Russia has reportedly accidentally fired on Israeli aircraft in Syria.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0XJ0GY

Russian forces in Syria have fired at least twice on Israeli military aircraft, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek improved operational coordination with Moscow, Israel's top-selling newspaper said on Friday.

The unsourced report in Yedioth Ahronoth gave no dates or locations for the incidents nor any indication Israeli planes were hit. Russia mounted its military intervention in Syria in September to shore Damascus up amid a now 5-year-old rebellion.

Separately, Israel's Channel 10 TV said a Russian warplane approached an Israeli warplane off the Mediterranean coast of Syria last week but that there was no contact between them.

An Israeli military spokesman declined comment. Netanyahu's office and the Russian embassy in Israel did not immediately respond.

RELATED COVERAGE

› Kremlin denies reports on Russian forces' fire on Israeli planes in Syria
Israel, which has repeatedly bombed Syria to foil suspected arms handovers to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, was quick to set up an operational hotline with Moscow designed to avoid accidentally trading fire with Russian interventionary forces.

Visiting Moscow on Thursday, Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin in televised remarks: "I came here with one main goal - to strengthen the security coordination between us so as to avoid mishaps, misunderstandings and unnecessary confrontations."

In an apparent allusion to Syria, Putin said: "I think there are understandable reasons for these intensive contacts (with Israel), given the complicated situation in the region."

According to Yedioth, the reported Russian fire on Israeli planes was first raised with Putin by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who visited Moscow on March 15. At the time, Putin responded that he was unaware of the incidents, Yedioth said.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Sigh...

At least it sounds like both sides are basically treating it as accidental and that Israel is trying to improve communications to avoid future such incidents, rather than people getting all bellicose over it like when Turkey shot down a Russian plane a while back.

[K. A. Pital]

What other choice does Israel have? Declare real war over a few incidents and be wiped off the map?

[Elheru Aran]

The Israelis blow a lot of hot air but if they're going up against anybody but the usual foes, they know full and well they're screwed. Certainly they could do some damage, possibly enough to make any offensive against them a rather expensive proposition, but frankly they simply don't have the manpower to fight a war against a foe that's actually on a technological parity with them and has more manpower to boot. And if there's anything the Russian military has, it's manpower.

So making nice is the best idea. Especially considering that (IIRC) the Russians are no great fans of the Israelis to start with.

[K. A. Pital]

Russia is OK with Israel so as long as the latter doesn't screw up its Middle East plans. Which wasn't the case, and Israel wasn't the biggest fan of the Libya/Syria/Iraq civil war to begin with, they'd rather stick with Assad and Qaddafi.

So making peace is not just the sensible option, but also the preferred option in this case.

[Tribble]

Edit: So, how is this a negative for Israel again? When a Russian fighter briefly crossed Turkish airspace, it was immediately shot down, which could have easily have gone very badly for them. One would think that Israeli's approach was the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances, rather than the Israelis being cowards for backing down or something like that.

[K. A. Pital]

This isn't a negative. In fact we're commenting on the rather obvious: Israel's behaviour is reasonable and completely expected given the circumstances. No?

[The Romulan Republic]

What other choice does Israel have? Declare real war over a few incidents and be wiped off the map?

Well, they could have played the posturing tough guy, acted all bellicose with a bunch of threatening rhetoric and diplomatic/economic retaliation, much like Turkey has.

It would be stupid, but they could, theoretically, have gone that route.

Glad to see Netanyahu showing sense, for once.

Edit: So, how is this a negative for Israel again? When a Russian fighter briefly crossed Turkish airspace, it was immediately shot down, which could have easily have gone very badly for them. One would think that Israeli's approach was the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances, rather than the Israelis being cowards for backing down or something like that.

I don't think anyone is criticizing Israel's response here. If anything, this is a rare occasion where we get to say "Good for you Israel" on a matter of foreign policy.

[Tribble]

What other choice does Israel have? Declare real war over a few incidents and be wiped off the map?

This came across to me as "lolz those stupid Israelis can't do anything". Perhaps the laugh out loud symbol threw me off. Sorry if I took that out of context.

[ArmorPierce]

Actually it's completely different. It appears that Israel entered Syrian air space and were fired upon as result. Much like how Russian air craft entered Turkish air space and were fired upon as result.

The situation would be the same if Russian air craft crossed Israeli air space... which Israel has done in the past to other nations... Including planes entering it's air space from Syria.

Is this a bias I am sensing?

The Israeli military shot down a Syrian fighter jet that infiltrated its airspace over the Golan Heights on Tuesday morning -- the first such downing in decades, heightening tensions in the volatile plateau.

