Israel shoots down Syrian jet

[King_David]

An Israeli Patriot missile battery has shot down a Syrian fighter jet that infiltrated half a mile into airspace controlled by Israel over the Golan Heights on Tuesday morning.

Video footage of the first such downing by Israel of a Syrian jet since 1982 showed two burning sections of the plane falling to the ground and then the parachutes of the pilot and navigator who ejected moments before impact.

Syria immediately condemned the downing of the jet, with state television describing it as an “act of aggression” and linking it to US-led air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) forces in Syria that had occurred earlier.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/israel-says-shot-down-syrian-jet

[still_one]

1. The last comment linking it to US-led strikes against ISIS kind of contradicts that. Syria was not

only informed of those airstrikes against ISIS, but supported it

[King_David]

6. US and Israel have common enemies

And ISIS hates Israel, Americans, Jews and almost everyone else.

[Carlos Rodrigez]

2. Important coup.

Israel had not shot down a Syrian plane in 25 years. This was a very important and effective move to deter war crimes and slaughter, regularly committed by the Syrian government. The plane had veered half a mile into the Golan Heights. It is quite important that the Syrians know Israel will not tolerate violations of its airspace.

And Syria's support for the attacks against ISIS is not so wholehearted, when Syrias makes an official statement linking this jet downing to the ISIS attacks.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

3. Are you also against the IAF repeated incursions into Syrian airspace?

The Golan Heights, by the way, are occupied territory. The plane flew half a mile into Golan airspace. You know how far half a mile is in a jet? That's mere seconds.

Still, I'm wondering if your condemnation expands to Israel's frequent violations of other country's airspace.

[King_David]

4. Technically Israel and Syria are still at war

So half a mile is very significant indeed.

Assads plane was shot down . Mazeltov . Good shot. Well done . Do it again.

As for the incursions of the IAF into Syrian airspace , if the Syrians were able to , they would shoot down the Israeli planes.

That's Israel's strategic advantage that they want to maintain against all their nasty neighbors .

[Fantastic Anarchist]

8. Well, then there shouldn't be whining by Carlos when either do it, right?

I'm just looking for a little consistency.

His post seemed like the apocalypse was upon us.

[Carlos Rodrigez]

5. Fantastic Anarchist does not follow the events.

When Israeli jets go into Syrians airspace, they do so as a military maneuver, which is legal under international law between warring countries. When that happens, Syria can legally try to shoot down the plane. I would not criticize Syria for doing so. As a practical matter, Syria has no ability to do so.

It was legal for Syria to cross the border, but only at its own risk of being legally shot down.

As a matter of law, the Golan Heights are not Occupied Territory. You can say Israel illegally annexed it, but the legal status today is that it is not Occupied Territory, but annexed.

The remedy for illegally annexing it (if that happened) may be to return the land. But until this happens, the law for Occupied Territory does not apply to the Golan Heights. Israel, for instance, does not commit a war crime for doing things in the Golan that can only legally be done in Israeli sovereign land. (It is a subtle legal distinction.)

Israel essentially acknowledged that the plane acted by accident, that Syria made a conscious decision to fly near the border (which naturally risked an accidental incursion); and that to deter Syria from repeating such risky maneuvers, Israel shot down the plane. All this is legal.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

9. I do follow events.

I also saw your inconsistency and your hilarious hyperbole about "war crimes" regarding a half mile airspace violation, as if Israel doesn't violate airspace at will.

The war crimes comment just struck me as hysterical in both the negative and positive senses.

[grossproffit]

7. This is why IFF codes are in place. eom