In article kscMe.49158$E95.3667@fed1read01,
(Joe Delphi) wrote:

As far as the other poster who said that this will not be possible
because Iran is too far from Israel and beyond the range of the
attack jets. Israel has the ability to purchase a commercial
airliner, take it over to IAI (Israeli Aircraft Industries - a
defense contractor) and have them convert it into a tanker. I
don't think that range will be a huge problem.

Israel already has several US-style aerial tankers. Getting them into
the right place for the operation, however, fairly much requires using
Turkish, Iraqi or Saudi airspace. The Turks are unlikely to cooperate.
The Saudis most unlikely. The Iraqis don't have the capability to
cooperate or not; the USA has effective control of their airspace.

So, any Israeli attack on Iraq requires US cooperation and implicitly,
endorsement. Does the USA want to take things that far just at present?
The Iraqi insurgency will get a lot worse, for starters.

Bear in mind that a US attack would probably be attributed to the Israelis
by at least some parties in the Middle East - same types of planes, and
markings are easy to change. Indeed, if the USA wanted to make an attack
on Iran that definitely couldn't have been Israeli, it needs to use
weapons that the Israelis don't possess. This isn't all that hard -
Tomahawks, B-1B, B-2A - but it does require some attention.

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John Dallman, , HTML mail is treated as probable spam.