The military said a "Syrian aircraft infiltrated into Israeli air space" in the morning hours and that the military "intercepted the aircraft in mid-flight, using the Patriot air defense system."

A defense official identified the downed aircraft as a Sukhoi Su-24 Russian fighter plane. Previously, it was reported to have been a MiG aircraft. He said the Syrian jet penetrated 2,600 feet into Israeli air space and tried to return to Syria after the Patriot missile was fired.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-shoo ... -warplane/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

[Tribble]

Actually it's completely different. It appears that Israel entered Syrian air space and were fired upon as result. Much like how Russian air craft entered Turkish air space and were fired upon as result.

The Israeli aircraft was fired upon... by a Russian aircraft operating in Syrian airspace. I agree that's different from when the Russian aircraft entered Turkish airspace and was fired upon by a Turkish aircraft. Was the Russian aircraft under the direct control of the Syrian airforce, or was it operating under Russian command? In any event, both sides are claiming that it was an accident rather than the Russians trying to blow up Israeli planes and get away with it... unlike the situation with Turkey, where IIRC the Turkish airforce deliberately shot the Russian plane down.

The situation would be the same if Russian air craft crossed Israeli air space... which Israel has done in the past to other nations... Including planes entering it's air space from Syria.

It's unknown whether the Israelis would deliberately shoot down a Russian fighter that happened to cross the border, though IMO it's rather unlikely. I'm not surprised that they'd shoot down a Syrian jet the moment it enters Israeli airspace given that Syria is an open enemy of Israel, and the potential back-lash of shooting down a Syrian warplane would be a lot less than shooting down a Russian one.

Is this a bias I am sensing?

Bias to whom?

[Flagg]

This isn't a negative. In fact we're commenting on the rather obvious: Israel's behaviour is reasonable and completely expected given the circumstances. No?

It's a bit surprising given that they bombed Lebenon, setting that nation's infrastructure back 30 years, over a terrorist organization that happened to be there kidnapped 3 soldiers. I mean you'd figure Nutty-Yahoo would at least bang his shoe on the podium (sorry, couldn't resist ), or dig deep into his huggies and fling some shit around. Acting reasonably, logically, and intelligently is hardly their M.O.

[eyl]

It's unknown whether the Israelis would deliberately shoot down a Russian fighter that happened to cross the border, though IMO it's rather unlikely. I'm not surprised that they'd shoot down a Syrian jet the moment it enters Israeli airspace given that Syria is an open enemy of Israel, and the potential back-lash of shooting down a Syrian warplane would be a lot less than shooting down a Russian one.

It's happened occasionally, they were turned back.

Aslo, FWIW, Russia is denying the incidents in the OP happened.

[Tribble]

To be specific, judging from that article Russia is both denying that the incidents took place and is denying even talking about said incidents. And according to the article the Israeli PM has not explicitly stated that the incidents occurred either. Both sides apparently just happened to meet for security reasons within days of a newspaper claiming that Russians had fired on Israeli planes, nothing to see here.

[Ace Pace]

To be specific, judging from that article Russia is both denying that the incidents took place and is denying even talking about said incidents. And according to the article the Israeli PM has not explicitly stated that the incidents occurred either. Both sides apparently just happened to meet for security reasons within days of a newspaper claiming that Russians had fired on Israeli planes, nothing to see here.

Israel and Russia have been meeting regularly at a high ranking officer level for the past half year, it gets reported in the press here seemingly every month.

[ArmorPierce]

Actually it's completely different. It appears that Israel entered Syrian air space and were fired upon as result. Much like how Russian air craft entered Turkish air space and were fired upon as result.

The Israeli aircraft was fired upon... by a Russian aircraft operating in Syrian airspace. I agree that's different from when the Russian aircraft entered Turkish airspace and was fired upon by a Turkish aircraft. Was the Russian aircraft under the direct control of the Syrian airforce, or was it operating under Russian command? In any event, both sides are claiming that it was an accident rather than the Russians trying to blow up Israeli planes and get away with it... unlike the situation with Turkey, where IIRC the Turkish airforce deliberately shot the Russian plane down.

Who else would be flying planes in the region? ISIS does not have fighter aircraft. How do you accidentally shoot down a plane?

Bias to whom?

The general sentiment. Russia shoots down Israeli plane crossing into Syria, that's okay. Israel shoots down Syrian plane crossing its borders, that's okay. Turkey shoots down Russian plane crossing it's borders, "OMG TERRORIST!"

[Tribble]

Who else would be flying planes in the region? ISIS does not have fighter aircraft. How do you accidentally shoot down a plane?

