’s kind of like saying, Lebanon will retaliate if Israel shot down a Lebanese missile over Israel. I really don’t see how Israel would justify an attack if one of its war planes were shot down.
Israeli planes regularly cross in to Lebanon’s airspace to conduct mock raids and gather intelligence, in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the hostilities of the 2006 summer war.
Actually, they have been crossing into Lebanon on a daily basis since 2000. Sonic booms from Israeli aircrafts flying low-altitudes at super-sonic speeds is quite common. I’ve seen an Israeli war plane in action flying about a few hundred meters off the ground; the pilot flew upside down, turned right-side up and sped off. I was at a beach resort where the incident took place; everyone jumped out of the pool and ran into a nearby building.
Personally, I consider that to be a terrorist attack.