Page 161 - Airpower in 20th Century - Doctrines and Employment

161
tHe military doCtrine of tHe israeli air forCe

The PLO grew in power until it started to threaten the very existence of the
Hashemite Kingdom and its King, Hussein. In 1970, the Jordanian monarch ordered
his army to disarm the PLO, and when the PLO refused, the army drove the armed
Palestinians from the refugee camps and they fled to Lebanon.
Lebanon, which forms the northern border with Israel, is a small Arab country
with a mixed population of Shiite and Sunni Moslems, and various Christian sects,
mainly Maronite, and Druze. The relationship between the populations was very
fragile and there were often disputes and clashes between them. The refugee camps
from 1948 were in the south of the country and now the new refugees from Jordan
joined them. Up to this time, the northern border had been the quietist of all the bor-
ders, with only very rare incidents, even during the Six-Day War, but with the arrival
of the new active PLO members from Jordan with their leader Yasser Arafat, the
Lebanese border was transformed to and became the new hotbed of terrorist activity
with the Israeli settlements that were right on the border becoming easy targets.
The authorities in Lebanon were not strong enough to stop the activities of the
PLO, which had soon formed a “state within a state” in South Lebanon and threat-
ened to change the entire social regime of the Country. The constant fighting and the
attacks by the IAF on the refugee camps resulted in mass flights by the other inhabit-
ants of the area and completely undermined the balance of power. The resulting in-
ternal conflict between the Moslem and Christian populations amounted to Civil War
from 1976, and the Christian community requested the aid of the Syrian Government
to help repel the new threat from the Moslem sects and the South. For the Syrians,
who have always considered Lebanon to be part of a Greater Syria (“Grande Syrie”),
this became an ideal opportunity for its army to enter Lebanon as” invited guests”.

The Lebanese wars of 1982 and 2006

This new situation, with a modern army concentrated to the north of the country
was a danger to Israel. The IAF continued its flights over Lebanon and when the Syr-
ian air force attempted to engage the IAF planes, the resulting air battles saw large
numbers of Syrian planes destroyed until eventually they stopped flying over Leba-
non. The skies over Lebanon remained clear for the IAF to fly for a couple of years
until the Syrians stationed a large ground-to-air missile system in the Beka’a Valley
in East Lebanon. thus endangering air superiority for the IAF. Israel did not accept
the new situation and threatened to hit the missile sites if they were not removed.

a. The first Lebanon War 1982 (“Mivza Sheleg”)
At the same time, terrorists crossing from Lebanon into Israel carried out numer-
ous attacks resulting in death and damage. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon in order
to knock out the terrorist’s bases. At first Israel refrained from engaging the Syrian
army in an effort to prevent escalation, but when the Syrians started to activate their