It doesn't appear as though the Israeli craft was actually shot down, it was just fired upon. And that could have happened if you had a trigger-happy pilot, I highly doubt that the Russians deliberately gave the pilot orders to shoot at an Israeli plane for the lolz.

The general sentiment. Russia shoots down Israeli plane crossing into Syria, that's okay. Israel shoots down Syrian plane crossing its borders, that's okay. Turkey shoots down Russian plane crossing it's borders, "OMG TERRORIST!"

Again, as far as I can tell the articles didn't state that the Israeli fighter was shot down.

Nobody here said anything about the Russians firing on Israeli planes being "okay." Obviously it's not. The comments here is indicating that the Israeli response was the most appropriate move given the situation.

No one here said that having Israel shooting down the Syrian plane was "ok," I don't know the details of that particular incident but I imagine the Syrian fighter was at most "testing the waters" and not actually attempting to launch an attack. IMO the Israeli response was excessive, though I'm not surprised given that Syria is a known enemy of Israel.

No one here stated that because Turkey shot down a Russian fighter crossing its borders, they support terrorism. Turkey shooting down the Russian fighter was just a ridiculously stupid idea.

[Lord Revan]

Russian's wouldn't fire on the Israeli craft for lolz, it's for a very specific reason, intimidation most if not all recent actions of Russia in the foreign politics seem to be an effort to regain the status Soviet Union had at height of the Cold War.

[Tribble]

Russian's wouldn't fire on the Israeli craft for lolz, it's for a very specific reason, intimidation most if not all recent actions of Russia in the foreign politics seem to be an effort to regain the status Soviet Union had at height of the Cold War.

If that were the case, do you think were they deliberately trying to destroy the Israeli plane, or was it just a warning shot? Do you think that the tactic worked? And if the Russians start doing that on a more routine basis do you think Israel (and other potential allies) will back down and withdraw, or do you see the situation potentially escalating? IMO both are nuclear powers (well Israel is just strongly suspected to be a nuclear power) so I doubt either side would want to provoke the other too much.

[Lord Revan]

Russian's wouldn't fire on the Israeli craft for lolz, it's for a very specific reason, intimidation most if not all recent actions of Russia in the foreign politics seem to be an effort to regain the status Soviet Union had at height of the Cold War.

If that were the case, do you think were they deliberately trying to destroy the Israeli plane, or was it just a warning shot? Do you think that the tactic worked? And if the Russians start doing that on a more routine basis do you think Israel (and other potential allies) will back down and withdraw, or do you see the situation potentially escalating? IMO both are nuclear powers (well Israel is just strongly suspected to be a nuclear power) so I doubt either side would want to provoke the other too much.

the thing is that there's a very delicate balance to these things, the leaders at the Kremlin are out of touch not stupid they know that there's very strong limits as to what the Russian economy is actually capable of enduring.

I think it was a "we could have shot your planet down, but chose not to" kinda of message to Israel. Russia's goal isn't war as they literally cannot afford it and no one sane(ish) wants to use nukes. What Russia wants is the return to the level of prestige where they outright ruled most of eastern Europe and rest had to consider the their reactions carefully (basically they want a new Cold War with them as one the major world powers again).

[jwl]

Actually it's completely different. It appears that Israel entered Syrian air space and were fired upon as result. Much like how Russian air craft entered Turkish air space and were fired upon as result.

The Israeli aircraft was fired upon... by a Russian aircraft operating in Syrian airspace. I agree that's different from when the Russian aircraft entered Turkish airspace and was fired upon by a Turkish aircraft. Was the Russian aircraft under the direct control of the Syrian airforce, or was it operating under Russian command? In any event, both sides are claiming that it was an accident rather than the Russians trying to blow up Israeli planes and get away with it... unlike the situation with Turkey, where IIRC the Turkish airforce deliberately shot the Russian plane down.

Who else would be flying planes in the region? ISIS does not have fighter aircraft. How do you accidentally shoot down a plane?

Maybe they thought it was a Turkish plane.

[Col. Crackpot]

The Israelis blow a lot of hot air but if they're going up against anybody but the usual foes, they know full and well they're screwed. Certainly they could do some damage, possibly enough to make any offensive against them a rather expensive proposition, but frankly they simply don't have the manpower to fight a war against a foe that's actually on a technological parity with them and has more manpower to boot. And if there's anything the Russian military has, it's manpower.

So making nice is the best idea. Especially considering that (IIRC) the Russians are no great fans of the Israelis to start with.

Client States don't to fight wars against parent States. They fight their lackeys.