Israel sacks IAF Commander over Hizballah drone

Posted on October 15, 2012 |

The Zionist regime has sacked Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of its airforce defense layout as result of its recent humiliation by a Hizballah spy-drone operation early this month. Israeli media has reported that Gavish will be replaced by Col. Shachar Shochat, who has immediately been promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General.

The replacement took place after Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in a speech on Al-Manar TV confirmed on October 11 that the pilotless drone which penetrated deep into the Israeli airspace last week and was shot-down by Israeli jets only a few miles away from Israeli nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert – belonged to Hizballah. Israeli analysts claim that Gavish’s sacking was due to Israel’s failure to detectec the drone, while stressing that the move demonstrated part of Hizballah’s capability.

British daily the Sunday Times, reported on October 14 that Hizballah drone ‘Ayyoub’ “was airborne for three hours before being intercepted by an F-16 jet, is believed to have transmitted pictures of preparations for Israel’s biggest joint military exercise with the US army, which began last week, as well as ballistic missile sites, main airfields and, possibly, its nuclear reactor in Dimona“.

Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that the drone operation served as a reminder of the complicated balance of deterrent power. That Hizballah, backed by the Islamic Republic, “looms as the most sophisticated antagonist vis-a-vis Israel in the region is not in dispute“.

Palestinian resistance groups, Gaza-based Al-Mujahideen Brigades and Salah al-din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, have called Hizballah’s latest achievement as “unprecedented” and said it proved that resistance was the best way to face Israel and to stop its continuous attacks.

Iranian Defence Minister General Ahmad Vahidi congratulated Hizballah on the drone success, adding that Hizballah had a right to conduct the mission, based on repeated violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli warplanes. Mocking Israel’s much-touted Iron Dome anti-missile defence system, which was developed and donated by the US in order to target unidentified short-range rockets, he said the Hizballuh drone penetration shows the system “doesn’t work and lacks the necessary capability”.

After learning that Hizballah drone was Iranian-made, Abraham Foxman, the guru of Jewish Israel lobby group ADL, called on the European Commission once again to declare Hizballah as a terrorist organization.

“This incident represents an alarming escalation of belligerent anti-Israel activity by Hizballah, and a reflection of Iran’s growing reach. The distinction between Hizballah’s terrorist arm and its political activities is an unsupportable fiction,” Foxman said in a statement.

In July 2012, European Union turned down Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s request to blacklist Lebanese Islamic Resistance Hizballah as a terrorist organization after Israel’s false flage operation in Bulgaria.

“There is no consensus or justification for putting Hizballuh on the list of terrorist organizations,” said EU President and Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis. Hizballah, which is part of Lebanese ruling unity government – is designated by only three countries (Israel, US and Canada) as a terrorist organization.

Lebanese western poodles like former prime minister Saad al-Hariri and the former pro-Israel Christian Phalangist militia leader Gen. Samir Farid Geagea have dubbed Hizballah accomplishment as ‘provocation’.

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