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23-12-2008, 07:35
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חבר מתאריך: 01.08.05
הודעות: 12,666
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מאמר מעניין מהעיתונות הזרה...
יש גם איזכור על כוחה של ישראל, אין צורך לדעתי להכנס למספרים המופיעים בכתבה...
Analysis: Beware of Russians with gifts
[התמונה הבאה מגיעה מקישור שלא מתחיל ב https ולכן לא הוטמעה בדף כדי לשמור על https תקין: http://www.spacewar.com/images/plane-mig-29k-bg.jpg]
A MIG-29 by Claude Salhani
Washington (UPI) Dec 22, 2008
The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming ... to Lebanon. Indeed, the Russians are coming to Lebanon with unusual gifts. Moscow announced last week it would deliver to the Lebanese air force 10 MiG-29s as a gift. This is an incredible number of fighter planes for a small country such as Lebanon. Ten new war planes will double, if not triple, the size of the current Lebanese army's air fighter wing. Lebanon's military air power is, for all intents and purposes, non-existent. At last count Lebanon had some old Hawker Hunter jet fighters that were delivered in 1959, a handful of French Mirages and a few helicopter squadrons.
While this unexpected gift from Moscow is indeed a nice gesture from the Russians and will be greatly appreciated by the Lebanese (or at least some of them), as is the more recent announcement by the U.S. State Department that it would be sending the Lebanese M-60 battle tanks, the question begs to be asked: Why the Russians are doing this? How will 10 jet fighters advance Lebanon's security? A mere 10 MiGs certainly will not suffice to defend the Lebanese borders against the country's two far more powerful neighbors: Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south.
"What is puzzling me," an official in the Christian Lebanese Forces told this reporter, "is the MIG 29s (the Russians are giving) to the Lebanese air force. Is it a message to the U.S. that 'we're back'?" The official went on to say that while the MiG-29 is a "good one," coming into possession of 10 planes "is too little to scare anybody, though, and no mention of the weaponry that will come with it," he said.
In the past, Israel has blocked attempts by the United States to provide the Lebanese air force with sophisticated weaponry, claiming it would endanger the security of the Jewish state. This is somewhat illogical, considering the balance of power in the region.
Consider, for a moment, the size of the Syrian and Israeli air forces.
Syria's air force forms a separate command structure from the Syrian army. It comprises some 100,000 regulars and 37,500 reserve officers. And while the vast majority of Syria's military aircraft are old, Soviet-vintage, mostly MiGs and SUs, nevertheless the Syrians can call on about 650 fighter planes.
Israel, meanwhile, has some 32,500 men serving in its air corps, 9,000 of whom are career professionals and almost 22,000 conscripts assigned mostly to air defense units. Israel can call on another 55,000 reserve members. Israel has even more planes than Syria and its inventories are more current, consisting of top-of-the-line U.S., French and Israeli-made aircraft. Its fighter pilots are among the best in the world.
What is Lebanon to do with 10 MiGs, as advanced as they may be?
Good question.
Lebanon, after obtaining its independence from France at the close of World War II, became (unofficially) an American protectorate. The United States (and, of course, France) has consistently looked out for the interests of Lebanon, or at least that is what they have always said. The United States dispatched U.S. Marines to the Lebanese shores in 1958, when a first civil war broke out between the country's Muslims and Christians. And again in 1982, the United States and the French dispatched troops to Lebanon.
Is this Moscow's way of getting back at the West (and Israel) for their interference in Georgia? Possibly. Or is this a well-coordinated move between Moscow and Washington in their fight against a common enemy -- militant Islamism?
The last time the Lebanese air force went into action was in 1971, when the Ministry of Defense ordered two or three of its planes to bomb Palestinian refugee camps where the Palestinian resistance had dug in after clashes erupted between the Lebanese and Palestinians.
The Palestine Liberation Organization may be gone, for the most part, from the camps, but it has been replaced by a far more dangerous element: pro-al-Qaida Islamists. Russia, which has its own headaches with Chechen and other Islamists, might be taking the fight to the Islamists on their own turf rather than wait until they acquire their training and return home better organized and deadlier. As for the United States, arming Lebanon to fight Islamists is just another step in the ongoing fight against global terrorism.
But will Lebanon allow itself once more to become a battlefield where others fight their wars by proxy?
(Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)
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"בניתי לי בית ונטעתי לי גן במקום זה שביקש האויב לגרשנו ממנו בניתי את ביתי, כנגד מקום המקדש בניתיו. כדי להעלות על ליבי תמיד את בית מחמדנו החרב...."
(ש"י עגנון - חתן פרס נובל)
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