Israel, which has conducted several air raids in neighboring Syria, now brags it is the first country to use the US-made F-35 in combat to “attack” targets in the Middle East. It did not specify the targets.
“We are flying the F-35 all over the Middle East. It had become part of our operational capabilities,” Israel Air Force Commander Major-General Amikam Norkin said at the AF Senior Air Force Conference in Herzilya on Tuesday.
Norkin further stated that “We are the first to attack using the F-35 in the Middle East and have already attacked twice on different fronts.”
The Israeli Air Force chief, however, left out the part about which targets were actually hit by the jets, though Tel Aviv recently launched a massive attack inside war-ravaged neighbor Syria. It has also been blamed for a number of similar attacks, though weaker in scale. This has only fueled tensions in the region, triggering a fierce reaction from Damascus.
The Israeli Air Force announcement comes a week after the official opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, which triggered widespread condemnation in the Arab world and yielded no support for Washington from its Western allies. The opening ceremony, which praised the re-location as another step towards peace, was marred by bloodshed, in which hundreds of Palestinian protesters were killed and injured by Israeli forces. The indiscriminate violence was condemned by rights groups.
Israel has been “managing a campaign against Iranian forces, especially on Israel’s northern border” for the past two years, Norkin stressed, adding that Iran launched 32 missiles toward Israel in early May.
In February, Tel Aviv launched a large-scale air raid in Syria after intercepting what it said was an Iranian drone in Israeli airspace. A top commander in the Israeli Air Force later bragged the airstrikes were “the biggest and most significant attack the air force has conducted against Syrian air defenses since Operation Peace for the Galilee” during the Lebanese Civil War in 1982.
While Tel Aviv has been lashing out at Iran for its alleged build-up of forces in Syria to counter Israel, Tehran countered that it has been fighting terrorists. It also repeatedly stated that its military personnel were based in Syria on legitimate grounds, citing an invitation from the Syrian government.
Tensions between the two foes flared up again in April when Israeli F-15 fighters targeted Syria’s T-4 airbase in Homs province. At least seven Iranian military personnel were killed in the strike, which was immediately denounced by Tehran. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi branded the attack as “a blatant violation of international law which would strengthen terrorists,” saying that the Israeli attack contradicts “all international regulations and principles.”
Israel was initially silent about the strike. Later, however, a senior Israeli official told New York Times that Tel Aviv was behind the attack.
In 2015, Tel Aviv introduced the Gideon Doctrine, which set out a series of reforms for the army by 2020. One of the key issues was the purchase of US-made F-35 planes.
The stealth fighter continues to be plagued, however, by various faults, including malfunctions of the oxygen-supply system. In 2017, a Pentagon report revealed the jet had more than 270 deficiencies, ranging from software trouble to structural problems.
