Israel Update for September 2007

The Nuclear Connection

Piecing the reports together, the following picture of an apparent Israeli military operation to prevent Syria from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability emerges. It must be stressed however that these are still unconfirmed details by either Israeli or Syrian officials, who both refuse to publicly spell out exactly what took place. Most of the information has come from unnamed senior American and Israeli officials, quoted in the US and British media.

Israeli intelligence operatives were said to have discovered around half a year ago that North Korean agents had traveled to Syria to help their longtime Arab ally develop a nuclear weapons program. The agents-representing a Communist country long known to be providing Syria with Scud missile components and other advanced weapons systems-were reportedly helping Syria build some sort of nuclear facility in the vast elevated eastern desert, which abuts northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, gradually sloping downward toward the Euphrates River valley.

All this came after the rogue East Asian nation spectacularly confirmed its long suspected WMD capability last September by carrying out a nuclear weapons test. It has subsequently promised the United States and regional powers like China and Japan not to share its nuclear technology with any other nation; a pledge its dictatorial leaders have seemingly not kept.

Two main sources for Israel's hard intelligence information about the reported program were detailed in the foreign media. A London Sunday Times report said nuclear material was actually picked up by elite Israeli commandos from the renowned Sayaret Matkal unit that was once commanded by Barak. They were said to have worked undercover inside of Syria for several months before successfully smuggling the evidence back into Israel, where it was carefully tested and analyzed and determined to be of North Korean origin.

The second source of information was Israel's Ofek-7 spy satellite, launched by an Israeli rocket in early June. It was reportedly quickly positioned over eastern Syria to check out reports of suspicious building activity in the area. Despite the fact that it hovers some 370 miles (600 kilometers) above the earth's surface, the highly sensitive cameras on the latest version of the Israeli-produced intelligence satellite are said to be among the most advanced of any positioned in the skies above the planet.

The disturbing nuclear evidence and satellite photos were quickly shared with US leaders in Washington by senior Israeli officials-indeed probably by PM Olmert himself when he met with President George Bush at the White House just two weeks after the Ofek-7 was launched. After weighing the substantial evidence that North Korean nuclear assistance was being provided to Syria, Bush reportedly gave his blessing to the planned Israeli operation to destroy the ominous work and/or nuclear material, although he was said to have asked that it be staged a bit later so as not to interfere with sensitive nuclear negotiations then reaching a climax with Pyongyang.

IAF Jets Over Syria

According to the foreign media reports, between six to eight IAF F-15-I jets took part in the operation. They penetrated Israeli airspace just north of the Syrian port of Latakia, where President Assad has a summer palace buzzed by IDF warplanes during the 2006 Second Lebanon War in a warning to stay out of the conflict. Syrian anti-aircraft radar quickly picked up the infiltration, and Russian-supplied missile batteries went into operation. However they apparently failed to hit any of their swift moving targets-which might explain why embarrassed Kremlin officials were amongst the first to denounce the reported Israeli operation, along with North Korea.

The Israeli warplanes apparently carried out a heavy bombing raid on the suspected nuclear facility, or possibly on a bunker containing nuclear material that had just arrived by ship from North Korea a few days before. Whatever the case, the action brought to mind the successful 1981 IAF destruction of Saddam's French-supplied nuclear reactor, then under construction in northern Iraq.

Media reports spoke of a "huge crater" formed by the IDF raid in the northeastern Syrian Desert. The jets then reportedly ejected some of their empty fuel tanks while rapidly exiting the area, with some landing on nearby Turkish territory-a fact confirmed by officials in Ankara, who complained to their Israeli counterparts about the incident, even if Turkey would also be loathe to see Syria go nuclear.

Underground Commandoes

Possibly the most intriguing detail reported by international media outlets was that elite Israeli ground forces had taken part in the obviously well planned bombing operation some 300 miles northeast of Israel's Golan border with Syria. One report claimed they were positioned in trenches dug virtually under the noses of Syrian military guards stationed in the vicinity. How they might have fled the area after the air attack was completed has not been revealed.

The IDF commandoes were said to have directed the advancing American-built IAF warplanes, flying under the cover of darkness just before the waning moon had risen in the pre-dawn sky, to the exact spot of the suspicious storage and/or construction activity-by means of highly accurate laser beams! Whether or not these incredible accounts are true, all agree that the jets successfully destroyed their target, reportedly killing some Syrian and North Koreans in the process, and possibly even some Russian personnel, said to have been slain when IAF air to ground missiles destroyed at least one of Syria's anti-aircraft batteries stationed in the area.