Israel on alert for Syria airstrike (on Dimona nuclear reactor)

From The Sunday Times
November 11, 2007

Israel on alert for Syria airstrike
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

THE defensive missile shield around Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor was placed on red alert 30 times last week amid fears of an airstrike by Syria.

A battery of American-made Patriot antiaircraft missiles has been moved to Dimona in the Negev desert following intelligence that a strike may be launched in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of a suspected nuclear site in Syria two months ago.

In a highly unusual move, the officers in charge of the missiles were permitted to talk to Israeli state television about their preparations. “We’re ready to launch the missiles in seconds, once we’re on full alert,” said First Lieutenant Adi, a young female officer who is the deputy commander of the battery.

<snip>

An Israeli Mirage jet that approached Dimona by mistake was shot down during the Six-Day War in 1967, while a Libyan Boeing 727 which lost its way in a storm in 1973 and approached Dimona was also downed. All 113 on board were killed.


edit to add link (thanks MADem!): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2848246.ece

You forgot a link. Here it is: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2848246.ece

It's plain this is a method to either let the Syrians know they're on to them, if they have intel suggesting that Syria is about to pull something along these lines, or perhaps it's a general "We aren't asleep at the switch" assertion to the region at large.

You may want to crosspost this to I/P.

Just to hit a reactor? Just plain out psyops bullshit.